Homemade Cream of Roasted Garlic Mushroom Soup

Carrying on with the focus on soups for National Soup Month, I am making a few of our family favourites.   There is honestly nothing more comforting than a steaming bowl of hot soup on a cold winter's day.  It's been cold and grey here with freezing rain adding a chilly dampness to the air, perfect soup weather. 

The beauty of making soup is its simplicity.  You don't need special equipment, fancy ingredients or even a lot of time.  I recommend using a pressure cooker to reduce the cooking time of long simmer soups but you don't need too.  There are actual soup cookers (blender with heating element) and blenders (blade friction) that make soup as well.  Soup cookers tend to have bad reviews and the blenders are pricey.  Soups can also be made in the slow cooker.  A blender or stick blender is useful if you want to make smooth soups.  I personally use a food strainer to make purée soup bases. However, the only real equipment you need to make delicious homemade soups is a large pot and stirring spoon. 

You don't even need a recipe to make delicious homemade soups.  All you need is a bit of creativity combined with basic know-how.  Essentially you need: a meat, fish or vegetable stock; vegetables; seasonings (salt, pepper, bayleaf, etc.) and miscellaneous (pasta, rice, barley, beans, milk or cream).  Ingredients can be fresh, frozen, from the pantry or a combination of the three.  There is no real need to measure either.  I generally start with an idea for a soup and evolve from there.

This is the time of year I focus on reducing pantry and freezer supplies in preparation for the new growing season.  My homemade soups this month have something from the pantry (stock, vegetables) and something from the freezer (meat, vegetables, miscellaneous).  Local mushrooms are available year round from the mushroom farms making them the perfect ingredient in many of my dishes.  Their mild, creamy flavour never disappoints!  I made a delicious cream of roasted garlic mushroom soup, a slight spin on our traditional homemade cream of mushroom soup.

Note:  Roasted garlic freezes nicely so I roast several bulbs then freeze in 15 ml (1 tbsp) portions for use later.

Cream of Roasted Garlic Mushroom Soup
recipe by:  Garden Gnome

1 kg white mushrooms
1 large sweet onion
30 ml roasted garlic
1 L mushroom stock
1 bayleaf
15 ml olive oil
60 ml butter
750 ml whole milk 3.25% M.F.
250 ml half & half 10% M.F
30 ml organic white flour
salt/pepper to taste

Wash and slice mushrooms.  Chop onion.  Heat olive oil and butter in a large pot.  Stir in onions and mushrooms.  Cook on medium low heat until mushrooms are cooked through, stirring often.  Stir in the mushroom stock and bayleaf.  Increase heat.  Bring to a low boil.  Reduce heat.  Stir in milk and half & half.  Bring to a simmer.  Put the flour in a small ramekin.  Sprinkle a dash of salt and two dashes of pepper on top.  Mix with a fork.  Add enough water or milk to make a smooth slurry.  Slowly pour the slurry into the soup stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Serve.

Homemade Shake & Bake Chicken with Steamed Asparagus and Pierogi (Polish Dumplings)

The last part of winter hung on and the cold weather really hasn't let go.  So far, it has been a cold, damp spring with snow still in the forecast.  Last night and this morning, heavy thunderstorms with rain advisories are rolling through.  While it isn't perfect outdoor weather, it is a great time for me to do a bit of home canning and baking, especially breads.  Mid-February through to the first week of May, we are in overdrive mode working 16 to 18 hour days 7 days a week, more so my husband for the past couple of years.  We are in bed before 8 PM and while he drifts off to sleep immediately, I sip on camomile tea and play a hidden objects game or crochet before going to sleep by 8:30 PM.  He's up at 3 AM and out the door 20 minutes later.  I'm usually up the same time, sometimes a half hour later.  I have dinner ready for 5:30 PM and these days I am relying on home cooked comfort foods.

Homemade shake & bake chicken is one of our family comfort foods.  It's quick, easy, no muss, no fuss, and just downright good!  What you may not know is homemade shake & bake chicken reheats nicely so you can cook extra one night then simply reheat for a quick meal another night.  To reheat, place the cooked shake & bake chicken pieces in an oven proof casserole dish.  Cover with aluminum foil.  Heat in oven at 350°F for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and serve.

I used four bone in chicken breasts for homemade shake & bake chicken, 2 each for Saturday and Sunday's dinner.  The first dinner I served the chicken with steamed broccoli, baked potatoes and homemade creamy coleslaw.  The second dinner I served the chicken with steamed asparagus, potato and cheese pierogi and a small garden salad.

Pierogi are Polish dumplings made with unleavened dough stuffed with a potato filling that are either boiled, or boiled then baked or fried.  Traditional pierogi are filled with a mixture of potato, meat and sauerkraut.  Sour cream or caramelized onion pieces are popular toppings for pierogi.   I have not made pierogi from scratch as they are not something we have very often, as in once a year if that.  I bought frozen pierogi this time to serve as a guideline in making them from scratch.  This is a handy tip for getting an idea of how the final product should be prior to making your own from scratch.  I did the same thing when learning to make fresh pasta by comparing it to store bought fresh pasta and when first attempting certain artisan breads.  At any rate, a 1 kg bag of frozen store brand pierogi costs $1.79.  There were about 30 pierogi in the bag but I used almost half the bag for dinner leaving me half to use in my testing.  Homemade pierogi should come in less expensive with a fresher flavour.  One recipe on Food Net work uses 3 c of flour and 3 eggs for the dough which would cost me 99¢ plus the filling so an estimated added 50¢ for potato and cheese, which gives a total cost of $1.49 for 72 pierogi.  So, based on this homemade pierogi should be under half the price of store bought.  I'm off to do a bit of experimenting so will report back on the results later this week.

Scalloped Potatoes

We live in beautiful Ontario, Canada where the winter days can be somewhat blustery, grey and cold.  On the flip side, there can be a blanket of snow on the ground, an amazing clear blue sky and bright sunshine that makes the snow sparkle like a million diamonds.  That means we need comfort meals especially on the cold, dreary days.  And, for those not familiar with Canadian winters a bit of extra fat is always welcomed in the diet during the winter months because we have to shovel snow, walk through snow, and get outdoors to get our bodies to make Vitamin D.  We have been focusing on making winter comfort foods at home.  Some dishes are just beyond comfort food.  Now if that dish happens to be a creamy casserole, well you have it made!

I have always made scalloped potatoes the same way my Mom did.  The only difference is sometimes I don't peel the potatoes.  In fact, I seldom peel potatoes if I don't have to as both nutrients and fiber are lost when potatoes are peeled.

Method:  I use a food processor to slice the washed potatoes uniformly.  A mandolin can also be used.  I place an even layer of potatoes on the bottom of a lightly buttered oven proof baking dish.  Then I sprinkle the surface of the layer of potatoes with flour, salt, pepper,2 - 3 dabs of soft butter and chopped onions.  I continue layering in this fashion ending with a flour layer.  Sometimes I add chopped chives to the top layer as well.  I then pour scalded milk over the potato layers until the milk reaches just under the top layer.  I find it is best to place a shallow baking sheet with water on the rack under the casserole dish in the oven as scallop potatoes are famous for boiling over.  I bake at 350°F until the top is golden and sauce is bubbling.

Scallop potatoes baked this way are rich and creamy just perfect for pairing with home cured pea meal bacon and home canned green beans. On a cold winter's night this is the perfect easy to make comfort meal!  Aside of the potatoes, the meat and beans take only about 15 minutes making the meal a rather low prep one.

These scallop potatoes will cut nicely into squares.  They reheat well and can be frozen for later use.  They are just a bit creamier if you peel them.  The nice thing is they are just about a fool proof to make as possible.  Paired with home cured pea meal bacon, the entire meal is low fat.  Don't be tempted to omit the butter as that does add flavour but the entire casserole dish has less than 2 tbsp of butter if that.  I use 2% milk.  Whole milk (4%) or heavy cream will give extra creaminess but I find the 2% milk works nicely without adding extra fat.  Skim milk works as well but I have not tried them using soy milk.  However, soy milk can be substituted for cow's milk in many recipes so I don't see why it wouldn't work in this recipe.

Mom's Surprise (Mix & Match) Casserole

I can't believe it is February already!  Much of January has seen us dealing with one of the nastiest cold strains either of us has ever had.  My husband's started just before New Year's and he still has a cough.  Mine has been a bit more problematic with complications so I'm still under the weather. While good, healthy and nutritious food is important any time  it is especially important when you are sick to help your body heal.  That is the time you want to pack in as much extra nutrition as possible.  We have been relying heavily on casseroles, home-made/home canned soups, and salads to get us though.

Of note, everyone knows to avoid dairy if the illness includes a gastrointestinal upset.  However, leafy green salads should also be avoided in this case as they make digestive system work harder.  The alternative way to get your leafy greens if you have a gastrointestinal upset is through juicing once you are well enough to be off of clear fluids.

I have been making a casserole that goes mainly by Mom's Surprise Casserole since I was a young bride, before we even had kids but the dish was actually named by out kids later.  I have several versions of it because it constantly changes by what I have on hand.  This casserole is basic comfort food, a great way to pack in extra nutrition and it is very frugal to make.

Have you seen those charts in the women's magazine's that give you a choice of meat, vegetable, starch and extras to make different versions of the same dish?  Well, Mom's Surprise Casserole is exactly the same except I've never taken the time to make a chart.  Here's a bit of an idea of what I mean for choices:

• ground meat - beef, chicken, turkey, venison, pork
• vegetables - corn, potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans or whatever vegetable strikes your fancy
• soup - any kind of condensed soup (I prefer using my home canned soups), vegetable soup, smooth soups
• topping - cooked macaroni, cooked rice, mashed potatoes
• cheeses - your choice of any cheese you like; I like to add a soft cheese (eg. cream cheese, yogurt cheese or Cheez Whiz) stirred into the pasta until melted before topping then adding shredded hard cheese after topping.  This is a great way to use up those little bits of left-over cheese!

To get you started, here is the way I made the ground beef based casserole earlier this week.  Note that this is a bit higher in fat for extra nutrition and calories as well as adding to the creaminess.  Extra fat is necessary when healing from certain illnesses like a cold as it helps your body absorb fat soluble nutrients.  Also of note, while it does look like the casserole in the picture is overflowing with melted cheese, the overflow is actually bubbling home canned tomato soup. 

Mom's Surprise Ground Beef Casserole

source:  Garden Gnome

2 lb ground beef

8 oz sliced mushrooms

1 c each cooked cubed potatoes, carrot medallions, whole kernel corn, sweet peas

1 L (quart) home canned tomato soup

½ c milk

2 c dried elbow macaroni

1 c cream cheese

2 tbsp butter

½ half & half

1½ c shredded cheddar cheese

Bring salted water to a boil then stir in the macaroni.  While the macaroni is cooking, brown and drain the ground beef.  Spread it evenly over the bottom of 9 - inch X 13 - inch oven proof casserole dish.  Clean, slice and brown the mushrooms.  Spread evenly over the meat.  Wash, cut and steam the potatoes and carrots.  Spread evenly over the mushrooms.  Mix the frozen (no need to thaw) corn and peas together then spread even over the potatoes and carrots.  Drain the macaroni then mix well with cream cheese, half & half and butter.  Divide the shredded cheese in half.  Spread half the cheese over the thus far assembled casserole.  Top with the macaroni mixture.  Mix the tomato soup with the milk and pour the tomato soup evenly over the top.  Top with the remainder of the shredded cheese.  Place the assembled casserole dish on a baking sheet to catch any drips as it will have a bit of overflow.  Bake at 350°F until bubbly and cheese topping is golden brown.  Remove from oven and serve.

Chile con Carne with Cheesy Garlic Bread

January is very much a laid back, catch-up month for us rounding up the end of our winter vacation in December, the holidays and entertaining, as well as re-adjusting to the cold weather and getting the house up and running smoothly.  The first week of January I started a batch of yogurt, sour cream, sour dough starter and turned my attention to grocery shopping for produce and dairy.  My husband came down with a cold so I focused on home-made comfort meals.  The down time gave me a bit of time to plan what food preservation needed to be done.  Then by the second week of January I was sick and it hung on [I sure wish we would get a hard freeze to kill off all the germs!] so it was relying on the pantry and freezers.

Chili con carne is one of our favourite home made meals.  Whether made with beef or venison, my version does contain beans that are cooked fresh when making a large batch or home canned if making a small batch.  The reality is, it takes as much work to make a huge batch of chili con carne as it does a smaller one.  I personally prefer to make the largest batch possible.  I home can chili con carne and it freezes nicely.  I usually freeze in 4 to 6 serving size.  It warms up nicely on the stove top or in the slow cooker.  Even if you don't home can the chili, this is one convenience product that can be frozen for a quick meal.

January is very much a fresh start month so we are rather busy but that doesn't mean we can't eat well.  I partially thawed a smaller container of chili con carne from the freezer.  Freezing chile con carne is very easy.  Once it is finished cooking, quick cool then ladle into freezer containers or freezer bags.  It can be froze in a container then popped out into a vacuum bag and vacuum sealed if desired.   If reheating on the stove top the chili need only be thawed enough to be able to get it out of the container.  I put it in a saucepan with just a little water then heat through.  If I am doing a larger amount for entertaining, I thaw the chili then reheat using a slow cooker.

Chili con carne is often served with soda crackers, tortilla or nacho chips, or corn bread.  I like serving it with cheesy garlic bread.  This is very easy to make and there are even ready to use, pre-made garlic bread loaves available, however home-made cheesy garlic bread is ever so easy to make.  I like using a home made French baguette but other breads can be used.

Method:  Use thick sliced home-made Italian style bread to make the cheesy garlic bread.  Lightly toast the bread in the oven.  Cut a garlic clove in half and rub over the surface of the toasted bread.  An alternative method is to brush the bread with garlic butter (finely chopped garlic blended into soft butter with a bit of parsley).  Top each slice generously with shredded mozzarella cheese.  Bake at 400°F until cheese is bubbly and just lightly browning.

Frugal Kitchens 101 - In The Soup Pot

Now that the holidays are over and a new year has begun, it is time for many to turn their thoughts into paying for that expensive holiday season.  That means cutting back on expenses as the bills start to roll in.  If you have been frugal during the holidays, January will pass on by without so much as a worry.  For others, a bit of a helping hand is needed to make those payments usually in the form of cutting back on expenditures.  In days long ago, our ancestors had a pot of soup on the hearth for much of the winter.  It was added to as the family was lucky in getting a bit of wild game or fish but more often than not stretched from their larder using carefully stored root vegetables.  Fast forward to present times and hard core frugalistas do the same thing only using a slow cooker.  The slow cooker is turned on in the fall then constantly being added to with left overs and anything else that can be added, not to be turned off again until spring.

Now, I am rather hard core when it comes to frugality in the kitchen but the never ending soup pot is not something I do.  First, I am not comfortable with a slow cooker going 24/7 for four or five months even on low.  That is not what it was designed to do nor is it an economically good use of electricity especially if you are on TOU electricity pricing as we are.  Second, we now spend about 3 months of the year in Florida with at least one period during the time the never ending pot of soup would be going and we take a lot of impromptu overnight and weekend get-aways.  Instead of the never ending pot of soup, I make clean-out the freezer or refrigerator soups.

Here's a few thing I do to make quick and economical soups using left overs from the freezer or refrigerator:

• freezer packets - I freeze bits of left-over food, pieces of left-over meat, bones and anything else that can be used for soup. 
• basic stock - My basic stock uses bones, unpeeled onion, unpeeled carrot, unpeeled parsnip, bayleaf, and peppercorns.
• fair game - Anything in the freezers or refrigerator is fair game for the soup pot although I do target left-overs if at all possible.
• time savers - By far my pressure cookers are the biggest time savers when it comes to soup making.  I can go from frozen bones to soup on the table in less than an hour.
• thickeners - Small bits of left-over mashed potatoes (frozen, refrigerator) thicken soups nicely as does mashed up zucchini.  The immersion blender thickens soup nicely without any additions depending on the ingredients.  
• extenders - Pasta, rice, barley and beans can all be used as soup extenders.  Even the half cup of brown beans can be tossed into the soup pot, especially in a beef based soup.  If I don't have left-overs I just cook from fresh or add a jar of home canned.

Open Faced Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

My Mom was a ripe old age of 56 when I came to be and let me tell you she could cook!  She had been through the Great Depression and two World Wars.  More importantly she was a child of 11 from poor immigrant farmers.  She was actually born on the ship between England and Canada, but that is a whole other story!  My gosh she could cook, good old fashioned home style cooking.  All those recipes were tucked safely in her head, sure to please and yet long forgotten as the dementia became worse.  My Mom originally cooked on coal and wood but when I was a kid, she cooked on natural gas.  Both the burners and oven needed to be lit using a match.  Her household chore as a child had been to stoke the fire so to her the natural gas was a treat.  She was also quite frugal so her cook stove was narrower than the normal 30 - inches.  Part of this was due to her refusing to buy more than what she needed but part was not wanting to look pretentious to her family and friends.

Melted cheese on bread is a classic.  Even Johanna Spyri (1881) wrote about how much Heidi enjoyed the melted cheese with bread her Grandfather often made her.  When I was growing up, I never knew what a grilled cheese sandwich was, or at least they way grilled cheese sandwiches are usually made.  My Mom made these amazing open faced grilled cheese done under the broiler of her gas stove.  There is just something comforting about these sandwiches.  The cheese is warm and gooey while the bread is crunchy around the edges and soft in the middle.

All you need to make these delicious open faced grilled cheese sandwiches is bread and cheddar cheese.  Don't use American cheese slices as real cheddar really makes these sandwiches delightful.  I either slice or grate the cheddar cheese.  Then I place sliced bread on a Silpat lined baking sheet and place the cheese on top.  I bake at 350°F until the cheese melts then turn on the broiler and broil until the cheese starts to bubble and the bread is golden brown around the edges.  I place the cooked sandwiches on wire cooling rack for serving.  This prevents the bottom from becoming soggy.

While I have been able to get good results using an electric oven, the results are considerably better using a gas oven.  Electric heat is a dry heat which is fine for certain foods and for most of our married life, we have had an electric cook stove and oven.  However, electric heat can dry certain foods especially baked fish and foods like the open faced grilled cheese sandwiches.  When natural gas is burning, it releases water into the air which is quite noticeable on cold days by the condensation on the windows.  When the oven is first lit, there is condensation on the oven door as well.  I think this bit of moisture is what makes the difference, giving better results. for a lot of baked foods.

Hubby's Meatloaf

My husband is a large man at 6'7" and about 280 lb but he has a rather good medical history of being quite healthy.  When he gets sick which is rather rare, he gets sick!  On August 28 he came home in a lot of abdominal pain but it subsided.  The following day, he came home again in worse pain so to make a long story short he was admitted to hospital where he stayed for five days.  He was pretty much out of it for two of those days then the third day they let him have liquids and the fourth they started him on solids.  The poor guy!  Seriously at lunch time on day 4 he was sitting cross legged, table ready for food as soon as he heard the lunch cart.  It was a rather funny moment and while I did take a pic I can't share it here. 

Hospital food always gets a bad rap but when I was going to university I ate at the hospital cafeteria all the time.  The food was healthy and tasty.  The food at this hospital is good for the patients but not so much so for the visitors.  Visitors get whatever they put in the vending machines which really is not good! 

Anyway, I called hubby first thing in the morning the day he was scheduled to make his escape (aka be discharged).  I asked him what he would like for dinner...meatloaf!  I pulled a couple of pounds of ground beef from the freezer to thaw then headed up to the hospital.  He wasn't discharged until mid-afternoon but we headed back home with him excited about meatloaf.  You know, sometimes these types of events is all it takes to ground you just a bit!

My meatloaves range from plain to stuffed.  The commonality is ground meat (beef, venison, pork, chicken), a binder (eggs), liquid (ketchup, mustard, Worchestershire sauce), extender (bread crumbs and seasonings.  I made a basic meatloaf, a little lighter on the seasonings then served with the classic steamed potatoes and home canned green beans.  He was tucked in on the couch when I brought his plate in and oh my gosh, talk about a happy beam from ear to ear!  Such a simple meal and yet it brought so much pleasure...

Homemade Shake & Bake Chicken Halves

Chicken has recently been on sale so I took advantage of the low prices to stock up.  I typically do this with any meat or fish not purchased in bulk when they are on sale.  My experience has been that you really do need to know the current prices.  Sometimes it is less expensive to buy from the meat counter at the abattoir even considering the price of gas than it is at the grocery store.  This is often the case when it comes to pork loin cuts.  Our local Wal-mart offers price matching so even though their price of meat may be higher they will match the competitor's price.  Market sale prices for meats and fish are cyclic as are most sales so that is something to consider as well.

I bought a few of the whole chickens on sale.  It is less expensive to cut up the chicken yourself than to buy already cut chicken pieces.  I cut a couple of the whole chickens in half.  They are excellent for grilling when cut this way.  A few days ago, I thawed two halves with the intention of grilling.  By dinner time, it was literally raining cats and dogs.  I'm not kidding!  I made a quick change of plans to coat the chicken halves with homemade shake & bake mix.  Many consider this type of coating strictly for chicken pieces but it can be used on even whole chickens and as the coating for country fried steak.

I baked the chicken at 350°F/175°C until the chicken was golden brown, just starting to caramelize and the juices were clear (about 50 minutes).  Baked potatoes are perfect when baking chicken because they cook in about the same time.  Cooking more than one dish at a time in the oven is always the frugal use of whatever cooking fuel you are using.

The chicken, as always, was moist and tender, simply delicious.  Sometimes simple meals are the best, often falling under the category of comfort meals.  Now, a half chicken is a lot of meat, certainly more than I can eat at one sitting.  Generally, a half chicken is enough for both of us.  I cooked both halves as planned leftovers since shake & bake chicken reheats nicely.  This really was an easy, frugal meal coming in at a total cost of just under $6 for 4 servings including sides or $1.50 per meal.  Doesn't it look scrumptious?

Rustic Cottage Pie Revisited

I wrote about my recent mini bulk cooking session a couple of days ago.  Essentially what I did was make three casseroles in advance to help get us through a very busy weekend ahead.  One of the casseroles was cottage pie sometimes erroneously referred to as shepherd's pie. Technically, shepherd's pie is made using ground lamb while cottage pie is made using any type of ground meat except game meat (eg. moose, venison) then it is called hunter's pie.  If using fish it is called Maritimer's pie.  There you be, a short lesson on naming essentially the same dish based on the type of meat used.

Cottage pie is a very frugal, easy to make, nutritious casserole.  I often cook two roasts at a time which gives me double the gravy.  I freeze the extra gravy for later use.  In general, meat or poultry gravies freeze nicely but those thickened with corn starch thin slightly.  I browned the ground beef, drained the seasoned lightly and stirred in about a cup of the beef gravy.  That formed my meat layer.  I topped the meat layer with seared mushrooms, sweet peas and niblet corn.  The potato mixture was mashed steamed potatoes, steamed carrots, herb & garlic cream cheese, sour cream and a little beef stock.  I used the rest of the gravy to top the cottage pie servings.

Note the layering of the beef flavours by the use of three beef ingredients - ground beef, beef stock and beef gravy.  Each form of the beef adds a slightly different element while enhancing the flavour of the other beef variants.  This was a very simple, frugal dish using about a pound of lean ground beef yet giving a yield of 6 good sized delicious servings.  Cottage pie does freeze nicely.  Simply freeze after assembly without cooking then reheat right from frozen without thawing.

Yesterday's Comfort Cooking

It has been a brutal week, full of activity which really when combined with service and contract people coming in resulting in a hectic and frustrating week.  Our custom window treatment contractors were in last Saturday.  Both window treatments were wrong!  The kitchen panels were the wrong material and the front California shutters were only partially installed.  At almost $2,500 I was beyond being disappointed.   They came out yesterday to replace the panels so the kitchen is one step closer to being completely finished.  The shutters are scheduled to be fixed Wednesday evening.   I've been canning when I could get a stretch of a couple of hours and I did one smaller bulk cooking session but yesterday I was in the mood for homemade cookies after the custom window treatment contractors fixed the panels in the kitchen (looking good now!).   That translates into peanut butter or shortbread cookies, our two favourite homemade cookies.  It's not like I don't make other cookies but those are our comfort cookies!  I made a small batch (3 doz) of peanut butter cookies. Hey, these are a need right now!

Carrying on the theme of comfort cooking for the day,   I popped a homemade peameal bacon roast in the oven along with a couple of potatoes for baking.  Peameal bacon is our favourite quick cook, low fat meat.  Although peameal bacon is a home cured pork loin, the texture is a bit different than ham.  Roasting the peameal as a chunk gives a bit smoother texture when cut compared to raw sliced then fried.  However, frying the peameal bacon slices gives a nice caramelization and bit of crisping to the coating that roasting does not achieve.  Either way, peameal bacon is a delicious, comfort meat!

Baked potatoes are the perfect side for a peameal bacon roast as they can bake while the roast is cooking.  Any time you can cook more than one component of a meal in the same vessel, in this case the oven, it is a frugal use of energy.  I served the peameal bacon roast and baked potatoes with lightly buttered sweet peas and tomato slices.  Not pictured is the sour cream I topped my potato with for just a touch of creamy comfort.  Rounding up our comfort meal, we ate in front of the television watching Coronation Street.  The beauty of comfort cooking is the end result always makes you feel better :)

Mom's Basic Meatloaf

My apologies for not posting as much. It has been a week now working on painting the kitchen.  Let me tell you it has been a bit more complicated than I originally thought it would be but just wait until you see it!  We absolutely love the colour...so rich and bold making the floor and appliances pop.  Today we (one of our kid's partner) worked on the final touches.  I will be doing the finer detail edging using an artist's brush then will be putting the kitchen back together so my normal cooking will resume tomorrow.  Oh, and if you are wondering what colour I painted the kitchen, look at my plates :)

Meatloaf was one of the last meals made in our kitchen before prepping it for painting.  I think basic meatloaf was one of the very first dishes I learned to make as a newlywed.  Many complain that their meatloaf is too dry but I have never had that problem.  I use 1 egg per pound of lean ground beef.  That's my secret.  When combined with the other liquid ingredients and dry bread crumbs the results are consistently moist and tasty meatloaf.  I modify my basic meatloaf recipe to create unique meatloaves by adding shredded vegetables, turning into a roll with filling or even making mini meatloaves but the basic meatloaf base remains the same.

Mom's Basic Meatloaf
recipe by: Garden Gnome

3 lb lean ground beef
3 eggs
1 c dry bread crumbs
1 tbsp prepared yellow mustard
¼ c ketchup or Heinz 57 Sauce
½ tbsp garlic pepper

Beat eggs.  Combine all of the ingredients mixing well.  Fold into a loaf pan, patting down slightly and smoothing the top.  Bake at 175ºC (350ºF) to an internal temperature of 71ºC (160ºF), about 40 minutes.  Remove from the oven.  Cover with tinfoil and let rest 10 minutes.  Remove from the loaf pan.  Slice for serving. 

Oriental Noodle Bowl

It's surprising that being on vacation for an extended period of time makes you a bit sluggish at getting back into your normal daily routines.  Compounding the problem were the health problems my husband was having.  Between being in Las Vegas we were home for about eighteen hours before flying out to Florida.  He was seen in emerg during that time period and prescribed medication for unexplained edema.  The following first full day after arriving home, on the Friday he was back into emerg.

We still had not been to the grocery store so the evening meal would be from the freezer and pantry.  That's not a bad thing.  I decided to make a simple noodle bowl for dinner that night.  Noodles bowls have become one of our favourites this past winter.  They are versatile, warm and comforting.  This time I used two beef soup bones from the freezer to make fresh stock using one of my pressure cookers.  Once the stock was made, I cut the meat from the bones in bite sized pieces adding it back to the stock.  Then I added in about a third of a bag of oriental vegetable mix.  This is one of the few frozen vegetables mixes I buy and I always buy it at M & M Meats.  I just love the tender baby corn!  I spooned the meat and vegetable mixture over cooked angel hair pasta then finished off with a ladle of stock.

The following day my husband wasn't feeling well and late Sunday night was admitted to hospital.  Needless to say there wasn't a lot of cooking going on that weekend.  The immediate cause for his hospitalization has passed.  He is home now and on the mend, back to the office on greatly reduced hours and taking things easy.  For all who have asked, thanks for your concern.  They are still doing a lot of tests but his appetite is somewhat back so that's a good sign!  We will be making some dietary changes as a result of some of the tests but more on that after we get the big picture.

Old Fashioned Comfort Food

The snow can be blowing, the wind howling, sleet hitting the windows or so hot breathing is difficult and yet some foods comfort us.  My gosh, I think everyone has a few tried and true dishes they think of as comfort food.  These are the dishes we turn to over and over because not only are they family favourites, they are down right comfort food.  So what makes a comfort food?  In all honesty I think comfort food is any food that just makes you feel warm and cozy inside regardless of what is going on outside. 

Boneless pork loin chops in a mushroom sauce is one of our ultimate, cold weather, comfort meals.  It is rich and creamy beyond belief!  The secret to the sauce is condensed cream of mushroom soup, one of the very few soups that I buy commercially made.  The reason being I cannot home can a version of this soup and only so much of homemade cream of mushroom soup will store in the freezer.  The lactic acid in the condensed soup and added milk along with the slow cooking method result in tender pork chops that melt in your mouth.  I often add sliced mushrooms to the sauce as well.  The pork chops pair nicely with steamed potatoes, rice or noodles.  My husband's favourite is pairing the meat and sauce with potatoes. 

Roasted Chicken Casserole

Last month we were able to take advantage of whole chickens on sale.  Whole chickens have been on the high priced side in recent years.  I was quite happy to cook three whole chickens while putting the other three in the freezer.  I'm looking forward to rotisserie chicken on the outdoor grill!

Creamed turkey is traditionally a leftover meal when I roast a turkey.  I decided to make a similar dish from the leftover roasted chicken.  We ate half of the roasted chicken the first night.  The next day I de-boned the other half freezing the bones for the next stock making day. 

This is a no measure casserole in that I just add what amounts look right and fit the size of the casserole dish.  This casserole had roasted chicken, home canned mushrooms, niblet corn, condensed mushroom soup, milk and garlic pepper.  We had about half of the small casserole for dinner with enough leftovers for two lunches the following day.  

Roasted Chicken (Whole Chicken Sale)

A few years ago when the threat of swine flu (renamed H1N1) was at it's peak and misinformation ran amuck, many Canadian pig farmers gave up raising pigs.  This resulted in the price of pork products plummeting.  Concerned consumers misinformed that they could contract the flu via eating pork hastily switched to other meats causing their prices to rise considerable.  Pork roasts were going for as low as 99¢ per lb but chicken pieces with backs attached that normally went on sale for 49¢ per lb increased to a new low price of 69¢ with the sales becoming less frequent.  It has been virtually impossible to get whole chickens here for a decent price for a couple of years now.   Of course, whole chickens are what I've been trying to find on sale for grilling.  Finally, I found whole chickens at a stock up price.

The local Wal*marts (Canada) are currently running a sale of two whole chickens for $10.  The surprising part is regardless of the size of the prepackaged two pack the price is $10.  This means a frugal shopper will search through the packages to find the heaviest weight ones.  My husband picked up a 3.46 kg package.   The chickens are packaged on a foam tray wrapped with plastic (not my favourite packaging).  They have been cleaned so no necks or giblets but they are trussed with twine for easy roasting.

A nice sized whole chicken will make two to four dinners.  At the sale price that ends up being between $1.25 and $2.50 for the meat portion of the meal.  I can stretch it a bit further if I make soup or stew.  In addition to that depending on what I make, the carcass can be used to make chicken stock furthering the savings.  In comparison to other meats it is still a rather good deal.

I put one of the chickens in the freezer and roasted the other.  I roast chicken very much the same way I roast a turkey, low and slow then increasing the temperature towards the end for browning.  I usually stuff the birds.  That is I make stuffing (in the bird) rather than dressing (outside the bird).  Stuffing is an excellent substitution for bread or rolls for the meal.  My stuffing is about as simple as you can get, exactly the way my Mom made it.  I use day old bread, chopped onion, poultry seasoning, sea salt, fresh ground pepper and butter.  Then I stuff the bird in both cavities (breast, neck) as full as I can get it.  After roasting I remove the bird from the oven and scoop out the stuffing into a serving bowl.  I use the pan drippings to make gravy.

Roasted chicken is not a meal that needs to be restricted to weekends only.  It is quite easy to make during the week as well.  It's even easier if you keep the sides simple like baked potatoes that can be cooked during the last 45 minutes of the chicken roasting time.  I served the chicken with baked potatoes, home frozen niblet corn and freezer pickles.  This really is a comfort meal during the winter months.

My husband is going to pick up a couple more packages of the chickens before the sale ends.  So far this year the sales seem to be focusing on chicken so perhaps that will be the bargin meat of 2011.  All food sales are cyclic and they are usually triggered by external forces.  It will be interesting to see if the chicken sales continue.  Chicken will be a nice change from pork that has held the cheap meat crown for the last couple of years.

Planned Left-overs Using Homemade Shake & Bake Chicken

Having spent the majority of our time at our vacation home in temperatures above freezing and reaching as high as 72ºF we arrived at one of kids home in well below freezing temperatures.  We had take-out fish the first night and they made us a wonderful homemade cheese soup the second night.  Well that soup was enough to give the craving for good old fashioned, homecooked comfort food!  We arrived home to ice and snow with an almost empty fridge but since I wasn't cooking that night we left it to the following day when my husband picked up potatoes, milk, cream, sour cream, chicken thighs and a few fresh vegetables.  His request was he wanted homemade shake & bake chicken for dinner.

If you have been following this blog for any length of time you will know the story behind shake & bake chicken.  There were 6 chicken thighs so I decided to coat them all with   homemade shake & bake mix and bake along with potatoes with planned left-overs in mind.  I seved the chicken and baked potatoes with home canned green beans. Now you might question how I could possibly use left-over baked potatoes and with shake & bake chicken but as I pulled the first meal together the second meal was already in the planning stages.  My goal was to create another comfort type meal that would mimic some of the flavours of the first while introducing a couple of new flavours using the left-overs.

What could be better than a soup that picked up the essence of a favourite comfort meal while at the same time becoming its own unique comfort meal?  The snow was blowing, roads were closed, buses weren't running so making the left-over based soup while it howled outside was a nice diversion.  The kitchen smelled wonderful!

I had left-over chicken and baked potatoes to work with so that's what I started with and built from there.  The end result was a rich, creamy, filling soup full of warm, comforting flavour just perfect for a wintery day.  I used sour cream as a garnish but when stirred into the soup it really adds a nice flavour element.


Baked Potato and Chicken Soup
source:  Garden Gnome

2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
2 chicken thighs, pre-cooked with skin and chopped
3 slices thick cut bacon
3 cold baked potatoes
6 c chicken stock
1½ c asparagus pieces
1½ c sautéed mushroom slices
1 c heavy whipping cream
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1 tbsp sour cream per serving

Cut the bacon across the slices.  Place in fry pan on medium.  Add onion and celery.  Cook until onion is just becoming translucent.  Cut baked potatoes into smaller chunks.  Place in fry pan with the onion mixture.  Warm through.  Cut chicken from the bone leaving the skin on the chicken.  Set aside.  Cut into bit sized pieces.  Transfer the potato/onion mixture to a stock pot.   Pour the stock into the pot and bring to a low boil.  While that mixture is heating sauté the mushroom slices in butter and set aside.  Wash and cut the asparagus into 1 - inch pieces.  Using a slotted spoon mash the potatoes in the stock mixture leaving just a few smaller pieces.  Pour in the mushrooms.  Let heat through.  Add the asparagus pieces.  Cook just to warmed through.  Stir in the whipping cream.  Remove from heat.  Ladle into bowls.  Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and fresh ground pepper.  Garnish with a dollop of sour cream.

Pea Meal Bacon Dinner

Every home cook has a meal that they turn to as a quick comfort meal.  For me that tends to be a meal based on pea meal bacon for the meat.  I cure a piece of pork loin once a month or more for pea meal bacon.  This home cured meat is perfect for pan frying when sliced or can be cooked as a roast in the oven.  It is a quick, easy to prepare and low fat meat sure to please. 

The weather is now rather cold so a little extra heat in the house from cooking is very much appreciated.  A little comfort food is also very much appreciated.  The real beauty of comfort foods is they aren't  labour intensive to prepare.

I cooked the pea meal bacon roast in the oven along with the potatoes.   Steamed carrots and   home canned cream style corn rounded out the meal.  The steamed carrots were a real bargain.  One of the local grocery stores had 10 lb bags of carrots, beets and onions on sale for $2 each.  Well you just know I had to buy a bag of each at that price!  Cream style corn is really nice spooned over baked potatoes as a topping anytime but especially more so on a cold winter's evening. It was a nice comfort meal to enjoy watching the wind whip white caps over the water's surface.

Cheesy Creamed Turkey Casserole

Last Monday we celebrated our Thanksgiving with a lovely turkey dinner and all the fixings.  There are three guaranteed uses for leftover turkey in our home.  It's a given that creamed turkey casserole and open faced hot turkey sandwiches will be served later that week.  It is also guaranteed that I will be canning turkey stock during the week.  Along with those must makes with leftover turkey I usually put turkey pieces with leftover gravy in the freezer for a later meal as well as slice turkey breast for sandwiches. 

The creamed turkey casserole is a family tradition passed on from my mother-in-law.  The beauty of this dish aside from using up leftovers is its simplicity.  It only takes a few minutes to mix the ingredients together then pop in the oven. 

I tweaked the recipe slightly to use Asiago cheese.  This time I tweaked the recipe to include ¼ cup provolone cheese, ¼ cup mozzarella cheese and garnished with parsley flakes.  The result was a rich, creamy dish similar to a risotto but without the work.  This really is a very easy dish that fits into the comfort meal category.  Serve with bread and a side salad for a complete meal. 

Braised Beef Ribs

I was looking through the very full freezers to find something a bit different for a summer meal when the temperatures took a bit of a dip even though the humidex was still quite high.  One package of beef was labeled as braising ribs so I thought that would work well.  Instead of using the slow cooker or conventional oven I braised the ribs in the countertop roaster.  This small kitchen appliance gives the same results as a conventional oven without heating up the kitchen reduces our carbon foot print on high humidex days where using the natural gas grill is not as desirable.

Braising means to cook in liquid usually long and slow.  This method is best used for cheaper, less tender cuts of meat.  I placed the ribs on a bed of sliced Spanish onion then poured 2 cups of water over the ribs.  After sprinkling with a little Montreal Steak Seasoning and Worcestershire sauce, I set the roaster to 110ºC (250ºF) for about 2 hours.  Then I stirred in 3 tins of condensed mushroom soup and the potato chunks.  I increased the temperature to 175ºC (350ºF) and let cook for an hour. 

The meat was nice and tender, fall off the bone.  It was a bit fattier than I would have liked but the fat helped keep the meat tender as well.  The mushroom soup formed a simple yet tasty gravy for the potatoes.  I served with a side of steam broccoli.  The meal took on more of a comfort meal which is surprising as we really needed it.  The weather was wearing very thin on us with high temperature and humidity combined with violent storms.  A little comfort food was needed!