Lunchroom Beef Stroganoff

Spring Break! Most people think of trips to the lake or the beach or to some amusement park for fun filled week celebrating the coming of warmer days and just a few weeks of the school year left. This table and its counterparts spent it with family. Yeah a full size kitchen with five mouths to feed three meals a day for three days. Can't wait. Yesterday it was Italian, tonight in honor school cafeteria foods, Classic Beef Stroganoff. Tomorrow a soup.

Modifications Made:
Two onions seemed like way too many onions so one large onion was used instead. Beef broth was made from a Knorr cube and additional salt was reduced to offset the salty broth cube. Worcestershire sauce was doubled. Sour cream was reduced to 8 ounces. To offset the sour cream, 1/4 cup of extra flour was added along with one cup of milk. An entire bag of wide egg noodles were cooked instead of three cups.

Instructions have the entire meal cooked in less than 30 minutes. Knowing full well meat cooked this quick would be tough, two cups of extra water were added to mixture and allowed to cook on low for close to an hour. Every ten minutes or so, the mixture was stirred, checked for salt and pepper and sauce thickness.

Scaled for Likability: Great
Not to my recollection have I ever made real from scratch homemade Beef Stroganoff. Why? I always assumed it was too much work. Expect for the time it takes to cook, the meal was fairly simple to cook. Reducing the sour cream was not noticed and if made again would be stay reduced as the full cup and half would be too much.

Next time, the additional flour would be browned for more flavor instead of just added as a flour/broth mixture. Also, a key step to a better meat strip would be thinner cuts and cut into bite size pieces.

Papas a La Mexicana (Ranchera)

It is a crying shame that there are six hens and not a egg in sight. What am I supposed to do with homemade ranchero sauce? Thankfully with a few quick searches of the internet a recipe from my hometown newspaper was discovered: Papas Ranchera . Not once in the thirty years I lived in my hometown did I ever eat at a local food joint serving papas rancheras. No time like the present to remedy this cultural dish. Because this recipe is hidden behind a paywall (grrr...) I have included it here for you: Servings: 4-6 Ingredients: 1 pound potatoes, diced 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 large onion 1 1/2 medium tomatoes 3 jalapenos 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup juice from canned tomatoes Instructions: Fry potatoes in vegetable oil until lightly browned (about 4-6 minutes). Saute onions, tomatoes, jalapenos until soft. Add garlic powder and salt. Add tomato juice until vegetables are covered (may need to add water). Bring to a boil and then add po...

Better Than Campbell's Old Fashion Vegetable Soup

Went to the store with the hopes of gathering fresh produce for soup. With more than 45 people in line for two packages of any meat product and the produce section containing only avocado, orange, and most randomly, strawberries, I settled upon canned soup. Well not canned soup since that section was still void of food, too. Instead soup made from canned goods as the canned vegetable section had been mostly restocked. Soups like this 15 Minute Vegetable Soup are ideal in dire food situations such as current times. Modifications Made: Plain petite diced tomatoes omitted, frozen carrots instead of canned, green beans and corn undrained, peas omitted (gross, nasty little pods), one cup celery, three cups diced potatoes, one can tomato sauce, two beef and two pollo de tomate bouillon cubes, six cups water. Once onions were softened, carrots/celery/potatoes/juice of green beans and corn, sauce, bouillon cubes, water were added and allowed to simmer until carrots almos...

Sour Cream & Chive Scalloped Potatoes

Can't believe the Month of the Potato is over. There are so many more potato recipes saved. Guess I will have to work them into another month. Last week's scalloped potatoes were one of the best new recipes during the month of potatoes. With today being the last day in the Month of Potatoes, I decided to go out with a bang by cooking another batch of scalloped potatoes but this time sour cream and chive. The Best Scalloped Potatoes , or so they said. Modifications Made: Recipe was reduced by half. Mayo was omitted and one entire package of chives were chopped and added to sauce before pouring onto layers. Scaled for Likability: Good Betty Crocker Sour Cream and Chive Box Scalloped Potatoes were the standard for this recipe. These were a family favorite for years but have long since been discounted. Bummer. Trying to replicate this seemed easy enough. Alas, it was not. These had a nice texture but were too oily from the cheese ...

Eating Waffles

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