Italian Chicken, Crockpot

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: April 11, 2011

Place the following ingredients in the crockpot:
3-4 cups raw green beans, ends trimmed, beans cut into pieces about 3 inches long (optional- I think they taste kind of funny in dishes like this)
2 cups of fresh mushrooms, cut into fourths
2 onions, sliced in rings

Spread these around the bottom of the crockpot.
Add 1 1/2 pounds of chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces

combine in a bowl or large measuring cup:
28 ounces stewed tomatoes
12 ounces tomato paste
2 teaspoons Italian style herbs
4 cloves garlic

Stir well, then pour over crockpot mixture. Cook on low for 6 hours, or high for 3.

Serve over pasta if desired, or with crusty french bread.

For a freezer meal, lightly steam the vegetables, then combine all ingredients in a ziplock bag and freeze. To serve, defrost and cook in crockpot as described.

Top with parmesan cheese

This was delicious served over couscous and topped with parmesan cheese.  If you’re not having it with pasta, I would reduce the liquid or double the chicken.  It was just enough to serve ten of us, three being little boys of smallish appetite.  Blynken liked it, Nod tolerated it, the FYG, who made it, didn’t like it much, the rest of us thought it quite tasty.

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Chili Corn Salad for a Crowd

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: April 11, 2011

Hot weather is here again, and this is a salad that doesn’t go limp in the heat. You can use frozen corn (we do, and we don’t even bother defrosting it first. It’s going to thaw anyway) or you can use freshly cooked sweet corn (tasty, but a lot of work). If you use frozen corn, frozen onions, and bag of frozen sliced peppers, you can quickly mix up the basic ingredients in a few seconds, making it an easy recipe for a huge cook-out.

Ingredients to make a huge bowl (about 32 cups ) of salad

14 cups Corn kernels (frozen, canned, or fresh cooked, organic preferred)

8 medium Zucchini, quartered & sliced , organic preferred

1 1/2 cups Diced Sweet onion(s) (adjust to taste), organic preferred

4 Large Bell Pepper (red) cored, seeded, chopped, organic preferred

Combine in large bowl, large stock pot, or a clean mini ice-chest

Dressing

2 cups red wine vinaigrette dresssing (You could use this sweet and sour dressing you make yourself or make up your own, or adapt this Italian dressing made from scratch)

8 crushed garlic cloves

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon chili powder

Hot pepper sauce (tobasco or other)- to taste (8-10 drops for us)

Whisk the dressing together and toss with salad ingredients.

This is obviously not low-carb. 1/2 cup of this has about 12 carbs I think. You could substitute some other veggies for the corn- a mixture of 14 cups of some combination of diced jicama, minced celery, diced avacado, sliced cucumber and extra zucchini, for instance.

You can change the flavor by substituting a ranch dressing with extra garlic and adding dill to the mixture. Then it’s good with spinach leaves.

This size, 32 cups, is what we make for our family and a few extra guests (we are a family of nine healthy eaters).

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German Pancakes

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: April 11, 2011

German Pancakes

1 tablespoon butter
4 eggs
1 heaping teaspoon of flour
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

Separate the whites from the yolks of the eggs.
Beat both thoroughly and add the flour and salt to the yolks. When well mixed stir in the milk and at the last moment fold in the stiffly beaten whites. Melt the butter in a large frying-pan, pour in the butter and cook over a moderately hot fire till it begins to set. Then transfer the pan to a hot oven to finish cooking. Turn onto a hot dish and serve with apple sauce.

From The Rumford Complete Cook Book by Lily Haxworth Wallace, published in 1908. This cookbook was well-used. It is stained, creased, and dogeared. There are notes in the margins and hand-written recipes on blank pages. The pages are bookmarked with handwritten recipes on index cards and scraps of paper.

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Lime Punch

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: April 11, 2011

Lime punch

8 cubes sugar
juice of 2 oranges
juice of 2 limes
1 1/2 cup of water
cracked ice
slice of pineapple
2 crystallized cherries

Rub the cubes of sugar over the rind of the oranges and limes; then put the sugar in a bowl and pour the lime and orange juices over it. Add the water, and serve when the sugar is melted, chilling with plenty of cracked ice. Put in the pineapple and cherries at the moment of serving.

From The Rumford Complete Cook Book by Lily Haxworth Wallace, published in 1908. This cookbook was well-used. It is stained, creased, and dogeared. There are notes in the margins and hand-written recipes on blank pages. The pages are bookmarked with handwritten recipes on index cards and scraps of paper.

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Cream Cheese Herb Balls

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: April 11, 2011

Neufchatel herb balls

2 rolls Neufchatel cheese
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon each finely chopped parsley, chives, and olives.
Salt and paprika to taste.

Beat the butter and cheese till creamy and well blended; add the parsley, chives, olives and seasoning. Form into small balls and serve on a bed of lettuce or cress with French or mayonnaise dressing.

From The Rumford Complete Cook Book by Lily Haxworth Wallace, published in 1908. This cookbook was well-used. It is stained, creased, and dogeared. There are notes in the margins and hand-written recipes on blank pages. The pages are bookmarked with handwritten recipes on index cards and scraps of paper.

Posted in appetizers and snacks, low-carb | Leave a comment

Tomato and Lima Bean Salad

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: April 11, 2011

We cheated on this one- I didn’t want to bother with stuffed tomatoes since it was a salad pitch-in at an Independence Day cook-out, so I diced the tomatoes instead.

Tomato and Lima Bean Salad

4 tomatoes
1 1/2 cups cooked lima beans
1 tablespoon parsley
1 very small onion, grated
1/2 cup nuts, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons minced celery or a little celery salt

Cut a slice from the top of each tomato and with a teaspoon remove the pulp. To the beans (if very large, cut in halves) add the onion, parsley, nuts, celery and seasoning. Mix a little French dressing with these ingredients and fill the tomatoes with the mixture. Pour more dressing over the top or serve it separately. Any dressing desired may be served.
The tomatoes may be peeled and cut in thick slices, and the other ingredients piled on them if preferred.

From The Rumford Complete Cook Book by Lily Haxworth Wallace, published in 1908. This cookbook was well-used. It is stained, creased, and dogeared. There are notes in the margins and hand-written recipes on blank pages. The pages are bookmarked with handwritten recipes on index cards and scraps of paper.

Posted in frugal, lunch, salad, vegetarian, vintage | Leave a comment

Crescent Roll ‘Pizza"

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: April 11, 2011

We love this on a hot day.

GARDEN VEGETABLE PIZZA

4 pkg. crescent rolls (8 rolls to a package)
4 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 cup mayonnaise
about 1/2 cup Ranch style dressing or sour cream
2 tsp. dill weed
garlic to taste
About three cups of grated cheese (more or less)
Chopped fresh vegetables, around six cups, maybe more. We like cucumbers, grated carrots, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, green onions and broccoli slaw. Okay, I like all those things, and so does the HM. The progeny all like cucumbers and grated carrots. All but one of them like mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. Olives are also good.

Unroll all crescent rolls and pat onto a greased cookie or pizza pan to form a large crust, pinching their seams together. How many pans you need depends entirely on the size of your baking sheets. You cover one baking sheet with the crescent rolls (you just unwrap and press them together, you don’t roll them out or anything like that). When that baking sheet is covered by crescent rolls, get out another one and spread rolls out on it.

Pierce all over with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees about 10 minutes, until golden brown. Cool.
Combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, dressing mix and dill weed; mix well. Spread over cooled crust, about as thick as you would spread frosting on a cake, maybe slightly thinner. Press your diced, grated, or chopped vegetables into cream cheese topping. Sprinkle top with grated cheese. Cover and chill. Cut into squares and eat, and eat, and eat.

This does make enough for a light supper for all nine of us. Smaller families will need to reduce it.

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Oriental Pasta Salad

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: April 11, 2011

Oriental Pasta Salad for ten:

1 pound pasta shells, cooked just to al dente- rinsed with cold water and drained.

2 cups blanched broccoli florets (you can use frozen, just steam it over the pasta until still bright green and firm)

3 peeled and grated carrots (or slice thin)

1 bell pepper, cored, seeded, sliced (red will be prettier)

Combine all

Dressing:

1/2 cup red wine vinaigrette

2 t. sesame oil

2 T. soy sauce

2 T. chopped green onions.

Whisk dressing ingredients together. Toss with salad ingredients, chill, serve.

To serve again the next day, you should make some extra dressing to toss over before re-reserving. Pasta as leftovers tastes a bit bland unless you add more sauce.

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Three Bean Salad

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: April 11, 2011

Three Bean Salad
(add some bacon, sausage, or bits of cooked pork for a more filling salad)

for 12 cups of salad:

8 cups cooked, drained black beans

1 1 /2 cups chopped, blanched green beans

4 cups cooked, drained white beans

1/2 cup diced red onion

Combine all. Toss with this dressing:

2/3 cup red wine vinaigrette

1/4 cup dijon mustard

2 T. each chopped fresh parsley and snipped fresh dill

Serve chilled

Posted in frugal, legumes, lunch | Leave a comment

Herbed Corn Tomato Salad

By Headmistress, zookeeper | Published: April 11, 2011

Herbed Corn Tomato Salad

Makes 9 cups

4 cups frozen corn

2 chopped tomatoes

1 jicama, peeled, diced or sliced into thin sticks

1/2 cup chopped red onion

Combine. You can rinse the corn with cold water, but I usually just mix it in while still frozen. Keeps nicely chilled that way.

Toss with this dressing:

1/3 cup red wine dressing

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh herbs (parsely, oregano, thyme, basil, as desired)

1 1/2 T. lime juice

1 clove crushed garlic

You can add cucumber or minced celery, too.

Posted in frugal, lunch, salad, vegetarian | Leave a comment