Beef Stoup....Even a wimp'll love it!

Even my wimp of an ex husband likes this recipe. Except for the onion, it has none of the "icky" vegetables that Mama's boys are so afraid of. When the sissy boy was still eating here, I had to grate the onions in a cheese grater so that he wouldn't see them. Sure, I would have preferred them chopped like a normal person, but while he was living here, I had to deal with my onions being invisible. If the fool couldn't SEE them, they didn't give him heartburn. So, I slippped them in on him. I should have slipped in some anti-freeze while I was at it.

For some reason, people think that soup is only good to cook during the colder months but I like it year round. It's always a great meal and one of the best ways to use a cheaper cut of meat or a leftover roast. One of my favorite soups is vegetable beef and my oldest son loves beef stew so I cook up a big pot of soup, take a big bowl out for myself and then thicken it for my son's stew. I have never seen a vegetable that couldn't be used in this meal but here is my basic recipe that you can add or subtract from to make it your own. The meat and vegetables can be cut into any size you like, but I prefer mine cut into large chunks. The meat and potatoes should be cut to the same size.


2 lbs. round steak diced
5 medium potatoes diced
3 large carrots sliced
2 small onions diced
1 1/2 cup frozen corn
1 1/2 cup frozen peas
1 large can diced tomatoes or 3 fresh tomatoes, diced
2 bay leaves
3 beef bullion cubes or 1 quart beef stock
1 teaspoonful celery seed
3 tablespoonsful soy sauce
3 tablespoonsful worcestershire sauce
2 envelopes of beef stew flavoring or brown gravy mix
salt and pepper to taste


Chop the meat and cook it in 1 quart of water with bullion or beef stock for two hours (if you don't add the quart of beef stock to the water, you may have to add another cup or two of water when the meat is done to cook the vegetables. Heck, you may have to add a bit more water later anyway, just to keep enough to barely cover the vegies.), covered and stirring occasionally at a low simmer. (You can certainly use a crock pot if you have one, but this is how we poor folk down here in the South do it.) Of course, if you're using leftover roast or meat that's already cooked, you only have to simmer the meat until it's tender.) Add everything else and stir. Simmer for another hour, tasting occasionally to check your seasonings.

When you get the flavor just right and you would like to make this recipe stew instead of soup, mix one cup of milk with 3 tablespoonsful of corn starch until corn starch is dissolved. Add to soup 1/4 cup at a time until it's as thick as you like it. Of course, you need to stir and wait about 5 minutes in between each 1/4 cup of corn starch/milk that you pour in to see if you really need more thickening. If you want to keep the meal as soup, add 2 cups of barley, rice or pasta if you like before serving.

Potato Soup Du Annum

I love soup and homemade soup is by far the best. It's economical and quite nutritional. My favorite soup varies from day to day, but all in all, I would have to say that potato soup is my all-around favorite. Here's a recipe for the best potato soup that I've ever tasted. You can toss just about anything in it, from leftover ham to bacon bits. Take the basic recipe and make it your own. By the way, I like to dice the onions but when I was married to an onion hater, I had to grate them in a cheese grater because if he saw the onion pieces, he would get heartburn. If he didn't see them, he didn't get heartburn.

6 medium sized potatoes
1 stick of butter
milk
1 medium diced onion
1 carrot sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 large celery stalk sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 cup of shredded cheese (I use sharp cheddar but you can use American or Colby)
salt
pepper
1 cup of leftover ham diced (you can always use a can of Spam if you want to)

Dice the potatoes into half inch pieces and put them in a dutch oven. Toss in the sliced carrot and celery and the diced onion. (If you have to grate the onions, don't add them until after you strain the water out of the vegetables.) Add enough water to just cover the vegetables and simmer them until fork tender. Don't boil them or you'll end up with diluted mashed potatoes. When the vegetables are done, strain about half of the water out, then add the butter and enough milk to barely cover the vegetables. You can always add more so try not to put too much in at first. Add the cheese and then about a teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Mix and simmer for about twenty minutes. Taste the soup to see if you need to add more salt or pepper. At this point, the soup may be a bit thin, that's OK, you can fix it later. Once you have the soup tasting right, add the ham or bacon bits or whatever meat you prefer. Of course, you don't have to add any meat at all, but this is the way that I like it. When you have the soup tasting how you like it, you can thicken it if you need to by putting three tablespoons of cornstarch into a cup, add a cup of milk and then stir that until the cornstarch has dissolved. Add that mixture slowly, a bit at a time, stirring the soup after every quarter cup or so. Before you add more of the cornstarch mixture, let the soup cook for about 5 minutes so that it has time to thicken. When you have the soup as thick as you like it, stop adding the cornstarch. Top each bowl with a bit of shredded cheese, chives, sliced scallions or bacon bits and serve with crackers.

Men CAN cook!!!

You never know what men can do when they set their minds to it! I've tried both of these recipes and they really are good. So, in honor of the men that bother to cook...this section is all of their recipes. When you find a man who is creative enough to cook and care what they're cooking, you can usually count on him being a great guy. So, these are their recipes:

Hi Meg,

here's one of my favourites.

I won't be specific with quantities, just use what you think.

Boil some pasta twists up and in another pan some new potatoes, canned if available.In a fying pan, add some olive oil, chopped celery, scallions (we call them spring onions), red pepper slices. Fry till cooked.

Drain a can of Tuna or two, mix with mayonnaise.

When the pasta and potatoes are cooked, drain and mix with the scallions, celery and pepper slices.

Serve and add a dollop of tuna and mayonnaise on top.

Hi Meg,

here's another for the kids,

they call it cowboy pie,

fried sausages, baked beans in a caserole dish with mashed potatoe and grated cheese on top.

How easy is that, but it's one of there favourites.


OK...here is another "man recipe". They don't have as much experience writing recipes as we do so they do it a bit differently, but I think you get the idea...this one sounds really good!

I like the easy Shepherd's Pie.Grease (olive oil) a baking dish, line it with mashed potatoes. Add a nice thick layer of cooked ground beef - sauteed onions and green peppers with it! - (raw ground beef makes for one greasy, soupy, inedible mess!), cover the layer with grated cheese - cheddar is good, but I kinda prefer Mozarella - then add a layer of mashed potatoes.I like to swirl the mashed potatoes to make the top look like meringue peaks. You can sprinkle the top with paprila and/or cheese for color. Then bake that sucker until the tops of the potatoes are brown and the cheese is bubbly. A medium oven is fine.Serve it using one of those pie slice servers. And try not to burn your tongue. Heheheee!

My Mother's Wonderful Lasagna

I don't know how my wonderful Irish mother came up with such a great recipe for this Italian dish, but she did. It's the best lasagna that I ever tasted. It's so good that I never order it at any restaurant, not even the best Italian places in Chicago. It even impressed my ex Italian in-laws and now my daughter makes it to glowing raves.

It takes a long time to make so when I do it, I usually make two trays and I even stuff some manicotti's with the cheese mixture. I used to freeze the second tray but my kids would take it out and eat it as soon as the first one was gone so now I just leave it out there and we all eat lasagna for a week and a half.

You can make this lasagna a vegetarian delight by omitting the meat and adding sliced carrots, zuchinni, red/yellow/green bell peppers, larger pieces of onions, artichoke hearts, peas, and/or corn to the sauce.


This recipe has three basic ingredients, the cheese mixture, the sauce and the pasta. I use the ordinary lasagna noodles but you could probably use any pasta that you want to use.

CHEESE MIXTURE:

32 ounces of ricotta cheese
2 lbs. of shredded mozzarella (leaving a cup aside for the top of each tray)
One large container of parmasian and romano cheese
2 eggs
2 tablespoonfuls of Italian seasoning
1 teaspoonfuls each of salt and pepper

Mix this all together in a large bowl and put in the fridge until you use it.

SAUCE:

(You can use your own sauce recipe here but if you'd like, this is mine and I find that it works best.)

2 pounds of ground
2 pounds of ground Italian sausage
1 32 ounce can of tomato sauce
2 32 ounce cans of diced tomatoes
1 6 ounce can of tomato paste
1 medium onion diced
1 medium green pepper chopped up

1 tablespoon each of:
oregano
garlic
rosemary
thyme
parsely
Italian seasoning
sugar

1 teaspoonful each of:
celery seed
fennel seed
salt
pepper

2 bay leaves (to be removed before using sauce)
1/4 cup olive oil (if you don't have olive oil, don't use any other oil. This is for flavor, not for anything else.
1 jar of Four Cheese Ragu Spaghetti Sauce. (This sounds like you're cheating, but you're not. It's just an ingredient that assures a great sauce, not the sauce itself. My mother didn't use it but I do.)

Brown the meat, drain grease and then add sauces and seasonings. Simmer for at least an hour, tasting every 15 minutes to see if you need to add anything. Set sauce aside until you're ready to use it.

Boil lasagna noodles according to directions on the box. Always put about a quarter cup of olive oil in the water when you boil the pasta. For this, any oil will do but I prefer olive oil.

Pour a half cup of sauce into a 13X9 inch pan. Lay 3 pieces of the pasta on the bottom of the pan and then spread cheese mixture on that, the cheese spread should be about 1/2 inch thick here. Cover the cheese mixture with sauce and then begin again with another layer of pasta. Repeat this until you have 3 layers of everything and then cover with pasta, pour sauce on that to cover it and sprinkle with 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. Let sit for a half an hour before serving. This should make enough for two 13X9 inch pans.

If I have extra cheese mixture, I stuff some manicotti shells and cover them with sauce and sprinkle that with mozzarella cheese and bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

I keep aside some sauce to cover the lasagna or manicotti with because I like mine saucy.

It's tough to make exactly enough of everything so you will always run out of something before the rest of everything is gone. That's OK, if you have extra sauce, that's good because you can use it for anything you want to use it for. Extra cheese mixture is good because you can stuff manicotti or mix in another type of pasta and bake. Extra noodles are another story. You could mix them with some olive oil and spices and serve like that, but I just toss them. You can freeze portions and reheat later. Bake them before freezing.

Serve this with a nice salad and whatever bread you like. I promise, people will rave about this recipe!