| More Favorite Recipes... |
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| Nothing is "measured out"... The whole thing is based on how you want the finished product to look. If you want a more "soupy" stew, add more stock or water, less "soupy" add more veggies and beef.
Ingredients for a four quart pot (or a crock pot) of stew: 1 pound Lean stew beef or any beef cut you prefer 3 large or 4 medium potatoes, peeled and large diced 1 large or 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut in 1 - 1.5" chunks. The thinner the carrot, the longer the chunk so the carrot doesn't turn to mush. 1 or 2 celery ribs. Cut the ends off and cut the rib(s) in half. You'll remove them from the pot when they are soft. 1 medium onion peeled and large diced 1 large or two medium Bay leaves Kitchen Bouquet: 1 - 2 Tablespoons, depending on the depth of color you are looking for Barley: Bascom's Fine Barley, 1/4 - 1/3 cup Garlic: One clove, minced Salt and Pepper to taste 1/4 - 1/3 cup flour: amount depends on how thick you want your stew base. Peel and dice all your veggies and add to water in a crock or large pot - at least 4 quart size. Add bay leaf, Kitchen Bouquet, barley, garlic, salt, and pepper. In a large, heavy skillet brown your beef and add to the veggies. You shouldn't have too much fat left in the skillet if your beef is lean to begin with. Keeping the heat medium under your skillet, add 1/4 - 1/3 cup water to the pan to deglaze, then add the an equal amount of flour (more if you want a thicker soup), whisking to keep it smooth, scraping the sides and bottom of the skillet. Don't fret if it gets lumpy - that's what strainers are for ;o). When your skillet is deglazed, pour the mixture into the pot with the beef and veggies. I always pour it through a strainer right into the pot. I've gotten all the flavor out of the pan drippings into the thickening sauce and I'm not too crazy about "things" floating around in the liquid. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil over high heat, stirring a couple of times. Then set it on the back burner over very low heat (or if you're using a crock pot, you can put the pot on the base and set the temp for Low) for a couple of hours. Stir it every 30-40 minutes to be sure nothing sticks. Be sure to remove the celery stalks when they become limp and you can take out the bay leaves at the same time. You can serve it with cornbread, biscuits, crusty bread sliced thick. This is what the Barley looks like: |
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| I have some recipes from Trudy, my great friend with photos even! We both play Runescape, but she is also a wonderful PaintShop Pro designer. If you'd like to learn more about Trudy, click on her pictures and it will take you to My Friends page. She has a delightful website, too: Thisildo Realm |
| Trudy's Beef Stew |
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| I like the fine barley because it cooks up much quicker than the regular size barley, but the regular barley will work just fine - I used the regular stuff for years before I found this stuff. ;o)
For the stock... If you save the water from your cans of veggies (save in a zip bag and freeze) and the water from cooking potatoes for mashing (also zipped and frozen), you can use that as your liquid base. If not, water works fine. |
| Trudy�s Stuffed Cabbage Extraordinaire |
| Ingredients:
2 - 3 large heads of cabbage 1 - 2 pounds Kielbasa cut into 1" chunks 1 - 28-oz. can whole tomatoes 2 pounds lean ground beef 1 small onion, finely chopped 1/2 cup uncooked white rice (or 1/2 cup cracker or bread crumbs) 1/2 cup milk 1 clove garlic, minced 2 eggs 1 teaspoon mustard salt and pepper to taste Meat filling: Mix together in a large bowl the beef, onion, rice, (or cracker or bread crumbs), milk, garlic, eggs, mustard, salt, and pepper. Place in fridge until ready to stuff the cabbage leaves. This filling will do about one dozen cabbage rolls. I stick one of those large forks (the kind you use to hold the turkey or ham while carving) into the core of the cabbage so I can remove it from the water more easily. Using a sharp knife, cut straight down into the cabbage head all around the core. Be careful doing this, raw cabbage tends to grab onto the knife so watch those fingers! You are not trying to remove the core, just cutting in so some of the outer leaves will come away easier. |
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| In a large stock pot, blanch the cabbage heads. Carefully cut away the outer leaves as they begin to unfurl from the head and drain. You'll need about a dozen or so leaves of the largest leaves. Remove the cabbage heads from the hot water to cool. You will want to wait until you've used up all your beef mix before you begin slicing the remaining cabbage. Using a sharp knife, hold the blanched cabbage leaf in your hand and carefully slice away most of the rib from the back side of the leaf, leaving a thin band of the rib - enough to hold the leaf together. |
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| Place a small amount (1/4 cup or less depending on the size of your leaf) of the meat filling near the base of the inside of the cabbage leaf and begin rolling. When you've finished the roll, gently tuck (push) the excess sides of the roll into the ends of the roll. The softer the cabbage leaves are, the easier this will be to accomplish without tearing the leaves. Sometimes the tucking in just doesn't work. You can just fold the sides of the leaf into the center and roll it up. When you put the roll in the pot, place it so the edge of the leaf is on the bottom. There isn't any stirring that will be going on to disturb the rolls so they won't come undone. When you've finished rolling, quarter the remaining heads of cabbage, cutting out the core. Thinly slice (shred) the cabbage and set aside. Open the can of whole tomatoes and pour into the bottom of a large stock pot, breaking the tomatoes apart with your fingers. Spread a couple of handfuls of the shredded cabbage over the tomatoes. You'll want about 1/2" - 3/4" (or more if you've got a lot of shredded cabbage left) on the bottom. Arrange your cabbage rolls with pieces of kielbasa scattered among the rolls. Add another layer of shredded cabbage. Then another layer of cabbage rolls and kielbasa. Repeat until all your rolls are in the pot and cover with remaining shredded cabbage. |
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| Add enough water to cover the cabbage, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 3 - 4 hours, adding water as necessary to keep the cabbage covered. Every so often (20 - 30 minutes), use a spatula or slotted spoon to push down on the surface to keep the top layer of cabbage under water. |
| This dish will freeze well. Open several zipper sandwich bags and place in large plastic drink cups, folding the zipper part over the edge to hold the bag in the cup. Place one cabbage roll and a couple of kielbasa pieces with some shredded cabbage in a zipper sandwich bag, add enough liquid to fill but still be able to close the zipper bag, removing as much air as possible. Lay the bags on a cookie sheet covered with a paper towel (to keep them from sticking to the sheet) and freeze on the cookie sheet. When frozen, transfer the bags into large zipper bags and store in the freezer.
There's two ways to thaw the frozen meal. If you're only having one portion, remove the zipper bag and place the frozen package in a covered double boiler over low heat for 30 minutes (or so) and it will thaw and heat perfectly. If you're serving more than one portion, remove the zipper bags and place in a covered larger pot over very low heat for 45 minutes or until heated through. |
| Knock You Naked Cake by Misty |
| These are a couple of recipes by one of my online friends, Misty. She works in sports medicine and is a lot of fun. I've known her about 2 years now. She graciously agreed to let me put these on these pages. |
| 1 box devils food or German chocolate cake mix
1 - 12 oz bag chocolate chips 1 bag of caramels, remove the wrappers 1 small can evaporated milk 2 cups chopped pecans Preheat oven at 350. Prepare cake mix according to box directions. Pour half of the cake batter into a greased and floured 9x13 pan and bake for 10 minutes. While that�s baking, melt the caramels and milk in a saucepan over medium heat until smooth. When the ten minutes is up, remove the cake from the oven, and pour the caramel mixture over it. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts and pour the remaining batter over the top. Return the cake to the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the middle is set and done. |
| 12-14 pound ham Large bottle of Coke Brown sugar Before you put the ham in the pan you put enough aluminum foil to encase it and pour a little bit of dark or light brown sugar and a little bit of coke so it foam sup in the bottom of the pan, sit the ham in that. Poke holes in the ham with a fork all over. Press brown sugar on it. Pour the coke over that, yes it will wash it down. Use the rest of the brown sugar and press it on there again. Close the foil up over the ham bake it at 250 degrees overnight. Close it up tight if you want. This will do about a 12 lb. ham. |
| Misty's Baked Ham |
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| 2 cans sweetened condensed milk Graham cracker pie shell Cool Whip Take the labels off the cans and leave them closed. While they�re closed put them in a pot and cover them with water. Bring them to a boil. Once they come to a boil, check them often and keep them covered and keep water over them. Boil for 4 hours. Cut the water off (for Yankees, that means take them off the stove and shut off the burner--Lori). Let them cool off. Open them and then put them in a graham cracker pie shell and cover with cool whip. |
| Caramel Pie |
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