Honey Crisp Apples

For all of you in the know about Honey Crisp apples: It's that time of year, so get them while they are here!

Hamburger Soup

So many recipes to share and so little time in which to do it! I apologize for not getting anything posted last week. I will try to post a few extra recipes this week, but in the meantime, here's a little peace offering...

Hamburger Stew

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

2 Tablespoons cooking oil

3 Tablespoons flour

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crushed

3 cups vegetable juice cocktail (like V-8, or tomato juice will work also)

1 teaspoon instant beef bouillon granules (or 1 bouillon cube)

few dashes bottled hot pepper sauce (like Tabasco)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 cups sliced celery

1 1/2 cups sliced carrots

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

Heat oil in large soup pot. Cook ground beef until browned and drain of fat. Add flour, garlic, thyme, and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix well. Stir in vegetable juice, boullion, hot pepper ssauce and 1 cup water. Add onion, celery, carrots and potato. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat. Cover; simmer about an hour. Depending on how much liquid you like with your soup, you may want to add a little more beef bouillon/water, or vegetable juice. The rule is to add i teaspoon bouillon granule (or 1 cube) to one cup of liquid. The liquid sometimes cooks down after an hour. That's why you might need to add a little more.

TIM'S NOTES: This is such a basic recipe, that much can be done to it. For instance, you don't have to add any spicy ingredient at all, but if you choose to, instead of the tabasco you might try a pinch of cayenne pepper, chili powder, a little fresh chopped jalapeno, chipotle puree,Chinese chili paste, salsa or taco sauce, red pepper flakes, anything that might give it a kick. Another thing that gives this soup a nice spiciness without adding an extra ingredient is using the Hot and Spicy V-8 Juice.

Seasonings--I add a little more thyme than this recipe calls for. You could add dried basil and/or oregano in place of the thyme. Add another clove of garlic if that's your thing. One general caveat--go easy on the salt. This soup can get salty really fast. You may want to hold off on the 1 teaspoon of salt until you taste the finished product. Depending on the saltiness of your vegetable cocktail or tomato juice, the sodium in the celery, the saltiness of the bouillon, how much the soup cooks down, you may even want to delete the salt altogether and just add it to individual servings at the table according to taste.

Vegetables--Sometimes I like to add sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. Don't confuse sweet potatoes with yams. Yams are the orange fleshed ones. We often call those sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving, but they are not. I also like to leave the skins on my potatoes. Just be sure to give then a good scrubbing. Yams, or a combination of sweet potatoes, and yams just might work as well.

Meat--I am wondering if ground turkey might be used instead of the ground beef. In that case, you might try using chicken or vegetable bouillon. And maybe you can make this vegetarian by not adding any meat at all, but using a vegetable bouillon. And with the poultry, I would probably use the basil/oregano combination, though thyme would still work.

JUST HAVE FUN PLAYING WITH THIS RECIPE! ENJOY!!!

Sun-dried Tomato Spread with Fresh Basil

I suppose you could make this little spread anytime during the year, but I think of this when I have fresh basil in my patio garden. It has three ingredients, it is easy to assemble and is great for impromptu entertaining. It would be good with crackers, spread thin on a sandwich, or my favorite thing to do with it is to pipe it into celery sticks. Makes a good alternative to celery and peanut butter. Whatever you decide to do with it, this is just a nice, fun recipe.

1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes

1/4 cup fresh basil leaves

8 ounces cream cheese

Place sun-dried tomatoes in the work bowl of a food processor; pulse until coarsely ground. Add basil; pulse until finely ground. Add cream cheese; process until well mixed. Transfer to a serving bowl or storage container.

Tim's Notes: I don't use the oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, simply because they are expensive, and sometimes hard to find. I buy the dry sun-dried tomatoes in the bulk foods section of my grocery store because they are cheaper, but I believe you can buy them already prepackaged as well. I chop up the dry tomatoes a little, put them in a small bowl, and cover them with boiling water for about 15 minutes. Drain and squeeze out most of the water. Proceed with the recipe as directed.

California Chicken

Here's a simple recipe to make when you don't feel like cooking or the weather is hot. It does take about 30 minutes to make, but it's easy, and it gives you time to prepare the rest of the meal or wash up some of the dishes.

CALIFORNIA CHICKEN

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1 pinch salt

1 pinch ground black pepper

2 avacados, peeled, pitted and sliced

2 ripe tomatoes, sliced

1 (8 ounce) package Monterey Jack cheese, cut into 10 slices

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Warm oil in skillet and add chicken and onion. Cook 15 minutes or until chicken is browned and just about done. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Place chicken on cookie sheet and top each breast with 1 to 2 slices of tomato and 2 to 3 slices of cheese. Place in oven for 10-15 minutews, until cheese melts. remove from oven, add 2 to 3 slices of avacado on top of each breast, and serve immediately.

Tim's Notes: You can do this to order very easily. I make one breast at a time for my dinner, or you could do two three, or six. How many you need. Just sprinkle each breast with salt, pepper and onion powder. Cook 7 1/2 minutes, flip over and add a little more salt, pepper and onion powder. Cook for another 7 1/2 minutes. Top with tomato, cheese, and bake for about 8 minutes for the cheese to melt. I figure half of a small avacado for each breast, and one tomato per two breasts. I also like to sprinkle the chicken with a little smoked Spanish paprika.

Slushies

Here is a little recipe I've been using on these hot end of summer days. It's kind of an inauspicious little recipe, very simple really, and one I hadn't bothered to look at very much in the last few years. But, I think it is worth taking a look at it. Seems like we don't make these kinds of recipes, anymore. It is easier to buy our beverages. Well, since I recently bought a new blender, the beverage genre has become of interest to me, thus have I rediscovered this recipe. You are going to need a good strong blender, not one that is feint of heart! This recipe makes two good sized slushies, but if you had kids, you could divide those portions in half and still have four nice sized slushies. In fact, this is the kind of recipe to make on a hot day if you had a group of teenagers. Probably cheaper than going to the local convenience store. They can be made ahead and stored in the freezer. I recommend a few minutes in the freezer after making anyway. If it freezes solid, you might want to take the slushies out of the freezer to sit five minutes. I got this recipe from my friend, Becky Campbell, whom I worked with for about 13 years at the Old Spaghetti Factory. She was crazy about slushies. Once you try them, I am sure you will be, too! So without further adieu...


SLUSHIES

1 cup sugar
1 package Kool Aid (any flavor. Be creative and use your imagination!)
About 16 ice cubes
1 cup milk

Put ice cubes in the blender first. Grind a little bit before you add the rest of the ingredients. Add the rest of the ingredients and grind until well mixed and the ice is chopped very small. Freeze for a few minutes after you make so it will get a little thicker. Becky says she likes cherry or grape Kool Aid best, but as I said, there are many, many other flavors, so GO FOR IT!!!!

7/12/2022 EDIT: If you are concerned about dairy, or are lactose intolerant, I have found these work well with unsweetened almond milk.  If they are too sweet for your taste, dial back the sugar.

New Recipe Blog

Just a short note about the remodeling of my blog...I created this blog about a year ago, thinking I might like to do a bit of writing here, but it seems it never caught on, and I didn't get any writing done. Recently, however, many of my friends and family said I should share my recipes through a Facebook page. I have been sharing many recipes lately with friends, and rather than send them over and over through e-mail, it makes sense to share them through this blog, so any of my friends and family might be able to access them. So here it is!

You know I love to eat, and I love to cook. And I am not one of those people who won't share their recipes because I want others to experience the joy I do from the process of cooking and eating good food. So my idea is to share a few recipes here each week, probably on, but not limited to, Mondays. If any of you have any questions about recipes, or types of recipes you might like to see here, let me know, otherwise I will just "do my thing"!