When I was on vacation with my friends a few weeks ago, the conversation turned to dinner, specifically a lack of inspiration, everyone seemed to be in a rut. So, everyone made a list of quick and easy things they make for dinner at home and we shared it in an effort to gain some new ideas.

One thing that came up was an idea for Salsa Chicken Soup. I love soup, but sometimes when I get an idea for soup, it never quite comes out like I intended (except for the Loaded Potato Soup, I like that stuff when I make it). This one was really simple, and actually tasted like I wanted it to!

We only discussed the ingredients in general, so even though it’s not scientific, here’s what I did:

Salsa Chicken Soup

2-4 Chicken breasts, cooked and shredded or cut into bite sized pieces
2 cans chicken broth
1 can sweet corn
1 can black beans, rinsed
2 jars salsa (I used 15 oz ones)
1 can Cream of Chicken soup

Combine all of the above and heat it up! I put it in the crockpot on low for an hour or so.

Serve with sour cream, cheese, and tortilla chips:

Like many things, this gets even better after about a day.

Perhaps if I make soup often enough, winter will actually arrive since it hasn’t really shown up here, yet!

Do you have any simple soup recipes?

Last night was one of those nights that I found myself standing in the kitchen at about 6:15 thinking, “We should probably eat something for dinner.”

It was bad enough that I really didn’t know what i was going to make, but I also realized that I’d talked myself out of going to the grocery over the weekend. I’m not sure what that was about, but there must have been some “logical” reason.

So, seeing as my family is weird about wanting dinner every night, something had to be done.

Pickings were slim in the pantry until I found a bag of small baking potatoes.  They were perfectly good, but just not big enough to make a satisfying baked potato. I think I had purchased them for mashed potatoes at some point.

A while back, I had made Loaded Baked Potato Soup, but it was kind of complicated and I wasn’t in the mood. I remembered reading somewhere about an “easy” version, so I proceeded as best I could with what I had around, and it went something like this (your results may vary, this is what i did and I thought you might like it):

Easy Loaded Potato Soup

2-ish lbs. of baking potatoes, cubed
1 can (14-1/2 oz.)  chicken broth
3 cups milk
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (save some for garnish)
Bacon bits from real bacon (as opposed to those hard crunchy things that go on salad)
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Sour cream

Directions:

Microwave potatoes in large bowl for about 15 minutes, (or until they’re soft), stir occasionally.
Lightly mash potatoes and stir in broth, bacon (save some!) salt and pepper
Stir in cheese

Add milk gradually until the soup is the desired consistency.
Garnish with saved bacon, cheese and sour cream.

It wasn’t quite as yellow as this picture looks:

Now that I look at it written down, it looks a lot liked mashed potatoes, but you can eat them with a spoon, so it’s soup! Any way you look at it, it was pretty good!

Do you have a potato soup recipe you like?

I was visiting a friend over New Year’s weekend, and we were home for the night and craving dessert after being out most of the day.

There was talk of really wanting something, but we weren’t quite sure what it was, and that most things worth eating would take too long to make. We were about to admit defeat and I joked about having bread pudding with vanilla sauce which naturally made us want to stop at nothing short of bread pudding.

This is the part where true bread pudding connoisseurs might cringe, but we set out to make some in the microwave because bread pudding was needed RIGHT NOW.

We searched for “microwave bread pudding” as sort of a joke, and apparently it can be done in the microwave. Who knew? I did not.

So, after inventorying what was in the house, we cobbled together the following from various recipes:

6 slices of bread (we used white bread from the bakery that was stale), torn into small pieces
2 cups milk (actually, it was the rest of the milk in the jug and some half-and-half)
1 tbsp. butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla

Place bread in dish. Heat milk and butter on high power 3 minutes in a large measuring cup.

Stir small amount of hot milk into beaten eggs and return the eggs to milk.

Add sugar, salt, cinnamon, vanilla. Pour egg mixture over the bread. Cook on high about 10 minutes, or until the center is firm.

Please note, I don’t like raisins or nutmeg, so it was imperative that we figured out something sans those ingredients.

We didn’t really have the ingredients (or the patience) to make any kind of sauce, but we did have some custard (the English kind that’s like a sauce rather than pudding, Birds Custard, specifically), so that made a great sauce.

My picture of the finished product was blurry, but I didn’t realize it until it was too late, so you’ll have to trust me that it actually came out looking quite nice.

So, if you’re looking for a quick dessert that’s a little different, give it a try. We were pleasantly surprised, and since there was none left at the end, I’ll declare it a success!

Like many households with kids, we eat a fair amount of pasta. Even though it’s not always imaginative, it’s easy to get spaghetti on the table after a long day at work.

Baked spaghetti (sometimes called “spaghetti pie”) is a change of pace. It’s easy to make a big pan to last a couple of days. It’s been particularly handy to have around this week as we rush around before exams and the holidays:

Baked Spaghetti

1 (16 ounce) package spaghetti
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 (26 ounce) jars of spaghetti sauce
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
5 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups small curd cottage cheese (or ricotta, I sometimes mix both)
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, cook beef and onion over medium heat until the meat is done; drain.

Make sure Santa Claus approves:

Stir in the spaghetti sauce and seasoned salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, Parmesan cheese and butter. Drain spaghetti; add to egg mixture and toss to coat.

Place half of the spaghetti in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Top with half of the cottage or ricotta cheese, meat sauce and mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Uncover; bake 20-25 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Ignore the fact that someone came along and cranked up the oven too high for some reason and the top got a little too dark, but it was still tasty!

Ground beef is on the dinner rotation here, mainly because I’m raising carnivores. However, it’s also because it’s kind of my default mode if I haven’t really planned anything for dinner and I’ve just walked in from work where these kids are expecting dinner again (even though they just had dinner last night…sheesh).

Please note, I don’t serve it every night or anything, but if you’re me, there’s only so many things in your ground beef repertoire, and it can get a little boring.

It may be a southern thing, but hamburger steak is a variation on the hamburger and some form of tomato sauce theme. Now, I know it’s not really steak, but ground beef and gravy, it’s just something a little different, and you know it beats turkey leftovers right now.

My mother-in-law makes it, and it’s really good. I can’t quite figure out how she does it, but I’ve tried, using a conglomeration of various recipes from around the Internet.

I made it this way the other night:

Hamburger Steak

1 pound lean ground beef
1 egg
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon (or more, if you love it like I do) Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion (I use the frozen chopped onions, I wish I had invented that.)
2 tablespoons flour
1 can of french onion soup (I didn’t have any plain beef broth, but this was good.)
1 tablespoon red cooking wine

Directions:

- In a large bowl, combine the first 7 ingredients, divide into 6-8 patties
- Get an assistant (A hamburger helper? Sorry…) and fry the patties and onions until they are done:

- Drain and remove from skillet
- Gradually add the flour until and mix with drippings already in the skillet
- Add the beef broth (or, french onion soup in my case), wine and seasoned salt.
- Simmer and stir for about 5 minutes, until the gravy thickens.
- Add the patties back to the gravy, cover, and simmer for another 15 minutes.

They turned out quite well, but I somehow forgot to take a picture of the finished product, so you’ll have to use your imagination, but I think it’s a keeper!

Do you have any new or different ideas for ground beef recipes? Lay ‘em on me.

For someone who doesn’t cook a lot (I feed my family, and all but I don’t consider cooking a hobby), I sure do love cookbooks. I read them, and bookmark recipes, and I firmly believe I’m going to try them out, yet most of them remain meals unrealized. I guess I use them more for inspiration than actual cooking, but I still like them.

I use online recipe sites, too, because I’m a good digital citizen, but it’s just not the same as perusing a cookbook, and I’m not someone who believes the Internet will make them obsolete.

I used to have quite the collection of cookbooks, but it started getting a little out of hand and I needed to thin it out a bit. It was hard because most of them meant something to me as some were wedding gifts or a memento of a group or a school. Some were ones that I inherited from my grandmother and other relatives (the hazards of being an only child), while others represented a lifestyle I wanted to sample.

I culled the collection and kept two shelves (instead of many) based on the following (non-scientific, merely my whim) categories:

- Ones my mother-in-law gave me (need I say more?)
- Timeless, basic cookbooks such as The Joy of Cooking (stuff I’d ask my mother if she was still alive)
- My most-used regional cookbooks (small town church ones, Southern Living Annual Recipes, etc.)
- Healthy recipes
- One holiday cookbook

I was hard to get of so many because they’d always been with me. I’d moved them from place to place, and it wasn’t until they were falling off the shelves and annexed themselves under the bed that I realized I needed to do something.

With some hesitation, I put quite a few in a yard sale, and it turned out to be so much fun to see people who really wanted them be excited to get them.

So, it’s a start, but you’ll notice I didn’t address what to do with recipes that are clipped from magazines or what to do with this box of hand-written recipe card that was my grandmother’s because I haven’t figured that out, yet!

How about you, are you a cookbook person? Is your collection vast, or do you have it pared down to only those you need?

Thanksgiving is just around the corner for those of us here in the United States, and that usually means a whole lot of cooking. But, sometimes it means just bringing something to a large family gathering and choosing just the right dish for the occasion.

Or, if you’re like me, you are expected to bring something to a large family gathering where various matriarchs try to outdo each other with their Thanksgiving specialties. My assignment is usually, “Oh, anything”, so I bring some sort of appetizer since there’s always enough main course food to feed a city or three.

Sometimes, I bring pumpkin dip because I love it so, and because everything else you could imagine is already taken.

Pumpkin Dip

2 c. powdered sugar, sifted (sifted is import since this dip can get a little lumpy, sometimes I use a little less as this dip is pretty sweet)
2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese
15 oz. pumpkin (I have made with pumpkin pie filling, too)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger

Cream together sugar and cream cheese:

Add remaining ingredients. Blend well.

Store in refrigerator in airtight container.

This isn’t something you can eat a lot of, and the recipe makes a lot, so if you have a small gathering, you might want to cut the recipe in half.

You can serve it with graham crackers, vanilla wafers, apples or whatever sounds good to you, but my favorite way to serve it is with ginger snaps. I use the fancy thin ones you can find in the deli area or with the other fancy cookies because I am all fancy like that:

Even though it’s sweet, pumpkin dip makes an interesting appetizer and it’s often the topic of conversation because it’s not usual potluck fare.

OK, some people are scared of it because it sounds “weird”. That does not compute with me, they should just eat it, it’s great!

What are your cooking responsibilities over the holidays? Do you have an unusual dish you make?

Tell us!

We try not to keep a lot of candy and chocolate in the house for several reasons, mostly because it’s expensive, and certain teenage boys are somewhat unclear on the concept of enjoying a single serving of most things.

Oh yeah, we try to be healthy-ish, too. I forgot about that part.

But, let’s face it. The problem with not keeping chocolate in the house is that there’s no chocolate in the house. It’s usually not a huge issue, but every now and then there may be a chocolate emergency and it may or may not be on my part.

Microwave cake in a coffee mug seems to be all the rage lately, so I thought I’d see if I could produce cake quickly and easily from things I already had around the kitchen to address a potential chocolate emergency.

As I examined the recipes out there, I noticed a couple of things: people are really passionate about their coffee mug cakes, and some coffee mug cakes turn out better than others.

I ruled out recipes with complicated stuff like “baking powder” because I don’t use it often, I either don’t have it, or if I do have it, it’s always 3,000 years old. I also ruled out recipes that called for a part of an egg, because, well, I’m not measuring egg and I wouldn’t be sure what to do with the rest, but that might just be me.

I finally landed on this recipe which is a conglomeration of a few I found out there.

Coffee Mug Chocolate Cake

1/4 cup flour

5 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

dash of vanilla extract and salt

Directions: mix all that together in a large coffee mug:

Microwave it for about 2 1/2 minutes, or until it puffs up.

Your microwave time may vary. I have no idea what kind of microwave I have. It’s square and white if that helps.

I was a little skeptical, but it turned out quite well:

Emergency averted quickly and easily using common household items.

I love fall.

I love the weather, the football and everything that goes with it. But, you know what else I love about fall? It heralds the beginning of “appetizer season”.

I consider appetizer season to begin on Halloween and end on Super Bowl Sunday. During this time, it’s acceptable to count things on toothpicks as dinner, and dip is a food group.

Sausage dip is a great hearty appetizer, and it couldn’t be easier to make with only 3 ingredients. You can keep the ingredients on hand for a reasonable amount of time in case you need a last-minute something to take to a party.

Sausage Dip:

1 lb. pork sausage
2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese (I actually use 1 1/2 packages)
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes

Brown sausage and drain. Add cream cheese:

Now, add the Rotel:

Serve with your favorite chips, but I think Fritos Scoops are the best:

Serve hot, or keep warm in a crockpot. Granted, it’s not much to look at and it will never be mistaken for health food or haute cuisine, but you won’t be sorry if you give it a try!

Warning: it’s very filling. Trust me. I may or may not have had it for dinner tonight.

I’ve been feeling fall-ish and craving muffins lately, but I wasn’t sure what sounded good. I’ve tried blueberry, apple cinnamon and have unenthusiastically gathered recipes for a couple of other kinds. I just wasn’t “feeling it” until I saw this recipe for Pumpkin Muffins from my friend, Miss Zoot.

It really couldn’t be easier, all you need is two ingredients: a 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree and a box of spice cake mix:

Just mix those two things together (you don’t have to make the cake mix, first):

Bake for about 20 minutes at 350, and you get these:

Seriously, that’s it! Once I recover from overdosing on them, I’m sure they’ll be good to keep around the house for cool fall mornings.

Helpful hints (this is what I did, anyway):

1. Make sure you have the oven actually up to 350 (trust me), otherwise, you will have pumpkin blobs and be very puzzled.

2. Fill the muffin cups pretty full, which goes against traditional muffin making wisdom.

3. The batter will be sticky and a little hard to work with, but it’s worth it!

4. It makes 12-16 muffins depending on how big you make them.

5. I hear they’re even better the next day, but I may not be able to find out since they’re going fast.

I love hearing about new, quick food ideas. Do you have any fun, absurdly simple recipes to share? Will you make it for me?