Jamie's Vegetable Soup

My D-I-L, Jamie brought me some of her soup to try when they came over for our family Christmas Saturday. Thank goodness, because I don't feel that great, and this really hit the spot. I just added some left over turkey from Saturday. That made it supper for the hubby... he has to have meat, or it's just a side dish! LOL

5-6 Red Potatoes, cubed
1 can or 1 cup fresh Carrots
1 cup Celery, sliced
1 can Sweet Peas
1 can Corn 
1 can Green Beans
1 can Tomatoes, crushed or diced
1 Onion, chopped
2 (8oz) cans of chicken stock
one packet of Italian dressing mix
2 cups water
1 tsp tomato paste
Salt and Pepper, to taste*

Saute onion and celery in pot with a little oil or butter until onions are translucent. Add chicken stock, dressing mix, salt and pepper, and water. Bring to a boil then turn down to med~high heat for a simmer for 30 minutes. Then add green beans, corn, sliced carrots, (or cup of fresh carrots), potato, peas, tomato and tomato paste. Let simmer for another 30 minutes or until the potatoes have cooked through. Then enjoy!!! I like to eat it with saltines or a good homemade sweet bread.

*I added a little garlic powder, because everything I eat seems to have some garlic in it! LOL That's not everyone's cup of tea!

Corn Chowder

I received a request for my corn chowder recipe after I posted a lot of pictures and videos of our trip to Old McCaskill's Farm. We joined in the fun at the Grits Mill, shelling/shucking corn. The kids had a blast! So, as requested... here's my recipe.

Corn Chowder

1/2 cup diced bacon

1 cup diced sweet onion

1/2 cup carrots, sliced

1/2 cup celery, sliced

1 tablespoon flour

4 potatoes, peeled and cubed

4 cups chicken broth

3 cups corn

1 1/2 cups half-and-half, or heavy cream... your choice

1/4 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon fine kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Cook bacon in a large pot until crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Add onion, carrots and celery to bacon fat and cook, stirring, until onion is softened. Stir in flour until well incorporated. Pour in the broth a little at a time, stirring until smooth. Add potatoes and corn. Simmer, covered, until potatoes are just tender, about 20 minutes. Add cream and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes. Return bacon to the pot and stir. Season with basil, salt and pepper.

Mama's Shrimp Creole

Growing up, my Mama and her family didn't have a lot of money. Food like seafood was out of the question. They could go fishing and eat fish, but shrimp were not in the budget. When Mama was in middle school, she made a new friend and went to stay the weekend. She soon found out that the 'well to do' family was catholic and ate shrimp every Friday night. It was a sacrifice that she gladly made! Whenever she could Mama would buy shrimp for us and she loved to make Shrimp Creole. Shrimp was her favorite food!

Shrimp Creole

¼ cup Butter

1 cup Onion, chopped

1 cup Celery, diced

1 Garlic Clove, minced

2 T Flour

1 t Salt

1 t Sugar

Dash Cayenne

1 t Paprika

1 small Bay Leaf

4 drops Tabasco

½ cup Bell Pepper, diced

19 oz can Tomatoes

2 cups Shrimp, Peeled and deveined

     (1 pound fresh or 2 - 7 oz cans)

Melt butter in frying pan. Add onion, celery and garlic; cook slowly until tender but not brown. Add flour and seasoning; stir until blended. Stir in bell pepper and tomatoes. Cook 10 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally. Add shrimp and cook until shrimp turns pink. Serve over rice.

Sunday Dinner... Pot Roast

A good pot roast with vegetables, green bean casserole, rice and gravy, sliced tomatoes and Mama's biscuits is the typical Sunday Dinner that I remember growing up. The smell takes me back to Mama's kitchen. If you add a lot more pepper to the pot roast or some fried chicken, that smell takes me to Grandmama Bradham's. The smell of cooking cabbage always takes me to Grandmama Elliott's kitchen. 

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” 
― Laurie Colwin

 

Sunday Pot Roast

4 pound chuck roast

salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

flour

2 tbsp oil

1 packet dry onion soup mix

1 cup beef broth or water

3 carrots, chopped

1 onion, chopped

3 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 stalk celery, chopped

Season the chuck roast with salt, pepper and garlic powder, to taste, on all sides. Dust with flour and brown in oil on all sides in a large skillet over medium to high heat. Place in the roasting pan and add the soup mix, water, carrots, onion, potatoes and celery. Cover and cook at 350 degrees for 2 or 3 hours. (The longer it cooks the more tender it becomes, but don’t let all the liquid burn off)

Remove the meat and vegetables. Make gravy by adding a cornstarch slurry to the juices… 1 tbsp cornstarch to ¼ cup cold water… add to the juices and bring to a boil. 

Cornbread Dressing and Holiday Tummy Trouble?

Many of us complain about overeating during the holidays. Some of us even complain that we really didn't overindulge and still have that nagging heartburn or indigestion! I had that problem for years until I started listening to my Dad. He always complained about dressing (or stuffing) giving him heartburn/indigestion. I started investigating, and I couldn't figure out what the problem was... until I noticed that the pre-packaged mixes always have the pungent aroma of sage. My Dad always complained about sage being the culprit. We had homemade dressing and had the same result... heartburn! Come to find out, the homemade recipes called for poultry seasoning which is loaded with sage. Smell the poultry spice in your spice rack or smell the pre-packaged stuffing mix (if you use it). That strong herb smell is sage. I'm not knocking sage. It's a lovely herb to use. It's just not the friendliest to the tummy!

If you've had this trouble and never have been able to find out what the cause is, try this recipe for homemade dressing (or stuffing if you like) and see if it helps your tummy troubles.
P.S. It will not help the overindulgence problem however!

Cornbread Dressing

This is very basic. You can add or remove veggies or the eggs. You can also add 1 t poultry seasoning. I don't use it because sage causes a heartburn problem in my family, but you can add it if you like!

2 (16 ounce) pkgs Jiffy corn bread mix
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bunch celery, chopped
6 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
2 (14 ounce) cans chicken broth
2 cups turkey stock
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare cornbread according to directions on package. Cool and crumble.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sauté the onion and celery in 1/4 cup butter. In a large bowl, combine the crumbled corn bread, onion, garlic, celery and eggs. Gently stir. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the chicken and turkey broth 1 cup at a time until the cornbread becomes very moist but soupy. Place stuffing into a casserole dish. Bake for about 45 minutes or until stuffing sets.