Cooking with KP: February 2021

Cauliflower Gratin

I found the original recipe for this dish at Campbell Soup. I have made a few adjustments and we find it delicious. It is easy and filling. You will mix everything in the casserole dish. It is great side dish and perfect holiday dish.

1 medium head of cauliflower, cleaned and cut into florets

4 strips of bacon, fried and crumbled

1 clove garlic, minced

1 can cream of mushroom soup (cream of celery can be substituted)

1/2 cup milk

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (Campbell's called for Swiss), divided

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a casserole dish with vegetable spray. Stir in soup, milk, garlic, pepper, and 1/2 cup of cheese until soup is well-blended. Add florets and toss to fully cover each. Top with the remaining 1/2 cheese and bacon crumbles. Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour or until cauliflower is tender.

Note: You can use a mixture of broccoli and cauliflower as well.

Italian Olive and Onion Bread

I found this recipe online, and made a few adjustments. It is a great quick bread that can be made in a loaf or as a large round.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning blend
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1/4 cup each chopped pitted green and ripe (black) olives

Preheat oven to 350°. In a skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook and stir until tender, 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.
In a large bowl, whisk flour, rosemary, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk eggs, buttermilk, and melted butter until blended. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in 1/4 cup cheese, olives, and onion.
Transfer to a greased 8x4-in. loaf pan. Bake 40-45 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 5-10 minutes longer. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.

Italian Meatball Soup

My mother and my oldest sister often made meatball soup. Of course, they made their own meatballs, and you can as well, but this version, which is amazing, using frozen Italian meatballs. This soup is great with the Italian Onion and Olive bread I have posted on this blog as well.

1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ½ pounds meatballs frozen or homemade
8 cups beef broth
28 ounces diced tomatoes undrained
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning blend
1 cup tomato sauce
½ teaspoon pepper
1 14.6 ounce can of Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 bay leaf
1 cup dry elbow pasta or ditalini pasta
2 cups frozen vegetables
Parmesan cheese to top

In a large pot, sauté onions, garlic, and parsley in olive oil until almost translucent. Add beef broth, canned tomatoes, Italian seasoning blend, bay leaf, and pepper. Bring to a boil and pour in tomatoes, tomato sauce, and meatballs. Return to a boil, reduce to medium high heat. Place lid on pot and let cook 15-20 minutes. Add beans and frozen vegetables. Let simmer for 30 minutes. Add pasta, stir to blend, cover, and let simmer for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve. Lightly sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top of hot bowls of soup and enjoy.

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Cheaper Cuts of Beef Don't Have To Be Tough

Most people avoid the cheaper cuts of beef because they tend to be tough. With 8 children and three adults in our home, my mother had to find ways to tenderize the cheaper cuts of beef. One way to cook "down", as my mother used to say, a tough cut of beef steak is to season both sides of the steak with garlic powder, seasoned salt and pepper. Lightly brown the steak in a large skillet and on top add a diced green bell pepper, medium onion, a bay leaf, parsley flakes, a few dashes of Worchestershire sauce, and a can of diced tomatoes. Cover with lid. Let the steak simmer for 30-50 minutes. Remove lid and thicken juices by cooking 5-10 more minutes. You can also do the same with a cheap beef roast in a crock pot. Add all the ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. The flavor is simple, amazing and great with mashed potatoes.

Fall Vegetables for a Healthy You

As the fall approaches, we will all start to stay indoors more hours. This will lessen our vitamins, such as vitamin A, D, and K, which are enhanced by sunlight. Below are a few vegetables you might want to increase in your diet as the fall and later winter days approach. Besides, they are very tasty. In fact, in the next few weeks, I will be posting recipes that incorporate many of these delicious veggies.

Sweet potatoes and yams are very rich in carotenoids, vitamins A, B6, C, potassium, iron and fiber and are delicious when baked and eaten plain (without butter) or used in soups, casseroles or stir-fries.

Bell peppers are great sources of potassium, manganese, fiber and vitamins A, B, C and K. These sweet peppers are flavorful additions to salads and healthy stir-fries. You can choose from a rainbow of colors, including: green peppers,yellow peppers, orange peppers,and red peppers.

Summer and winter squash are rich in carotenoids, vitamins A and C, potassium, magnesium and fiber and can be served alone or added to many dishes.

Just a few tips for you...

Spray your Tupperware with nonstick cooking spray before pouring in tomato- based sauces. No more stains!

Use lifesavers candy to hold candles in place on your next birthday cake! Kids love them.

Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugarcone to prevent ice cream drips!

Zap garlic cloves in the microwave for 15 seconds and the skins slip right off!

If your celery begins to wilt in the fridge, fill a large cup half full of water and place celery in the cup. Put back in the fridge for two hours--it will be crisp. (Learned this from my mother).

Cooking Myth Busted

A Potato Can Save a Salty Soup or Stew. True or False? False. "This is an attractive idea, but it doesn't work because potatoes are not particularly absorbent," says Wolke, who conducted his own soup-and-potato experiment for his Cooking Myth Busters book. "There is no reason they would attract salt." If you remove the raw potato from the soup, the potato will taste salty, but so would a sponge — it has simply soaked up some of the salty liquid. Still, there is hope for salty stews: Adding a bit of vinegar or sugar can "cancel out" the saltiness by giving your taste buds competing flavors.

Super Moist Turkey

If you are looking for a way to get a moist turkey, you might try one of these family hints:

1--bake the turkey upside down--breast down for the first half of the cooking time. It will help the darker meat cook more thoroughly and the fatty juices of the darker meat will drip down to the breast and add moistness. Use a deep roasting pan for this.

2--bake the turkey with the breast up, but rub it with butter, garlic powder and pepper only. Do not salt the skin. Instead, mix salt in a cup of warm water and pour that cup of salted warm-not hot-water inside the cavity of the turkey. The salt water will steam up into the turkey, making it very moist.

3. bake the turkey with the breast up and slice two lemons and one orange in halves. Place the halves inside the seasoned turkey and the juices will steam into the meat, adding moisture and flavor.

Hint of the Week

Here is something I learned from my wonderful Mother, the greatest cook I have ever known. When you have just a small serving of cooked vegetables leftover from dinner, don't throw them away. Keep a large plastic container in the freezer and put the vegetables in the container. Mix them--carrots, corn, green beans, broccoli, etc. When the container is full make a pot of soup or stew. Also, if a recipe calls for 1/2 a chopped onion, chop the whole onion and add the half to the freezer container. My mother made the best vegetable soups from this idea.

Hint for the Week

With Fourth of July quickly approaching, you might be thinking of making Deviled Eggs. If you want perfectly boiled eggs, place eggs in a large pot and completely cover with cold water. Do not layer eggs on top of one another. Bring water to a rapid boil for 2 minutes, reduce to simmer and let eggs simmer 8 minutes, return to boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and empty hot water and fill pot with cold water. Let sit for 5 minutes. To peel easily, slightly crush shell in your fist and roll on counter with a firm grip. Of course, you don't want to push through the egg, but by making the shell crack in many small pieces, it is easier to peel. My father saw this on a cooking show years ago and taught me this. It truly works.