Lucille's Chili

I started this blog anticipating uncovering exciting new recipes, impressing my family with newly learned culinary skills, and expanding my cultural awareness of the foodie world around me.  Yet, here I am again writing about one of my oldie-but-goodie recipes that is just as blog-worthy as a new recipe would be.  What's old hat for me might be a new find for you, so share it I will.

I don't remember how  Heart and Soul: Stirring Recipes from Memphis came to be a member of our cookbook collection, but it is one we often pull out to make a favorite chili recipe:  Lucille's Chili, page 57.

The changes I make to the recipe to give it my own "flair": I use Rotel for the 10-ounce can of diced tomatoes and green chilies. I leave the jalapeno pepper out but you can throw them on top if you like the heat. Instead of kidney beans, I either leave the beans out or add black beans.  I also like to let it cook longer than the 10 minutes the recipe calls for -- it's even better when you let it sit over night and reheat to serve over Tostitos as a taco salad or nachos with the works.

It's a great cookbook. The little Memphis anecdotes and history sprinkled in amongst the recipes make it an interesting read as well.

Potato Soup that's better than O'Charley's!

I've been looking for a potato soup recipe that would top O'Charley's potato soup which has long been my standard for judging potato soups -- until they changed the recipe (or supplier).

I think I've found it. How can you be sure, you ask?

Me: How does it taste?
Husband: Good
Me: Good, Good? or just good?
Husband: I said it was really good.
Me: No. You just said good. You didn't say really good.
Husband: How would you like me to answer the question?

Later, I sit down at the table and try my first bite.

Me: wow, this is good.
Husband: It's better than O'Charley's. My daughter and I exchange shocked looks.
Daughter: Wow. Wait, the old O'Charley's soup or the new one?
Husband: The old one.

Booyah! Before I send you off to try the recipe for yourself, let me tell you what I changed:

1. I used my Food Processorto chop the onion.
2. I forgot to add pepper.
3. I cooked the potatoes longer than "half done" before adding the ingredients. I apparently have an issue with reading directions. I have no problem following them. I just can't seem to read and comprehend them.
4. Because I cooked the potatoes longer than I should have, the soup was thicker than it should have been. I added one to two cups of milk to it at the end to make it creamier.
5. We topped with real bacon and shredded cheddar.
   

The recipe makes a big batch and it's a hearty bowl full. But, not so heavy that you won't want two bowls -- like my husband did.

Enjoy :)

Heartwarming Potato Soup from Cooks.com

My favorite banana bread recipe

Although the goal of this blog was to experiment with untried recipes, I'm posting a banana bread recipe that has been a staple in my family for 40 years. Do you have one of those cookbooks that falls open to your favorite recipe, the pages stained from ingredients dripping on it as you checked the exact measurements every single time you made it? Enjoy :)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream 1 C Sugar with 1/2 C Vegetable Oil

Add 2 well beaten eggs.

Add 3 mashed bananas - the riper the better!

Combine the following and add to the first mixture.

2 C sifted flour 

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking power

1/2 t. Salt

Add 3 tbls of milk and 1/2 C Nuts to the final mixture.

Bake in loaf pan for one hour or until knife in center is clean.

Maybe I should get one of these to put my recipes while I'm baking? It's almost a badge of honor for the recipe, though, proof of how well liked it is. Let me know if you've used one and whether or not you recommend it.

Rachel Ray's Grilled Tomato Stoup with Prosciutto and Mozzarella Portobellos

Tonight's recipe adventure was randomly selected by my daughter from her Rachel Ray 30-Minute Get Real Meals cookbook (page 114). The title  -- Grilled Tomato Stoup with Prosciutto and Mozzarella Portobellos -- threw me at first, so I had to research what exactly a STOUP was. According to Rachel Ray, it's somewhere in between a soup and a stew. The main ingredients are onions, garlic, EVOO, plum tomatoes, bread, chicken stock, portobellos, prosciutto, mozzarella and pesto sauce. Salt, pepper, thyme and crushed red pepper flavor the stoup.

I was VERY apprehensive about this recipe. Grilled tomatoes, eww. Portobello mushrooms, eww. Well, I like mushrooms, but have never tried a portobello that wasn't chopped. It also seemed a little ambitious for a 30-minute ingredients-to-table meal.

I'm definitely getting more acquainted with my food processor with recipes like this. I was very easy to chop the onion and garlic so I could get it in the soup pot with the thyme and red pepper. Grilling the tomatoes and bread, although I hate grilled tomatoes, was a breeze. It was a bit of a challenge for me to manage the portobellos and the stoup (on top of trying to feed two 5-year-olds)but I think it was just the unfamiliar recipe. The food processor finished the job of pureeing the grilled tomatoes and the bread.

The texture of the stoup was thicker than a soup, but not as thick as a stew - just as Rachel Ray suggests. I have plenty of left overs, so I'll probably throw in crackers and cheese for a nice lunch. The portabellos were amazingly simple and quite tasty. I'll definitely make these again.

Overall, I think it took me a little over 30-minutes from start (pick up the onion) to finish (ladle the soup in the bowl). I give it a thumbs up but wouldn't necessarily add it to my list of dinners to repeat. You could easily vegan this recipe using veggie stock instead of chicken and skip the prosciutto. I would definitely skip the pesto sauce, too. I'm tickled to say this turned out to be a success! My hubby says no thank you, though, when I asked if the recipe was a keeper. He won't eat mushrooms and didn't care for the texture of the stoup.

Antique recipe? Pumpkin Cake

I forgot to make the trip to Publix to buy the ingredients for the randomly selected recipe we were going to test next.So, I grabbed an alternate from a group of recipes I've never tried.

In a shadow box in my kitchen, I have a collection of my grandmother's cake recipes. Before my time, my grandmother had a business making cakes for people. She also authored and published at least 10 cookbooks. Some of my most enduring memories of summers as a child were riding in my grandparents car as we traveled around the country to Cracker Barrel stores to sell the cookbooks. I have seen a few for auction on eBay, but I'm quite sure that family are the only who have complete sets. Her cake recipes, though, I've never touched beyond putting them on display in the shadow box. How perfect I thought it would be to try one of those and add it to the blog!

So tonight, we have Pumpkin Cake by Louise Henderson. Written on a 3x5 card and inserted into a plastic sleeve. It has to be over 40 years old. There was no temperature or time on the recipe - something I've seen as a trend on many that she collected. I guessed and tried 350 degrees for 25 or so minutes and used a bundt cake pan.

Results:
Surprisingly very good! The batter seemed heavy for a cake, so I was worried it would turn out more bread-like. It is a little crumbly. However, a cream cheese icing glaze drizzled over it would probably make up for any crumbs.  Definitely worth a try and could be used as a coffee cake substitute.

Pumpkin Cake
1 1/3 c sifted flour
1/2 c shortening
1 c sugar
1 egg beaten
1 1/2 c pumpkin (I used canned)
1 c raisins (the vote was 3-2 for no raisins)
1 c chopped nuts (I insisted)
1 t. soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves

If you try it out, let me know how you like it!
I was shocked to find some of her cookbooks for sale on Amazon:

Giada's Family Dinners: Pepperoncini Shrimp (with pasta)

For our first recipe roulette, I grabbed my husband's Giada's Family Dinners cookbook (see link below) and asked him to pick a number between 1 and 240. He picked 74. On page 74, we found a beautiful picture of grilled shrimp on a plate. Giada and grilled shrimp - you can't go wrong with that, can you?

The recipe was fairly simple: tossing shrimp in a sauce made of finely diced pepperoncini, minced garlic, salt and pepper sauted in olive oil. I chose to grill it on the stove top. Giada didn't specify what to serve the shrimp with, so we tossed the shrimp with spaghetti and olive oil after taking the shrimp off the grill.

Pros: this was very tasty - especially for those who like it a little on the spicy side. It makes a large batch so you'll have plenty for left overs or lots for a large crew.

Cons: The aroma of grilled, minced pepperoncini will clean out your sinuses!!! Definitely grill this OUTSIDE. Unless you have a stuffy head cold.

What I would change:  Stick to the measurements in the recipe. That means measuring the pepperoncini before throwing it into the oil.  Also, I think I'd reserve some of the pepperoncini oil to toss with the shrimp and pasta after grilling it instead of tossing it in the same bowl you tossed the raw shrimp as the recipe suggests. Definitely use deveined, shelled shrimp - but my taste testers wished there were no tails on the shrimp, too.

Overall, this was a big hit with the house. Definitely a keeper. I think it would make a great appetizer too with a sour cream or mayo based dip to go with the shrimp.

Next up - a pick from one of our Rachel Ray cookbooks.