Spokane Soup Swap: Why Swap Soup?

Spokane Soup Swap: Why Swap Soup?

Stuffed Cabbage Soup Recipe

I make a soup like this "by-guess-and-by-golly." If I used a recipe for it, I'd use this one. Mmmmm, Yummy! If you follow the link, you'll find some more really yummy recipes, too.

Stuffed Cabbage Soup

SND Note: The quantity of chicken stock is dependent on the size of the head of cabbage. Remember, the soup is served over rice, which will soak up the soup. If you want a traditional soup consistency, add more stock.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 lb ground beef, ground turkey or ground pork
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
3 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley
2 teaspoons paprika
6-7 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
1 head of cabbage, cored and coarsely shredded
4-6 cups of steamed rice

Directions:
1) In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add ground meat, break into small pieces and partially brown for 2-3 minutes. Drain excess fat, if necessary. Add 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt, garlic and onions and sauté for 4-5 minutes, until onions are soft.

2) Add thyme, parsley and paprika to ground meat and cook for 30 seconds. Add 6 cups chicken stock, tomatoes and 3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) of salt. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, add cabbage, cover pot and simmer for 10 minutes, or until cabbage is desired tenderness. Add additional chicken stock if necessary and adjust seasonings to taste. Serve over rice.

Makes 8 servings

Menu Plan Monday - 1/26-2/1 2009

I am trying my hardest to get more organized. Being pretty much a "wing-it" type person, I have always had a pantry full of food. Being a frugal person, I've always purchased on-sale/generic/bulk products. Then I get them home and "wing-it!" O.K. so we live in a VERY small house. We don't have unlimited pantry space. And my pantry is overtaking the kitchen! So... I'm gonna give it a try, hoping beyond all hope that this works for us.

I am participating in Menu Plan Monday at:




Menu Plan Monday (1/26-2/1 2009)

We got a lot of carrots at the last WSU Cooking Class, so you’ll see them being used a lot. Thank goodness most of us like carrots. Baby Princess... not so much!

Monday
Breakfast - Toast, Bananas, Milk (coffee for me!)
Lunch - Tuna/Egg Sandwiches, Raw Carrots,
Dinner - Crock pot Scalloped Potatoes & Smoked Sausage, Green Beans, Home Canned Cherries

Tuesday (We go to WSU Cooking Class today, so we’ll see what we come home with!)
Breakfast - Oatmeal, Crock pot Applesauce, Milk (coffee for me!)
Lunch - Toasted Cheese Sandwiches, Cream of Tomato Soup, Raw Carrots, Apples
Dinner- Crock pot Spaghetti, Oven Roasted Root Veggies

Wednesday
Breakfast - Snickerdoodle Muffins from freezer, Bananas, Milk (coffee for me!)
Lunch - PB&J Sandwiches, Raw Carrots
Dinner- Calico Beans - Crock pot, cornbread

Thursday
Breakfast - Malt-O-Meal, Toast, Bananas, Milk
Lunch - Cheese & Crackers, Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Dinner - Ho-Bo’s, Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

Friday
Breakfast - Mom is Great! She Give Us Breakfast Cake w/dried Blueberries in it,
Lunch - Fried Cabbage, Sliced Canned Ham, Raw Carrots, Bread
Dinner- Homemade Pizza (Hawaiian and “Meat Lovers”)

Saturday
Breakfast - Pancakes, Homemade Maple/Vanilla/Cinnamon Syrup,
Lunch - Garbanzo, Tomato and Pesto Salad, Bread or Crackers
Dinner- Lentil Stew in the Crock pot, Easy Biscuit Muffins

Sunday
Breakfast - Cinnamon Toast, Bananas, Milk (coffee for me!)
Lunch - Leftovers
Dinner- Leftovers

Scalloped Potatoes with Smoked Sausage (Slow Cooker)

Scalloped Potatoes with Smoked Sausage (Slow Cooker)

16 ounces rope Smoked Sausage, sliced
8 to 10 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of celery or cream of potato soup
paprika -- optional

Layer half of the smoked sausage, potatoes, and onions in slow cooker. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then the shredded cheese. Repeat with remaining ham, potatoes, onions, salt, pepper, and cheese. Pour condensed soup over the top then sprinkle with a little paprika, if desired.

Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 9 hours, or until potatoes are tender.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Fried Cabbage - Another TNT

Fried Cabbage
The simplest ingredients, and the tastiest dish!

1-2 heads Cabbage, shredded
1-2 TBS. Butter (depends on how much cabbage)
1 onion (OR dried onions)
1-2 Tsp. Garlic Powder (OR fresh crushed garlic)
Salt and Pepper

Put all ingredients into a large skillet, on medium high heat. Stir-fry to hot crisp, cooked stage. Put heaping helpings onto each kids plate. Watch them eat it up and ask for more. (At least that’s what happens in my house, and I’m not kidding!)

Easy Biscuit Muffins

This is one of my "Tried and True" Recipes.

Easy Biscuit Muffins

3 cup self-rising flour
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
1-1/2 cups milk

In a bowl, cut flour and mayonnaise together until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk; stir just until mixed. Spoon into greased muffin cups. Bake at 425° for 14-16 minutes or until lightly browned. 

Yield: 12 biscuits

Note: No Self-Rising Flour?
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons baking powder
Combine all ingredients; store in tightly covered can or jar. Use in any recipe calling for self-rising flour.
Makes 1 pound of self-rising flour.

TennZen: Enlightenment, Southern Style: 100th post giveaway

TennZen: Enlightenment, Southern Style: 100th post giveaway

Supercook.com

Guess what! It's snowing (again) outside! Isn't that amazing? I am not truly finding any amusement in it anymore, so I'm resorting to sarcasm. The forecast is for this to turn to rain, which puts us in a flood warning, and then it's supposed to get colder, which will freeze everything and we'll get to go ice-skating in our 1/2 ton vehicles. Whoopee! I think I'm staying home some more.

So on that frame of mind, I thought I'd share the following with you, because I'm inspired to use up our pantry items, before I buy some more to last us through the next several weeks.

I just heard about this website on another blog, Frugal Hacks. It's called Supercook and it has the potential to be a great resource for using up those items that seemed like a good idea at the time, but you didn't really have anything in mind.

From off their website: "Supercook is a new recipe search engine that finds recipes you can make with the ingredients you have at home. To begin, simply start adding ingredients you have. The more ingredients you add, the better the results will be."

I hope there is sunshine wherever you are.

Digging out of a Winter Wonderland (Winter 2008/2009)

I just took this out my front door. It's 18 degrees out and Spokane just had the biggest overnight accumulation since the winter of 1968/1969!

Italian Pizzelles

Today I made these cookies for the first time. Read the end of the recipe to find out my story.

Italian Pizzelles
72 cookies
• 6 large eggs (I only had five today and it was fine)
• 1 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup salad oil (canola oil)
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons anise flavoring or anise oil
Note: I used a full bottle of Anise flavoring and added enough (Watkins White) vanilla to make up the 3 tablespoons.
Beat eggs until thick and lemony colored. Add in, beating well the sugar and beat until thick. Beat in the oil and continue beating. Add in the flour. Add in the flavor.
Heat the pizzelle maker on stove top, or if electric plug in unit.
Drop tablespoon of batter onto iron and bake until golden light brown in color. I like mine very light.
Remove and cool on wire rack. Place cooled cookies into tin cans.
If you are using anise oil, use less than you would the flavor, as oil is stronger. But taste a few after been cooled and you can always add more flavoring as you go. I have also added a few tablespoons of cornstarch in place of some of the flour, so they stay crisp in those humid days. Hope you do try and like this heirloom recipe. Amount of cookies depends on the size you make them also. Also the batter can be covered and placed in the fridge for a few hours or overnight too.
My Story: I have a friend who used to make Pizzelles, I have a cousin who uses her grandmother's recipe. I love these light crispy, thin cookies, and I absolutely had to force myself to stop eating them. I wanted to make them myself, so I wouldn't have to beg my family and friends,but I didn't have a Pizzelle Iron. So, because I am a frugal person, I put an RSS feed onto craigslist for an iron. It took about 9-months, but finally someone had a Pizzelle Iron for sale for $25. They are normally $65. It had never been used! I snapped that right up! And I'm pretty proud of the results. My older son took most of them to a Boy Scout Court of Honor dinner tonight. I wasn't able to go, but they didn't bring any home with them. I guess someone asked if they could take the rest for their work tomorrow. That's a real compliment.
(Sure hope the chickens lay enough eggs tomorrow so I can make more.)

A Hope and A Future, Foster care and Adoption

I want to take a moment to tell you about a cause I believe in:

A Hope and A Future

My incredible husband and I were foster parents from September 2002 until September 2008. Two of our four children were placed into our home as foster children. We provided love, stability and practical care for them. We then chose to adopt them, as each of their individual cases eventually dictated and allowed. One of our children was placed into our home at three days old, and the other was placed at 3-months old.

The United States Foster care system is a cause that I believe is of vital importance; and one which needs a complete overhaul. Our current system is still not child protective. It is abuser/offender protective. I will share what I mean by that at a future date.

Foster care was our solution to the problem of placing disadvantaged children in orphanages. In the United States we place children into homes who have volunteered for this honor.

These homes are given a small reimbursement, to help compensate for the cost of housing and raising children that are not from their nuclear family. The average reimbursement for Washington State is still less than $400 per month, for food, clothing, electricity/heat, rent, diapers (if needed), etc. In addition foster children receive a one-time clothing voucher of $100. Now least you have additional information, such as law, what I am giving you is the factual reimbursement received by us for the past six years, with very little exception.

You'll notice that I use the term reimbursement. Foster parents in Washington State are not paid. Ever. They are reimbursed at less than 47% of the cost to raise one child per month. Each month 53% of the cost to raise these children are being absorbed by families who are not necessarily related to them. The majority of these families are lower middle-class families. Generally speaking, those of middle-class, and upper middle class do not typically choose to become foster parents.

Because this particular post is about A Hope and A Future, I don't want to continue to talk about the details of Foster care or adoption facts.

A Hope and A Future is a non-profit organization which helps licensed Foster and Adoptive families in Spokane and the surrounding areas. We started A Hope and A Future in order to help the families who choose to temporarily (or sometimes permanently) add these children into their homes. We seek donations of new and gently used clothing and household items for these families and distribute them to licensed Foster and Adoptive families via our once-per-month "Donation Station."

A Hope and A Future is also available to the families who adopt children, whether from the U.S. or world wide.

One of our largest community partners is Just Between Friends, in Spokane, WA and North Idaho. Your participation in one of the local JBF sales, helps A Hope and A Future.

If you want more information about A Hope and A Future, please feel free to reply to this post.

A Hope and A Future is a non-profit public charity 501(c)(3). We rely on the donations of businesses, churches and individuals in our community. Your donations are tax deductible.

GoodSearch-GoodShop for A Hope and A Future

Here's a new easy way to raise money for A Hope and A Future. Just start using Yahoo! powered GoodSearch.com as your search engine and they'll donate a penny to A Hope and A Future every time you do a search! In addition, do all of your shopping through their online shopping mall, GoodShop.com, where you can shop at more than 700 top online retailers and a percentage of your purchases will go to A Hope and a Future. You pay the same price as you normally would, but a donation goes to this wonderful cause that helps out foster and adoptive families... the entire family!

Here's the web site that will pre-select A Hope and A Future. Then you can make GoodSearch your homepage:

GoodSearch: http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=845670
GoodShop: http://www.goodshop.com/?charityid=845670

You can also read about GoodSearch in the NY Times, Oprah Magazine, CNN, ABC News and the Wall Street Journal.

Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

This is one of the recipes I made and took to our Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin's home.

1 cup warm milk (70 to 80 degrees)

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1-1/2 tsp. salt

4 cups flour

2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

In a bread machine pan, put all ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select dough setting.

When cycle is complete, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 24 portions. Shape dough into balls.  Place into a greased 13X9 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Skillet Granola

I have made this without any additional nuts or dried goodies. It is great plain, and my kids love it as a snack any way I fix it.

2 Tbls. Olive Oil

4 cups Rolled Oats

1/2 cup Butter

1 tsp. Vanilla (or other flavoring of your choice)

4 Tbls. Honey

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup chopped Almonds (or any nuts you have/prefer)

1/2 cup dried Cranberries (raisins, blueberries and/or cherries)

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add Oats then cook and stir until starting to brown and crisp about 5 minutes. Push the Oats around in the pan and stir to combine. Cook and stir for another 5 minutes or so to make sure to coat thoroughly. Pour out onto the cookie sheet and spread to cool.

Once cool, transfer to an airtight container and stir in the "goodies." You can add about 1/2 tsp. cinnamon or nutmeg if you'd like. You can change Vanilla for Maple flavoring or add equal parts (Yummy!). This recipe is very forgiving.

I never make small batches, because I can always put additional in small bags and store in the freezer. It makes better use of my stove. I like to thaw them in the microwave, and eat while warm.