Cabbie’s Cooking

It cold and rainy here in middle Tennessee. I’m recovering from some type of respiratory ailment, and RT is only a couple weeks away from his battle with a more aggressive respiratory bug. Last weekend I made chili. This weekend is made for a big pot of chicken soup. Following my new resolution, I will photograph as I go. However, as I was chopping the onions, peppers and celery, I figured I might as well make meatloaf at the same time - since I’d bought several packages of lean ground beef yesterday for that specific purpose. Chopping the vegetables is the most labor-intensive part of cooking these dishes. By the time I’m finished, I’ll have at least five meals in the freezer for later on, in addition to tonight’s soup and tomorrow’s mealoaf. The recipe for the meatloaf will follow this post.

Homemade Chicken Soup

Cabbie’s Homemade Chicken Soup

1 pkg chicken breasts (boneless, skinless, approx. 1 lb.)
1 pkg. chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, approx. 1 lb.)
salt, pepper, poultlry seasoning - to taste
1 large onion, finely diced
1/2 cup finely diced bell peppers (any comibination of red, yellow, green)
2 stalks celery, finely diced
3 carrots, grated or diced
3 tablespoons diced parsley
3 tablespoons corn starch
a few drops of yellow food coloring

Put two quarts of water in a large stock pot and set on high heat. Add the diced onion, bell peppers, celery, carrots and parsley. Add salt, pepper and poultry seasoning, to taste (approx. 1 Tablespoon each).

Add the chicken. Bring to a boil and simmer until chicken is cooked through.

Add chicken to the pot of boiling veggies

Remove the chicken with tongs and place on a plate to cool. Once the chicken is cool, chop it finely and add it back into the pot.

In a small bowl mix the corn starch with 1/2 cup water. Stir until dissolved and add to the soup mixture. Add the yellow food coloring and stir well. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

Simmer for 30 minutes and ENJOY!

If the soup is too thick, you can add chicken stock. You can include other vegetables, as desired - corn, beans, peas, tomatoes. You can also add some noodles or rice.

I made this Sunday evening, and we’re still eating leftovers. It’s great! This is my own recipe, but it’s pretty standard. It takes only about 15 minutes to get the dish going with the majority of those fifteen minutes being spent on dicing the onion and pappers. Otherwise, there’s very little work involved, and RT swears it’s the best chili he’s ever tasted. He’s pre-diabetic, too, and his blood sugar doesn’t elevate at all after eating this. It’s a great Weight Watchers meal, too.

Carol’s Easy Homemade Chili
1 pound lean ground beef
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1/2 cup diced bell pepper (any combination of green, yellow, red)
4 can diced tomatoes
3 cans navy beans (or kidney beans - I just prefer the milder navy beans)
salt and pepper to taste
2 T chili powder (more or less, to taste)

Place the olive oil into a large saucepan, add the ground beef and brown it. Add the diced onions and peppers. Cook until onions and peppers are cooked through. Drain the beans and rinse. (You don’t HAVE to drain the beans but I think the chili is better if you do.) Dump the diced tomatoes and beans into the pot and bring to a boil. Add salt, pepper and chili powder. You can add a little water at a time to get the right consistency. Simmer for about and hour, and it’s ready to eat. Leftovers can be refrigerated or frozen for later. I generally put some in small containers to take to work for easy lunches.

By the way, these measurements are not written in stone. I’ve used more or less of each ingredient, and it still works out well. So don’t worry about getting exact amounts. If you really like tomato-y chily, add an extra can of tomatoes. If you don’t like tomatoes, then add tomatoe sauce instead of diced tomatoes. You can use chopped chicken instead of ground beef. You can use black beans, kidney beans - any beans that you particularly enjoy.

This is a delicious cold weather soup.  It’s comfort food at its finest.  My younger sister, Debi, gave me the recipe.  It’s quick and easy - and delicious!

CHICKEN CHEESE CORN CHOWDER

1 cup chopped oniion
1 Tablespoon butter
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken (chopped into chunks)
3 cups milk
8 ounces Velveeta
8 ounces of Colby/Jack or cheddar cheese
4 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups diced potatoes
1 17-ounce can of creamed corn
salt/pepper to taste
Mrs. Dash seasoning to taste

In a large soup pot, cook the oniions in the butter until transparent. Add the chicken broth, chicken, potatoes, salt, pepper and Mrs. Dash seasoning. Simmer until the meat is thoroughly cooked. Add the corn, milk and cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and mixed in well.

Two Gulf oysters walk into a bar, sit down on barstools and start complaining about what a stressful week they had.  After listening for a few minutes, the bartender tells them, “Hey, don’t sit there and stew about it.”  Okay, that was really lame.  I know.  However, speaking of oysters and stew . . .

I remember my mother making oyster stew when I was a child.  There is just nothing that compares to the comfort food taste of oyster stew.  And nothing makes oyster stew better than using fresh oysters.  In years past, using fresh oysters was a little risky because of Vibrio Vulnificus.  However, now there are post-harvest processes that allow oysters to be consumed raw but with added safety features that reduce Vibrio Vulnificus to non-detectable levels.  If you have any questions about oysters, check out this website.

Oyster Stew

1/2 cup butter
3 stalks celery, chopped finely
1 shallot, chopped finely
1 quart half and half
2 containers (12 ounce each) fresh, shucked oysters, undrained
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the celery and shallot and stir over medium heat until the veggies are tender. Pour the half-and-half into a separate large pot over medium-high heat. Add the butter, celery and shallots. Stir continuously until the mixture almost boils. Add the oysters along with their liquid. Add the salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Cook (stirring continuously) until the oysters are done. Oysters curl at the ends with they are fully cooked. Serve with crackers and a salad. Enjoy!

This is simmering on the stove as I write this.  It smells divine! This is a great diet soup since there is virtually no fat in it (depending on how lean the ground beef is). You can leave out the ground beef if you want a vegetarian soup which would make the soup fat-free. However, I personally like the flavoring and extra oomph that the beef adds. This makes a large pot of soup - enough for freezing some for later. Or better yet, put some in a quart jar and take it to a neighbor or friend. I like to put leftovers in small individual serving plastic containers, and take it to work to heat in the microwave for a quick and delicious lunch.

Cabbie’s Cabbage Soup

1 lb. lean ground beef
2 large onions, diced
1 small head cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, shredded
1 green bell pepper, diced (or use a mixture of green, red and yellow bell peppers)
5 stalks celery, diced
3 large cans of diced tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
enough water to cover (2 - 4 cups)

Brown the ground beef in a large pot. Add all the other ingredients and bring to a boil. Let it simmer until all the veggies are tender.  Serve with crackers or cornbread and a salad.

One day last fall I wasn’t feeling well, and so I took the day off work.  Maybe it was the time of year or maybe it was because I was looking out the window and seeing all the autumn colors in the leaves, but I wanted some chili.  It took less than fifteen minutes to put it together.  Then I let it simmer on the stove. The chili smelled so good simmering on the stove that I didn’t wait for lunch. I went ahead and had a bowl of it around ten o’clock that morning. It was absolutely wonderful! The navy beans (instead of kidney beans) make it easy on the digestive system. What a great recipe - even if I do say so myself! So here is how I made it:

Home-made Chili

1 lb. ground beef

2 medium onions, diced

bell peppers (green, red, yellow), diced - about 1 cup altogether

3 stalks celery - including leaves, diced finely

2 tablespoons olive oil (needed only if the ground beef is very lean)

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce (or 1 small can tomato paste)

2 cans navy beans (or whatever kind of beans you like in chili.  I just prefer the mildness of the navy beans)

chili powder (to taste - probably a couple tablespoons)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large pot.  Add the ground beef, onions, peppers and celery.  Saute until the ground beef is browned and the veggies are tender.  Add the diced tomatoes (juice and all), tomato sauce/paste, the navy beans, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Add enough water to cover everything - make it a good consistency for chili.  Stir well and simmer for a couple hours.  It’ll be ready after about thirty minutes, but it tastes much better if the flavors simmer together for a long time.  And it’ll be even better the second day.

Serve with crackers or corn bread.  RT likes to sprinkle diced onions, a dollop of sour cream and some shredded cheese on top before serving.

This is the chili that I grew up on.  My mother (Ruthlace) made it often.  It was a great meal for a large (or small) family.  The potatoes make it more like soup than chili.  I like the fact that it’s lighter and milder than typical chili.  Here’s the recipe.

Chili Soup

2 lbs lean ground beef

1 large can diced tomatoes (if you like tomatoes, you can add more)

4 medium potatoes, diced fine

2 large onions, diced fine

4 tablespoons chili powder

2 or 3 cans beans (great Northern, navy, pinto, pork & beans - whichever you prefer)

salt/pepper to taste

Brown ground beef in large stock pot.  Add the onions, tomatoes and potatoes. Simmer for about an hour.  Add the beans.  Simmer a few minutes longer.  Serve with crackers or corn bread.