Awesome Cabbage Soup

I get so excited when I try something spur of the moment an then can’t stop eating it! So, I just had to share this RIGHT NOW!

I’ve got some friends like me who hate dieting but like to cook.  They introduced me to the concept of Cabbage soup.  I say concept because you can add most any vegetable combination you like along with the cabbage.  The girls tossed out a few vegetable ideas and I went from there.

Since it is always time to clean out my fridge, this project fit today’s chores.  So below is just as I made it, seat of my pants.

Cabbage Soup

Saute till semi soft –

2 t - 1T oil (I used bacon fat, yum)

1 onion - chopped

6 cloves garlic - minced

2 ½ - 3 c cabbage – chopped (this includes a few outer leaves from some surviving heads in the garden)

½ c leftover cauliflower florets

3 baby carrots – chopped or slice (end of the bag)

Add –

1 quart crushed (canned) tomatoes

1 quart stock (whatever you have on hand – I only had left over juice from canned beans and corn from previous meals hanging out in the freezer – yes, I save everything!)

2 t caraway seeds

1 ½ pound cubed deer steak (I knew it would be tough and that I would remove it before serving. I used it for flavoring as I am out of beef bouillon)

1 – 2 t Soy sauce  (to taste)

1 – 3 t Braggs Liquid Aminos – All Purpose Seasoning (Mineral Broth) or Beef Bouillon (to taste)

½ - 1 t ground Black Pepper (to taste)

Bring to boil – simmer 1 hour

Top with grated cheese of choice

AWESOMENESS !  (to borrow the legendary words of Kung-Fu-Panda)

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I have read recipes that also include Kidney beans, Chickpeas (Garbanzo) and potatoes.  I think sweet potatoes would be a nice addition.  Get creative.  I can imagine much more cauliflower, more carrots, corn and maybe some bell peppers.

~ Cheryl

Let your taste buds speak to me!

In your wildest dreams, what would a $five dollar lunch special consist of?

Hodgepodge Pizza

After an extended breakfast of peppermint patties, dark chocolate kisses, mint 3 musketeers and baby twix’s I was defiantly in need of a some solid starches! 

Hodgepodge pizza as I coined it just this afternoon with its multiple choices satisfies ages from 11 to 53.  The ages are a bit younger in Jen’s household, but I’m pretty sure the ending opinion is the same. Hopefully she will have some pictures to share as well.

Our topping assortment:   (simply add sides of lettuce and tomatoes for your salad)

Monterey Jack Cheese (didn’t buy enough Mozzarella!)

Colby Jack

Doctored Up Spaghetti Sauce

Black Olives

Pineapple (My personal favorite)

Red and Green Bell Peppers

Mushrooms

Sweet Italian Sausage

Pepperoni

A Traditional Pizza Dough  ~~~ with my special touch – at least 1/8 cup chopped fresh GARLIC!  (You can never have too much GARLIC!)

Combine and let foam:

3/4 c warm water

1 t active drive yeast

1 t sugar

Add:

1 t salt

1 T oil

 2 3/4 c flour

1/8 + c Fresh chopped Garlic

Knead 10 min  (our course I have a Kitchen Aide mixer and am totally spoiled…..)

Cover with damp cloth

Let rise in warm place till doubled

Top at will

20min @ 350

This makes a very good but thinner dough.  Kevin and Arthur are used to the heartier grill  I dough during the summer, which also works well in the oven if you want thicker crust. 

Oh, and I’m not Italianed out yet for the year, there are Calzones on the menu for New Years, so stay tuned!

~ Cheryl

Happy Lasagna Day!

I never know what to get Kevin for his birthday.  Choosing the correct tool, both type and brand is just out of my league, and clothes well, his work clothes need replaced or mended regularly…so what I’ve learned since he gave me my first rolling pin……I COOK!  (And or course, I make sure there will be leftovers)

So it was lasagna and salad at our house, then over to Jen’s for Chocolate Cake and singing.  I might also mention that Jen whipped up a very nice batch of homemade “Irish Crème” for Kevin to enjoy on Christmas. (We’ll see if it lasts until New Years….)

Mozzarella

Sweet Italian Sausage

Doctored Store Bought Spaghetti Sauce (as close as you can get w/out canning your own toms)

Lasagna Noodles

Sliced Mushrooms

Ricotta

Eggs

Roasting Pan

Not exactly in that order of course but cover for an hour @ 350, then uncovered for 10 minute, let sit another 10 if they can wait then dig in!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

~ Cheryl

Sugar Buzz

Jen has always done a load of baking at Christmas.  Me not so much. But I remember enjoying making Spritz cookies as a kid with my mother but that was the extent of it.  Cooking before I turned 33 did not interest me; it was solely dependent on the pay off.

Yesterday and the Friday before I spent with Jen at her house building batch after batch of cookies.

I’d discovered neon food coloring a few years back and opted for lime green Spritz Chrisms Trees.   (Very tie-dye fitting I thought)

Then moving away from simple vanilla I switched over to lemon for the hot pink Spritz Poinsettias.  Very cool. Emma got creative giving them blackberry and strawberry preserve centers.

4 batches of chocolate and peanut butter combinations of chip cookies.  Jen got on the bus for Snickerdoodles and Rosetta fritters.  

Our Guest Cook, our friend, Anita, wanted chose  cookies that called for Crazines, but being that we only had fresh frozen cranberries, they spent 3 days prior in the dehydrator.  They came out crumbly.   So frozen ones went into the cookies  and Emma crushed the crumbly ones into cranberry powder that we added with sugar to roll the Snickerdoodles in and dust the Rosetta fritters with.  Awesome.

We fit Gingersnaps in there somewhere!

Jen brewed up a pot of raspberry tea adding a tea ball of the dried cranberries. An exquisite contrast to all of our taste testing! 

It is Sunday now and I am cookied out. 

Oh, I need to mention we wore Santa (Jen) and Elf (me) hats in our sugar buzz haze!! HO HO HO

~ Cheryl

P.S. Jen’s oven runs hot, so we need to back off to 25 degrees……….someone! Help me remember this for next time! 

Jambalaya Muffins & Our Magic Bus

When my husband Kevin and I moved to Georgia from Montana back in ‘95 we ended up living in the modified school bus we made the trip in for 3 months.

During that time I worked as a waitress in a not so upscale fish restaurant at an old boat Marina.

In the bus I had a camper size propane stove that pretty much cooked everything at 400 degrees, a crackpot, my Mom’s old microwave circa late 1970’s, and a toaster oven.  What was left of the 15-foot wooden counterpace that ran almost the length of the bus was my workspace.  No sink. I did dishes inside the Marina we lived behind, courtesy of the restaurant/marina owner.  We slept in our bed that lay just inside the rear end emergency exit door.

This was early November and the weather would be 90 degrees one day and 50 the next. 

Some days I would simply sit and read cookbooks inside the empty warm restaurant.   Being Southern California native, I had never eaten Southern Food.  I started coping recipes. We lived hand to mouth so meals required leftovers and very reasonable ingredient costs.

I’d tried out a good number of muffin recipes, creating a few in the process.  And as it turned out, I would make muffins almost daily in that school bus.  Spice muffins, bran muffins, banana muffins, corn muffins, sausage muffins, yam muffins, herb muffins, and yes, plain muffins. They served well with beans or soup.

I was excited to try Southern food. I was 32 and had a lot to learn.  I don’t know how southern this recipe is, but I did discover it in the Georgia.  LOL

Muffins Jambalaya

Step 1/ Sauté together and set aside ~

3T butter

1/2 c bell pepper

1/2 c onion (green or white)

Step 2/ Mix just until combined ~

1 /14 c flour

1 c corn meal

2 t baking soda

1 t salt

2 eggs

2 c buttermilk (or 2 c milk & 2 T vinegar  - let sit 15 min before using)

dash cayenne

dash paprika

Step 3/ Add Sauté from Step 1

Step 4/ Additions of your choice:

1 c chopped ham or cooked sausage

1 c frozen beans, broccoli or corn

(*Note: add what ever cooked meat or vegetables you like)

 30 minutes @ 400 – makes around 24 muffins

~ Cheryl

Impossible Chicken & Broccoli Pie

Long long before the Internet, I ran across this Bisquick recipe in a magazine.

Quiche with no crust!  Yay! 

I made it for potlucks and family get-togethers when I was single, and numerous times since I met my husband, even more since my son was born. 

When I was single, I enjoyed a glass of wine (or two) when doing my minimal cooking.  This often led to sloppily measured ingredients not always within the perfect parameters of the recipe, generally leading to creative upsizing.

This lovely recipe ‘originally’ calls for a layering of the chicken, cheese and, broccoli first then you pour the milk, egg & Bisquick mixture on top.  For whatever mad reason, I would always feel it never had enough Bisquick so I’d dump the whole thing in to a big bowl, add more then mix.  Next I found myself adding more milk to offset the Bisquick, which would lead to a larger bowls going through this adjusting process again and again until my counter top was spattered and cluttered. 

After using all of my mixing bowls, of course I then needed more than one baking pan. 

Still to my food fortune, whatever consistency I agreed to, it came out wonderful.  And also, it is a good thing this dish freezes well for later meals!

But talk bout doing dishes till dawn!  (Or in the dawn, lol)

the variations of this recipe are endless……ham and broccoli, ham and green beans, cheddar cheese or mixed with mozzarella – and it is not limited to frozen veggies, I often use fresh.

~ Cheryl

Note:   I believe the Bisquick people have re-named it “impossibly easy chicken & broccoli pie”.

…

The Infamous Blue Bowl

Tie-Dye Cooks came into purpose Thanksgiving 2011 at my friend Jennifer’s house. 

Currently we both live in rural Georgia in mobile homes and our husbands are both building us stick built houses. Her kitchen and living room are larger than mine so we decided to share, swap and make new traditions at her house.

After dinner, after several beers I brought up an idea for my new blog – “The Messy Cook” (because I proudly am), and the idea soon evolved into “The Tie-Dye Cooks”.  Jen, her daughter Emma and myself have had several play dates dedicated to doing the Tie-Dye thing from our stained or tossed aside shirts and what-nots.

Soon stories of adventurous cooking became conversation. Immediately Emma ran to the computer and began reciting ingredients from her favorite homespun concoctions. I copied them to my trusty flash drive to later review. 

So to kick off our Blog, I will begin with Emma who is 9 years old and in the 4^th grade. She hasn’t listed measurements of any exact degree, which is fitting, since most of us cook from intuition.

In the picture, of course this is Emma, holding the infamous bowl used in the recipe below, or maybe contemplating a new batch  (after our very filling Thanksgiving meal???) or wondering how to get more her recipes in the blog???   Either way, I proudly present our first one dish meal:

Dip-or-chip    

                                                                                         

Ingredient                                                            How   much

Get a bowl.

Get   taco   meat.                                                Non-spicy.

Now   get    some    sour cream.                      No   les    than     four     big    scoops.

Salsa   mild.                                                         1 big   glob.

Get    black   olives.                                          The    hole     can.

You will   need   cheddar jack    cheese.          Half     of    the     bag.

Put    it   in    for    at    lest    2:00min.                                                                                            

                                                                                                        By: Emma   VanAmburg:)




 ~~~ Cheryl