Eating Waffles

The table counterpart said over dinner last night that chili shouldn't contain tomato sauce or diced tomatoes. Chili should be chili based. What! A thousand years we have been together and chili always has tomato.  Seeking to prove the counterpart wrong,  Tomato Free Chili  was made and promptly modified. Modifications Made: I am not even gonna go there with the modification being listed.  Just hear me out as they are easier to read than type.  To a dutch oven, meat was browned, set aside and drained.  To pot, one small diced yellow onion, one half green, and one half red bell pepper were sauteed.  Meat was added back to pot along with one tablespoon of minced garlic, one tablespoon of chili powder, one teaspoon of comino, and one cup water.  Chili was allowed to simmer for one hour.  Heat turned off and one can well rinsed and drained kidney beans were added. Scaled for Likability: No, Thank You Almost taco meat.  Taco meat with the wro...

Table counterparts are still complaining about the Not Chili Taco Soup not being chili.  What part of NOT CHILI taco soup did they miss?  To ease their complaints, The Best Classic Chili was made.  Besides who can turn down chili.  Its classic. Modifications Made: Nothing.  There is complaint filed against me and my lack of chili cooking. Scaled for Likeability: Good It was a little too saucy for our taste as this table likes thick chili.  Chili you eat with a fork and lose nothing.  Rib sticking chili.  With broth, paste, and sauce, there was just too much liquid.  Either the sauce needed to be left out or the chili needed to be cooked way longer than instructed.  With exception to needing a spoon and crackers to soak up juices, the chili was very good.

Standing in the freezing cold parking lot trying to decide on soups for the next three days leads to rushed choices and inadequate grocery lists. Looking through the list of 40 potential soups to serve Award Winning Cheeseburger Soup  was one of the quickly decided upon soups.  I was skeptical about another cheese soup after Cheesy Potato Soup with Broccoli but this seemed more similar to a T&T cheesy meat dish served over chips than a new soup.  Safety in familiarity, right.   Modifications Made: Recipe was reduced by half.  In case of failure like the broccoli soup, I did not want tons of leftovers. Parsley was omitted.  Cheese was half Velveeta for creaminess and sharp cheddar for taste. Scaled for Likability: Good Maybe if the broccoli soup had been made with Velveeta it would have been better.  Very similar to the meat cheese dip but with color.  The potatoes were almost unnoticeable as compared to the meat and cheese. Next time, the...

There is a fine line between chili and taco meat.  That line is even finer when taco meat in made into an  Easy Taco Soup . Modifications Made: I really did not intend to rewrite this entire recipe.  It just kinda happened.  Here we go... 1 pound hb meat, cooked, well drained 1 medium onion, diced  1 green bell pepper, diced  1/2 red bell pepper, diced 1 jalapeno, diced 1 tablespoon chili powder, heaping 1 teaspoon comino  1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped 1 tablespoon garlic, minced 28 oz petite diced tomatoes  8 oz tomato sauce (frozen from leftover diced tomatoes used for salsa) 7 oz green chilis  8 oz beef broth 8 oz water 1 can pinto beans, rinsed drained  1 can black beans, rinsed drained 1 cup frozen corn 1/8 cup lime juice Instructions: To large dutch oven, add all ingredients from meat to water and allow to simmer on medium low for minimum one hour.  Once flavor developed to taste, turn off heat, add beans/corn/lime juic...

Can't win them all.  With last's night cheesy fail, today I wanted a soup light in stock and chocked full of veggies.   Ginger Garlic Noodle Soup with Bok Choy  fit the bill.  And it was easy to boot! Modifications Made: Thin spaghetti noodles were used instead of rice noodles, sesame seeds were omitted, the entire green onion was added at once, and red pepper flakes were added to the stock instead used as a topping. Scaled for Likability: Grood From first bite, I LOVED this soup.  The table counterparts would gladly eat again but will not actively ask for it. Their loss.  Its garlicy, light, and tangy with a bit of heat from the ginger. Would be good with kale or chard instead of bok choy and would be good without the noodles, too.  My one word of advice, do not skip the star anise.  Its' flavoring is the backbone of this soup.  So good!

Winner, winner, soup dinners.  Four winners in a row and I have decided I am being choosy in my soups to ensure winners.  To vet against my own theory,  Cheesy Potato Soup with Broccoli .  A recipe i have wanted to make for years but could never muster the energy to make.   Cheese based anything if done wrong which is SO, SO easy to do results in an grainy texture.  A texture similar to curdled milk.  Gross, gross, gross.  Having had both good luck and bad luck as cheese bases, I hold no expectations to this soup. Modifications Made: Recipe was reduced by half. Chicken stock was increased to three cups instead of two to add a richer flavor. Due to the increase of chicken stock, salt was omitted. Scaled for Likability: No, Thank You It would have been better to make a creamy potato soup, add cooked broccoli and cheese once cooked.  The cheese did not curdle nor did the broccoli over cook.  This was more of a cheese soup with a smashi...

Three for three on soups, let's keep the streak going.... Last year a corned beef was cooked and when sliced in half to eat, the meat was fatty and tough.  Knowing the meat needed more time to cook but not having the time to put back in the oven, all cooking liquids and cubed corned beef was tossed into a pot along with whole carrots, halved potatoes, and quartered cabbage.   Today a huge corned beef was cooked for sandwiches and soup.  Not wanting full size veggies in my soup, I looked for cooking guides from  Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup  and then chose  Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup  for its simplicity. Modifications Made: Meat was cooked as instructed per package instructions.  Once done it was set aside to cool. To large dutch oven, carrots/diced yellow onion were sauteed till soft.  Garlic/cabbage/potatoes/cooking liquid from corned beef/two bay leaves were added.  Soup was cooked on low until veggies just barley fork tender....

Five days into the Month of the Soup.  Two soups served, one old, one new, both winners.  Wonder if  Hearty Ground Turkey Soup with Vegetables  will keep the winning streak? Modifications Made: Bacon omitted.  What?  I know, how unlike me.  Chicken feta sausage for the ground turkey.  Spinach omitted.  Crimini mushrooms replaced instead.  One tablespoon garlic and three tablespoons of flour added. To a large dutch oven, chicken sausage was browned whole.  Once cooked, links were set aside.  To fat, onions, carrots, and mushrooms were added and quickly soften.  Garlic was added along with flour.  Flour was allowed to evenly coat veggies and slightly brown before chicken stock was added (yes, from cubes).  Cooked bits were scrapped off, sausage was halved, diced, and returned to stock along with one cup frozen zucchini and three cups diced potatoes.  A dash of red pepper flakes, one teaspoon of black pepper , ...

Couple of days ago a wild pork shoulder was BBQ and served with potato rolls and a cold bean and corn salad.  Everything on that meal turned out just fabulous, like I knew how to cook.  There was just enough leftover pork for two sandwiches but not three, even if served with sides.  Needing a meal to use up the pork and enhance its flavorings, a  Healthy Pulled Pork Soup  was served. Modifications Made: Recipe was halved.  Stock was a combination of two cups chicken broth, two cups beef broth, both from a bouillon cube.  Zucchini was omitted. One tablespoon of minced garlic and one cup uncooked risotto was added.  Cubed leftover BBQ pork replaced shredded pork. Scaled for Likability: Great The table counterpart worried the entire time the soup gently cooked that the final results were going to be overly smoky.  And by the smell of the soup, I was worried myself, too.  However, once the soup flavors cooked together, the smoke was only not...

Three winters ago it was cold and miserable for weeks on end.  Inspired by the bone chilling days, lots of soul warming soups were made.  Most were T&T recipes but the one soup that stood out the most was Front Seat Pozole.  At the beginning of the cold snap a cauldron of Pozole Rojo was made.  It took all day to prepare, required new and interesting ingredients never cooked with before, and it smelled fantastic.   Smelled being the keyword in the description.  Pozole Rojo tasted horrible.  Bitter, almost rancid.  An entire cauldron soup containing three pounds of pork shoulder and one #10 can of hominy wasted.  Completely inedible.   Not having garbage day for a week, the entire pot was placed in the front seat of the truck for safekeeping against critters and to open up space in the fridge for more soup.  Good soup.  With temperatures not above upper 30's for a week, the soup sat in the truck and chilled. ...

The Month of ________. What a fabulous idea. 12 months, 12 selected food items, a minimum of 156 new recipes. Soups are a combinations of veggies, meats, and grains in a savory stock  served warm (or usually too hot to eat at my table) but never cold.  According to Wiki, "s oups are similar to stews,  and in some cases there may not be a clear distinction between the two; however, soups generally have more liquid (broth) than stews".  Today's soups are as distinctive as the region they originate from and I can only image how simple the soup was served way back in 20,000 B.C. Below is the list of soup dishes. Each dish is linked to its corresponding recipe.  If it is a new recipe, the link will be  BLUE . If it is a previously used recipe from this blog, the link will be  GREEN . If it is self explanatory or does not contain a recipe, it will be uncolored (black). February 1: Front Seat Pozole  February 2: Front Seat Pozole with Toppings February 3...

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 ...

  As an adult, have you ever stumbled across a beloved treat way back from when you were a child?  Do you stand there and let the yummy memories flood back?  Or do you snatch up said treat to relive those memories again?  If you do, are the current treats ever as good as the memory treats? Today in the grocery store was one of those days.  Walking the same chip isle I have walked thousands and thousands of time, there on the top shelf in the same orange juice style can were  Pik Nik Shoestring Potatoes . Some processed foods are not worth the effort to make at home.  They are just fabulous the way they are.  With the Month of the Potato wrapping up, I could not let the teen not experience a food of my youth.   Scaled for Likability: Great Yum.  What else is there to say?

Nothing says love like homemade dinner rolls.  Especially when they are  Soft & Fluffy One Hour Dinner Rolls .  And really, if they failed it only just an hour or so wasted, not half the day. Modifications Made: None.  Maybe one day when I am more comfortable with all things yeast I will chance some changes.  Until then, stick to the letter... Scaled for Likability: Great Oh, the flavor, the butter, the texture, the butter, the softness, the butter, the airiness, the butter.  Did I mention the butter.  You can literally see the butter in the bottom of the cast iron skillet.  Once all rolls were consumed, there was not a drop of butter left. The recipe states 12 rolls but I miss counted and only made eight. They would be have been better as 12 rolls but they were still amazing as eight.  Twelve would have offered an even more fluffy roll instead these were slightly heavier than desired.  Yet no one complained.  Until desert that ...

When life gives lemons, make lemonade.  When life gives mushy apples, make applesauce.  No recipe was followed as it was simply a chop and cook. Scaled for Likability: Good Some of the apples cooked down to sauce, others stayed chunky.  The sauce had good flavor but the texture was not correct.  Served over homemade potatoes pancakes, the sauce was just right.  When made again, I would like to use slightly green apples to maintain a full chunk texture and I would like to use a sweeter apple instead of a hodgepodge of back of the drawer apples.

My hometown has food festivals all year round.  One around Easter, another in summer, and a third in October.  Foods celebrate the various ethnics cuisines, Mexican, German, Polish, and Cajun to name just a short few.  One of my favorite October festival foods are potato pancakes.  They were to die for. I'd eat two or three servings with cold, cold applesauce and just a hint of cinnamon.  German Kartoffelpuffer (Potato Pancakes)  seemed like the perfect example of memories. Modifications Made: A teaspoon of cinnamon and a tablespoon of sugar were added to the batter. Scaled for Likability: Great The pancakes needed to be a little thinner to maintain a nice crunch all the way through but the flavor and texture of the potatoes were spot on.  If I would make one tip to any new makers, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze the potatoes dry.  

Enchilada Casserole is a staple.  It is a great way to use leftover taco meat when there is not enough taco meat for tacos and too much taco meat for one taco.  It has all the same great flavors of meat enchiladas but in a casserole.   Two different chicken enchilada casseroles have been made with green sauce but none with red sauce. Tonight, the same concept for meat enchilada casserole was used with chicken instead of beef.   Scaled for Likability: Good It is not the fault of the chicken or the chicken enchilada casserole.  I just prefer enchilada casserole to plain cheese or meat.  Usually just plain cheese The chicken was tender, flavorful, and combined well with the pepper jack cheese and black beans.  Sweet corn would have been a great addition to the casserole along with some sharp cheddar cheese.

Rummaging around at the bottom on the pantry drawer usually leads to things like half eaten cookies stored in a ziplock bag for "later", granola bars gone hard or soft depending upon original state, and odd and ends from various bite size candies.  A whole bag of pre-shelled pistachios is a never find.  When bags of nuts are bought it is a first come, first serve unless otherwise designated for a specific recipe.  Wanting to spread the wealth of this find cookies were the best option.   Shortbread Pistachio Cookies  vs Pistachio Drop Cookies .  Drop vs rolled.  Chopped vs whole.  Icing or no icing.  So many decisions.  It was the chill time of the shortbread cookies that made the drop cookies the winner.  This time. Modifications Made: Recipe, including the icing, was halved. Scaled for Likability: Good They looked just the like the pictures from the original post!  Just. Like. The. Pictures.  I was so, so excited and...

Whole Boiled Sliced Potatoes were served with dinner two nights ago.  They were good but not really what I had in mind when the side dish was created.  With two remaining whole boiled potatoes in the fridge, tonight a second attempt was made with a completely different method. Ingredients: Two cold whole boiled potatoes, sliced thin Bacon grease Instructions: To warmed bacon grease (enough to fully cover the bottom of cast iron skillet) potato slices were lined without touching and fried crisp.  Once flipped and fried to a golden brown on the second side, the potatoes were placed on a cookie cooling rack (to allow to cool without becoming soggy) and sprinkled with salt. Scaled for Likability: Good Better but still not what I had in mind.  These are crispy on the outside but they are still dry on the inside.  Am beginning to think the potatoes were over boiled to start with....

All I needed was a medium can of hominy.  All that was available had was a small can and #10 can of hominy, of course.  The 15 oz can was literally two dollars and three cents more. So what does the money conscience person do, buy the can as big as your head and figure out what to make with the rest. Yesterday it was Hominy Hash , my new favorite meal.  Today it is  Turkey and Hominy Chili with Smokey Chipotle . Modifications Made: Recipe was reduced by half.  This was another recipe with the oddest cooking instructions.   To large Dutch oven, onion/red & green bell pepper/jalapeno were sautéed till soft.  Turkey was added and browned.  Garlic, chili powder, one chipotle in adobo, and two cups tomato juice were added along with one HEAPING teaspoon of comino.  Chili was cooked on low for 30 minutes.  Add one can drained kidney beans, two cups hominy, handful of diced cilantro, cook for additional 15 minutes adding water if ...

I'm on a quest for the best homemade tortillas. Softest White Flour Tortillas  made with lard, yes lard, not shortening or butter or oil. Modifications Made: 2 cups flour  1/4 cup potato flakes 3/4 tsp salt 4 tablespoons lard, not butter 1/2 cup+ 1% milk, warm, not water To a stand mixer, flour, flakes and salt were combined.  Lard was added until fully incorporated.  Warm milk was added and allowed to mix for three to five minutes.  Dough rested for one hour before rolled. Scaled for Likability: Great These by far are the best tortillas to date.  They have chew without being chewy, they have spring but still tearable, and they have a great flavor without being overly oily. Next time, additional salt and lard will be added.

Yesterday in the making of Sweet, too many potatoes were boiled.  Thinking I was gonna make leftover potato dumplings, they were just tossed in the fridge as soon as they cooled.  Tonight, I had no intentions of working that hard for dumplings so instead the potatoes were sliced thickly and pan fried in a garlic butter/oil mixture. Scaled for Likability: Good For a first time off the hip recipe these were not bad.  They were like large bites of baked potato.  Not what I had in mind.  Tomorrow, since yes there are still leftover whole boiled potatoes, the slices will be thinner, fried in just oil/bacon grease, and a heavy garlic butter sauce will be poured on top as soon as they are done.

After having succeeded in making the most perfect of perfect scalloped potatoes, tonight I decided to try and make Great-Grandma's  German Potato Salad .  Of course, this is not her recipe as her recipe was in her head, this was as close as anybody could remember. Modifications Made: None. Scaled for Likability: Great Great-Grandma would never have served hot potato salad over a bed of Rocket greens nor along side a side salad but these were ever as good as hers.  And since time has erased the taste from my tongue, these are now going to be referred to as Great-Grandma's German Potato Salad.  The only change needed is to exchange apple cider for white vinegar.  Apple cider is just too much for this table's taste.

One of my favorite dishes as a child my grandmother made was scalloped potatoes.  They were buttery, creamy, not excessively cheesy, with a crunchy top layer and outsides and soft, tender insides.   Scalloped Potatoes  seemed like the perfect example to recreate this dish.   Modifications Made: Yellow onion not white onion, low sodium chicken stock not water, whole milk not reduced fat, and dried thyme not fresh.  Recipe was reduced by half to fill am 8x8 pan, Scaled for Likability: Great Oh. my. goodness.  This was blissful.  Served with a side of garlic chard it was a perfect, filling meal.  No meat was needed.  Some of the changes for next time would be a dash of Hungarian paprika and a pinch of white pepper for some extra heat. Edit Jan 23, 2021: Leftovers were warmed in the microwave.  While still very yummy, the outside layer did lose its perfect crunchy edge.

Leftover bags of tots and fries do not bode well in the freezer.  They get bogged down with ice and become soggy and unusable.  Not wanting to waste a quarter bag of tater tots, the remaining tots were fried and tossed in cinnamon sugar mixture. Scaled for Likability: No, Thank You Crunchy, salty, sweet.  Should have been great but it wasn't.  The teen loved them, of course, it was sugar.

Somewhere over the last year a tater tot casserole was attempted (no pics taken) along tot nachos ( Totchos ). Both were different from anything this table had ever eaten, even as a kid when casseroles where popular. Tonight the two were combined for Mexican Tot Casserole.  Instructions: Over freshly fried tots, a handful of shredded cheese, a spoonful of taco meat, and half spoonful of black beans were added along pico de gallo and salsa. Scaled for Likability: Great I don't think I would make this as a bake but as a freshly piled mess of good stuff, this was fabulous.  Not there are ever fresh tots laying around but if there was, this would be made again.

Waffles are the best when they are fresh and warm, crunchy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside.   Steve's Loaded Potato Waffles  are not waffles, they are sog dogs. Modifications Made: Cheese, bacon, and green onions were omitted.  One tablespoon of brown sugar was added to mixture. Scaled for Likability: No, Thank You Great in flavor.  Soggy in texture.

Dinner and dessert.  This is a terrible habit to get into but 20+ years of programming is hard to overcome.  I mean seriously, the habit is started as soon as a child enters daycare or schooling.  Wanting to break out of the habit of sugar right before bed, Stewed Apple Oatmeal was served instead.   Ingredients: Two Granny Smith apples, diced One tablespoon of brown sugar One teaspoon cinnamon Half teaspoon ginger Three servings cooked oatmeal Instructions: Cook apples, cinnamon, and ginger in a heavy saucepan on low simmer until apples are fork tender.  Spoon steaming apples over warm oatmeal. Scaled for Likability: Great Sweet, filling, fibrous dessert.  Oatmeal was cooked in milk but this would have been great even if the oatmeal had been cooked in plain water.  One word of advice, cook extra as seconds will be wanted.

The internet is full of endless recipes, some new, some old, some exciting, some garbage. Pictures are modified and recipes don't always match what's seen. Instructions are lengthy, vague, or missing major steps and minor details. There are times when the recipe is an instant winner, could be a winner, or was written as a winner fabricator. Cooking decisions are based upon gut instinct like this Chicken Stew  where the pictures don't match the video and the instructions leave too many variables.  Modifications Made: Small whole chicken cooked and deboned.  Chicken broth was reduced to five cups and set aside.  Rosemary, sage, and sweet potatoes, red pepper, and white wine were omitted.  Russet were swapped for gold potatoes. Scaled for Likability: Good For all the work this was just chicken pot pie in a soup.  Nothing spectacular but it was warm and filling.

One of the teen's new favorite meals is Opa's Goulash .  When requested last night, the request was to "serve the goulash good stuff over taters not pasta".  Well sure, why not. Modifications Made: Opa's goulash recipe was followed to the point of adding the noodles.  At that point, the meat and veggies were allowed to cook further on low while a big batch of extra buttery, garlic mashed potatoes were made. Scaled for Likability: Great Serving over mashed potatoes completely changed this meal.  Meat and veggies retained a certain amount of liquid from the lack of noodle starch creating its own gravy for the potatoes.  The only draw back was the meat and veggies did not go as far as when served with the noodles premixed.  Both table counterparts had an unequal portion of meat to potatoes.  If needing to maintain a budget friendly meal, stick to the noodles.