Who says the old adage* of 'make soup by throwing a bunch of stuff together' can't apply for making spaghetti sauce?  Today we're going to explore this theme and make some delicious spaghetti sauce.


First off, the ingredients.  Onion, ground beef, tomatoes, ketchup, bbq sauce (optional), crushed tomatoes in a can.

First off,  dice up the onion and the tomatoes.  Add some soy sauce to the ground beef and let it marinate for a bit.

Caramelize the onions a bit and add in the ground beef.  Brown thoroughly and cook until it's fairly dry.
 

Add in some ketchup to give it a slight tangy taste.  I like to add barbeque sauce as well, but don't add too much!  Generally, I do 3 'rings' of ketchup and 1 ring of bbq sauce.  Stir into the beef/onion mixture until it thickens a bit.  Coke works pretty well, too, but it sweetens the sauce quite a bit.  Canned tomatoes can help balance this out. 

Add in the diced tomatoes.  The smaller the dice, the faster they will cook.  Six plum tomatoes was definitely too many tomatoes, but I don't really have another use for them so in they go.  (I should probably mention that I usually use way less beef than what was shown there, but I guess I grabbed an extra large bag.)

  

Cover the pot and let the tomatoes stew until they are soft.  Usually I don't add fresh tomatoes since they take forever and a half year to cook.  Add in a jar of pasta sauce or in this case, crushed tomatoes to make it saucier.  Reduce heat and let it simmer until the flavors mix.

Hooray, you're done!  Eat with rice.




* I just made that up.  It's okay because I'm apparently old now.

Spicy Chili by Vicky

Medium onion

3 cloves garlic

Cooking Oil

Ground Cumin

Ground Smokey Chipotle Chili Pepper

Dried Guajillo peppers

1 lb Ground Beef/Turkey

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can black beans/pinto beans (drained)

1 can corn (drained)

1 jalapeño/ ¼ Average Sized Habañero chopped

1 tbsp taco seasoning

1 package small sweet peppers

Fresh cilantro

Green onions

Sour Cream

1) Dice the onion and chop the garlic and add to a pot with 1-2 tbsp of cooking oil. Add 1 tsp ground cumin and ½ tsp smoky chipotle pepper. Chop up 2 guajillo peppers and add to the pot. If you can’t find guajillo peppers it’s ok, they can be hard to find. The chili will still taste fine. Brown the onions and garlic over medium heat.

2) Add the ground beef/turkey to the pot and brown. I used turkey this time and I actually like the texture of it better than the ground beef.

3) Once the meat is cooked add 1 can of black beans and one can of corn to the pot. Drain them both first. You can use pinto beans instead of black beans if you want. Also add two cans of diced tomatoes with the juice. I like Delmonte’s Petite Cut Tomatoes. I’m not a fan of big tomato chunks. Also, add 1 tbsp taco seasoning, 1 chopped jalepeño and ¼ of an average sized habañero pepper for some extra kick or, ½ of an average size habañero and no jalepeño. I’ll leave the spiciness up to you. Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 45 min.

4) When the chili starts simmering wash ½ a package of mini sweet package of mini sweet peppers and stick in a toaster oven at high heat. Cook for 20 min. At the 10 min mark turn the peppers over. You can also use regular bell peppers or another type of sweet pepper, they will probably need to cook for 30-40 min.

5) I like corn bread with my chili so I make a package of Jiffy Corn Bread/Muffins- whatever shape you prefer, it only takes 20 min to make and the instructions are on the box!

6) Finely chop 4-6 green onions and a few table spoons of fresh cilantro for garnish.

7) When the chili is cooked put it in a bowl, add some cilantro, green onions, and sour cream.

8) Enjoy!

Spaghetti Squash

The spaghetti squash is about as close as you can get to the great Swiss Spaghetti Harvest. While it's not quite the same as pulling down noodles from the spaghetti trees, there's a certain satisfaction from dragging a fork through the squash and watching it flake into noodley goodness.




Cooking a spaghetti squash is very simple. So simple that a caveman couple of Clone Troopers (TM) can do it. All you need is a knife, fork, and a spoon. Oh, a bowl large enough to fit one or both halves would be ideal.



First, wash the squash and cut it in half lengthwise.
Scoop out the seeds and discard.







Take a sharp knife and cut some slits into it so you don't end up with a "squash explosion" (1). This actually wasn't necessary, since the second half disappointingly did not explode spectacularly.

Place the squash face-down in a bowl with ~1/4 to 1/2 inch water in the bottom. Microwave for 8-12 minutes. Let it stand for 5 minutes to cool down.

Run a fork along the inside to break the flesh into noodle-like strands. Enjoy!

Daikon Rice Cake

Daikon rice cake is a delicious pan fried treat which is chewy yet soft. As the name suggests, it is made from the daikon, which is not far from a giant white carrot or turnip. Diced mushroom, green onion, and meat is mixed with slivers of daikon in a rice flour mix to make this delicious dish.


Ingredients

1. One medium sized daikon, shredded (~3 cups)
2. 2-3 stalks green onion, finely sliced
3. 2-3 Chinese sausage or other meat, diced
4. 2 dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated
5. 2 3/4 cup rice flour (non-glutenous)
6. 1 1/2 cup water
7. salt & pepper to taste

Preperation/Cooking

1. Peel and shred the daikon into a large pot.
2. Dice and slice green onion, shitake mushroom, and Chinese sausage.
   (Hint: Soak the mushrooms in in warm water to rehydrate faster)
3. Mix daikon, water, and rice flour. Add salt and pepper to taste. Optionally, add a sprinkle of chicken boullion powder. Set aside.
   
4. Sautee the green onion, mushroom, and sausage until cooked.
5. Add rice flour mix and bring to a boil for ~5 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and press into greased foil pan.
7. Steam until cake is firm and doesn't squish easily. Allow to cool.
8. Cut cake into rectangles and pan fry, 2-5 minutes each side.
9. Plate and serve, optionally with soy sauce.
   

Vicky's Chicken Soup

1) First you must pick your tunes. Jamming while cooking is essential : ) I"m pretty sure it makes the food taste better.

2) Next you're gonna want to gather your ingredients:

1 32 oz container Swanson Chicken Broth
1 or 2 chicken breasts- thawed
1 bag fresh carrots
1 medium onion
Celery
2 cloves garlic
1 package portabella mushrooms
Fresh Rosemary
Fresh Thyme
1/2 c egg noodles (not pictured)
Olive oil (not pictured)

3) Chop 1 teaspoon of each rosemary and thyme. I put them in separate bowls afterward to avoid mess.

4) Trim the fat and other gross stuff off the chicken breast. Rub a bit of olive oil on the bottom of the pan before you put the chicken in the oven so it doesn’t stick after baking. Lightly salt for flavor and sprinkle w/ some rosemary and thyme. Bake @ 350 for about 35-45 min (until done and the juices run clear when you cut the thickest part w/ a knife {salmonella is bad news bears}). And while the chicken is baking…

5) Finely chop half of the onion (you want about 1/2 cup when all is said and done).

6) Behold! The greatest kitchen invention since the spork: The Garlic Press. You put the clove in the press and SQUISH! Your garlic is finely minced. But, if you don't have one, doing it the old fashioned way works too. I added it to the chopped onion and set it aside in a bowl for future reference.

7) Finely chop about a cup of celery and 1 1/2 cups of carrots. I like the baby carrots because you can chop them into nice small coins. Remember- the thicker you cut the carrots the longer they take to cook.

8) The chicken should be about done! Set it aside to cool.

9) Now its time to start the soup part. You want a 2 Qt sauce pan/pot, the onion, garlic, olive oil, rosemary and thyme.

10) Turn on your burner to about 3 (if you don’t have #’s it’s about the same place on all knobs, like medium-low-ish). Add a splash of olive oil to your pot along with the onion and garlic, a bunch of rosemary and thyme. (It should look like the picture) You are going to cook the onions until they start to get translucent (but not brown!) stirring them a bit for about 3 min once they’ve started to sizzle a little.

11) Next add your celery and carrots to the pot along with the 32 oz of chicken broth and 1 1/2 cups of water. Turn the heat up to bring it to a boil (about 9).

12) While you're waiting for the soup to boil, shred or chop the chicken breast up into cubes and add it to the pot. It should be cool enough to handle by now.

13) Once your soup is good and boiling turn the heat down to about 7 to bring it to a simmer/low boil.

14) I like dumplings in my soup. If you’re brave enough try them! They can be a little…messy... though. (If you don’t want dumplings simmer the soup for 15 min and skip to #20) You will need ½ cup flour, 6 egg yolks, a fork, and a spoon or two. Separate the egg yolks and place them in a bowl. Lightly beat them with the fork and add to the flour. Mix the two together with a fork until the fork stops working. At that point I use my fingers. The dough is sticky so it gets messy. But! Once you have the stuff mixed into a gooey paste it looks like this:

15) Now you’re gonna place spoon fulls like in the picture into the pot until there’s no more goop left in the bowl. Sometimes it doesn’t want to release from the spoon, I use that second spoon to help scrape it off.

16) Now, while all that is cooking, chop up about ½ cup of the baby Portabellas. I like Portas because they have more flavor but regular mushrooms work just the same (and might be a little cheaper). Add them to the pot!

17) You can add noodles instead of dumplings or you can add both! I added both this time. Add about ½ to 1 cup egg noodles (depending on how many noodles you want) and cook for 10 min (or according to the instructions on the package).

18) While the noodles are cooking turn the heat down to about medium. Your pot should look like this with all the dumplings floating to the top.

19) Taste the soup- if its too salty add 1/4 cup water. If its still too salty continue to add water to taste. Be careful not to add too much water or you will have to boil the water off or have watery soup.

20) When the noodles are done your soup is ready!