I am not a big user of soup mixes – but I really like the Pasta Fagioli recipe from Bean Cuisine.
1 Bean Cuisine Ultima Pasta Fagioli Mix
1 1/2 onions diced and fried, or 3/4 cup Barista (Fried onions)
1 1/2 cups carrots, chopped
1 stalk of leek, cut in half and then in 1/2″ slices
3 tsp garlic puree
7 1/2 cups water
2 Tbsp Beef Base
1 tsp salt
14 ox. can diced Italian tomatoes (used Dei Fratelli with herbs and olive oil)
Add all to a large soup pot and cook for three hours.
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
3 Tbsp cornstarch
4 Tbsp soy sauce
Mix cornstarch and soy sauce, and marinate chicken in it for 15 minutes. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon before cooking.
2 Tbsp peanut oil
1/2 lb. broccoli, cut into small bite-sized pieces
1 medium onion, halved and sliced
1/4 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 cups bean sprouts, rinsed well
1 cup chicken broth
Heat oil to medium-high, and stir fry chicken until browned. Remove and add broccoli and onion. Stir fry for 2 more minutes. Add mushrooms, sprouts, chicken, chicken broth and remaining marinade and cook five minutes.
Serve over rice.
My daughter Maya learned this recipe from my Mom and it’s really her recipe, too. Maya used to bake a lot with my Mom and has become a pretty amazing baker.
1/2 cup egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups moist, shredded coconut
Beat whites until very stiff, gradually beating in the sugar, salt and vanilla. Blend in coconut gently, and drop the batter by tablespoons onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, or a clean paper grocery bag cut to fit.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Yum!
This recipe came out of “Louisiana Real and Rustic” and I have a note on the page: Bam! It was when the Food Network was new and Emeril was big, big news. We loved watching Emeril cook and on a visit to New Orleans in 1999, Kumy and I treated ourselves to a fabulous multi-course dinner sitting at the coveted counter of one of Emeril’s restaurants. The cooks used Emeril’s famous “throw the salt on the pan from far away” trick, although they didn’t yell “Bam!” – but it was still fun to watch.
I know that some people use lima beans or other beans to make this, but I love red beans. It’s worth it to use red beans you soak yourself if you have the time, but comes out pretty good using canned beans, too. I must have made this for Mardi Gras, 2001, according to the name.
Soak 1 lb. red beans overnight in water, drain and set aside.
(Or use 4 cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained. We don’t get the red beans they use in New Orleans in Nebraska, but kidney beans work fine.)
1 tsp oil
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped peppers (I often use more – 1 cup, because I love peppers.)
1/2 cup celery (Again, I often use more because I love celery.)
1 tsp salt
1/4 – 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp dried thyme leaves (I often use more because, well, you know.)
Heat oil in a dutch oven and saute veggies and spices for 5 minutes.
4 bay leaves
1 lb. turkey ham or regular ham cut into cubes
6 oz. smoked sausage, cut in half and sliced into 1/4″ thick pieces
Add bay leaves and meat and saute 5 more minutes.
Beans
3 Tbsp chopped garlic
8-10 cups water
Add beans, garlic and water and stir well. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer two hours. Use a spoon to mash about 1/2 of the beans against the side of the pot. Add water if the mix gets too dry. Cook 1 1/2 more hours. Check the seasoning and serve with rice. You don’t want the red beans too dry – you’ll want to sop up all the broth with some crusty french bread.
This makes a simple, yet really lovely cake. It’s moist, spicy and very apple-y. (Not sure that’s a word.) It also comes out of the oven with a crunchy, spicy top.
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup softened butter
1 egg
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 cups apples, cored and chopped
Preheat oven to 325.
Blend sugar, butter and egg in a medium bowl until smooth and creamy. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl and add to sugar, butter and egg mix. Stir gently until fairly smooth. Add apples and toss gently with the dough (it’s quite thick and sticky.) Turn out into an 8×8 baking dish and bake for 35 minutes.
From the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, with small variations.
3 cups cooked rice
2 cups torn spinach or baby spinach
1 tsp dried parsley
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp Barista (fried onions)
1/3 cup grated gruyere cheese, divided
Mix all together, saving about half the cheese. Put in a pie pan, sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
1 1/2 lb ground beef
3/4 cup soft bread crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp dry parsley
1 tsp garlic puree
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Mix all together. It’s sometimes easier to mix this with your hands,but can be really cold! Form small balls and fry in a little olive oil. Add to spaghetti sauce and serve over pasta.
I sometimes make my meatballs into little meat patties because I’m too impatient to wait and cook them on all sides. Tastes just the same and cooks quicker.
You can also just drop them into the spaghetti sauce without frying them and let them cook in the sauce. Just make them really small. (My friend Connie’s Mom, Mary used to make meatballs that way and she is Italian – so it must be legit.)
My grandmother used to make amazing banana bread and this is a version of her recipe. She always mashed the bananas and left them out on the counter for a little while so they darkened up a bit, leaving lovely little brown streaks in the baked bread. She loved to bake and always brought several dozen cookies with her in coffee cans when she would come to visit.(Coffee cans were the container of choice before tupperware.)
My mother, who was a wise and kind woman, would then let us kids sit at the breakfast table with glasses of milk and eat as many cookies as we wanted. I suppose she let us get it our of our systems, which would cut down on begging for cookies later on. Thanks, Mom! Just one more way you were the best mother in the world.
One time when I was 16, Grandma asked me if I wanted cookies, and I said no, I’d better not – too much sugar and fat for me. She was stunned and said with complete sincerity, “Oh, no – cookies are good for you!” Yes, Grandma they were.
1/4 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3 bananas, very ripe, mashed with a fork
1 1/2 tbsp sour cream or plain yoghurt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
Mix very well in a big bowl.
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Blend in a small bowl and gently stir into banana mixture. Add 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans if you like.
Pour batter into 2 greased loaf pans, or one larger baking pan (shown above). Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. If the middle of the bread is still very liquidy bake a little longer.
My notes say, Ali loves this – he ate one whole loaf himself !- 2-16-01 (He was 13.)
Does anyone ever make this anymore? It was a food group when we were growing up!
But with 7 people in the family, it was a quick, delicious casserole that fed a lot of people. Recipes like this that called for a can of mushroom soup are legendary, and they often included a packet of Lipton’s onion soup mix. But they were tasty!
1 9-oz bag wide egg noodles
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 can tuna in spring water, drained
1 can Campbell’s golden mushroom soup
1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/8 barista (fried onions) In this case you could use french fried onions.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Cook noodles in salted water according to package directions, adding peas for the last minute of cooking. Drain. In an ovenproof skillet, mix everything else, and heat for five minutes until warmed through. Add the noodles and peas and gently mix. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Can top with extra onions before baking.
Now let’s go watch “The Waltons!”
Chicken Qorma is like Chicken Curry. Ali and I made this several times and perfected the recipe on 9-12-04.
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, and 2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 onions, very thinly sliced, or 2/3 cup barista (Pre-fried onions)
1/4 cup or 2 Tbsp oil
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin powder
1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp crushed ginger
1 1/2 cup plain yoghurt, stirred very well
3/4 cup water
Mix all spices with the 2 Tbsp water and set aside. If you are using fresh onions, add the oil to a dutch oven and fry onions until golden brown. Then follow recipe as shown below. (You don’t need to add more oil.)
If you are using Barista, heat 2 Tbsp oil in a dutch oven, and saute garlic and ginger for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the spice mix in water and fry for a couple more minutes. Add the barista (if you are using fresh onions, they will already be in the pan.) Add the chicken and stir to coat it with flavoring. Then add yoghurt and water and stir well. Cook 20 – 30 more minutes until chicken is done. Serve over rice cooked with peas.
This dish is even better the second day. It may seem like a lot of oil, but the all the good flavor of the spices is soaked into the oil and you won’t want to miss a drop! Barista is onions that are already fried, and have quite a bit of oil in them already. They are not french-fried onions – rather they are just onions fried to a very gold brown.
Little Brown Cookbook 