Grandpa's Home Cooking

Cukes & Onions and Tomatoes Are In

Nothin' could be fina than sittin' down to eat Grandpas cukes n' onions and a big ol' tomato fresh from the garden on a summer's eve. If you're like me, you'll want more love. So I'd serve some other garden treats like hot corn on the cob drippin' with butter and salted well, and while you're at it, why slide not a pan of slo-roasted vegetables on the table.  This is a garden love feast. Serve it all up with a pitcher of sweet iced tea. You're looking at a gallon jug of cukes & onions that I can pull out of our refrigerator for a great instant meal side.

You'll find my cukes and onions recipe, dated just over a year ago, June 7, 2010, in my category for Side Dishes. Just look at my blog Category List in the right column of the blog and click on side dishes. Then scroll down until you come to the cukes and onions recipe. Also look at the Cottage Cheese Farm Salad recipe which follows the Cukes & Onions recipe. Cottage Cheese Farm Salad also includes fresh summer cucumbers and tomatoes.

I've constructed this blog to be just like a cookbook so that you can easily find recipes I've posted in the past. This is a recipe you don't want to forget!

Put a crock of cukes & onions on your table for lunch and supper. They offer goodness and a fresh bright taste to every meal. Add them to your salads. Eat them for a snack. 

It's a great time to visit your local farmers market and stock up on wonderful fresh produce.

Roasted Poblano Pepper and Corn Chowder

This is a really nice soup with just enough warmth to soothe your soul.  It is gentle. You need not worry about it being too spicy. It contains wonderful ingredients and has a rich  taste. Serve Roasted Poblano Pepper and Corn Chowder as a meal or to compliment a meal. It is so good that the people at your table are likely to eat the entire pot of soup in one setting.

Double or triple the recipe to serve it to a crowd. This is a terrific soup to serve to a group.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 Tbsp butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 ½ -2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 2 red potatoes, diced with skin on
• ¼ tsp cumin
• 1/8 tsp red pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 14.5 oz cans cream style corn
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 8 oz. cream cheese, cut in pieces
• 1 large poblano pepper, roasted, peeled, and diced*

* To roast the pablano pepper: Cut off the top of the pepper and take out all of the seeds. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet about six inches under broiler. Broil on each side for about 5-6 minutes. The skin should be blistered. Remove the pepper from oven and wrap it in the foil. Put the foil/pepper in a zip-topped bag and let it rest for at least 10 minutes. When you're ready to make the soup, unwrap the foil and peel the skin off of the pepper. Then dice the pepper pulp.

Instructions:

Melt butter in soup pot, add onion, and sauté until tender. Add 1 ½ cup vegetable or chicken broth and diced red potatoes and seasonings. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10-12 minutes until the potatoes begin to get tender. Add the cream corn and evaporated milk. Simmer another 10-12 minutes. Add the cream cheese and the diced poblano pepper. Stir and heat until the cream cheese is melted, and the soup is hot (but not boiling). Serve this soup with tortilla chips or a good crusty artisan bread.

This soup will become a favorite!

Grandpa's Chili, Famous Since 1949

Everyone, it seems, has their own chili recipe. And many think their chili is the best! I’m not an exception. I came up with this chili recipe in 1949. After I got home from school, mother called me from her office and said, "Son, I'm tired, I don't suppose you'd like to make a pot of chili for the family dinner." I jumped at the chance. She knew I loved to cook and that I had watched her make chili many times. But I took this opportunity to make the chili the way I wanted and invented the following recipe. I'd be very surprised if anyone makes chili like I do. But you ought try it, you might really like it.

Ingredients:

• 28.5 ounce can of original Hunts Diced Tomatoes
• 15 ounce can Hunts Tomato Sauce
• 1 can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup (an 8-year old's addition and I still use it)
• 2 cans dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed in a colander
• 2-3 large carrots, diced
• 4 stalks of celery, remove the strings and  slice
• Chopped leaves from one stalk of celery
• Large sweet onion, diced
• Water
• 1½ pounds of ground chuck
• Bunch green onions, diced
• Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• Salt and fresh ground pepper
• A few shakes of Tobasco sauce, (or Cholula Sauce)

Mom used a little chili powder when she thought I wasn't looking and wouldn't notice.  A kid wouldn't use chili powder or hot sauce in 1949. Now I like to use Mexican Cholula sauce because it has a wonderful bright tomato taste.

This pot ought to provide 12 large servings.

Instructions:

Pour the diced tomatoes, 2-3 cans of water, tomato sauce, tomato soup, kidney beans, carrots, celery, sweet onion, onion, salt, and freshly ground pepper in a 4 qt or stock pot, and begin to heat the ingredients using a moderate setting (lower the setting if the soup starts boiling). Stir now and then.

Meanwhile, crumble and lightly brown meat in a skillet. Add salt and pepper to taste. As the meat begins to brown, add the chopped green onions, and about 5 healthy shakes of Worcestershire sauce. When the meat is browned, pour the contents of the skillet in a colander to drain off as much grease as possible. Then pour the meat mixture into the soup pot, add the spices and a couple of shots of Cholula sauce (if desired).

Finish heating until the chili is ready to be served.

I like to serve the chili with both soda crackers and club crackers and I always butter my crackers. I know. The Fat Police be on you if they catch you doing this! When I was a kid, I'd lather the butter on the cracker and then I'd spoon some of the soup solids on top and it it:-) You can't take the boy out of some men.

Now I want to tell you of something good that you can do. Make a big pot of this for folks living in an Independant Living Facility. Divide the contents of the pot into freezer containers and freeze the chili. When folks don't feel like going down to the dining room now and then, they can take a container out of their freezer, thaw it, heat it in their microwave and have a fine dinner. Provide thawing and heating instructions. 

You going to have a crowd for dinner. Make as much chili as you'll need. This is a fine meal for a crowd. They'll love being served this chili on a cold winter's night. Serve some Merlot with it, or ice cold milk if that's what your crowd might like. A glass of ice cold milk goes great with this chili.

Grandpa's Baked Okra, Tomatoes, and Vidalia Onions for a Crowd

I served this at the community kitchen one day and about a tenth of the people let me know before my hand reached the serving spoon "I don't want any of the okra." Upon seeing it, many more folk got big smiles on their face and said, "I'd like some of that okra." The entire hotel pan was cleaned before the end of the serving. The lesson learned is to have a second choice of corn, a vegetable that nearly everyone will eat. Midway through the serving we added a pan of green beans to the steam table so that folks would get their vegetables.   

Here's the reason some folks will not eat okra. It is because a thick, sticky liquid will be present if the okra is not cooked long enough. Some call it "slime." You can tell folks that your okra and tomato casserole is not slimy, tastes good, and it's darn good for them. 

For a crowd:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Ingredients:

• 6 pounds of okra, wash, cut/dispose of stems, & slice each pod into 1/2 inch rounds.
• 9 cups of Vidalia onions, in large chunks
• 9 cups of celery, in large chunks
• 9 cups canned Hunt’s diced tomatoes ( 3, 28 oz cans)
• 5 bay leaves
• 1 cup olive oil
• 4 tablespoons sea salt (more to shake on at the table)
• 1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or shake in some Cholula hot sauce)
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 3 teaspoons fresh or dried thyme leaves
• 9 cloves of garlic, chopped fine

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in oven proof hotel pans. If you're using okra that was frozen, pour off any excess liquid before adding the other ingredients to the baking pan. Cover the pans with a lid. Bake, stirring now and then, for about 2 to 2.5 hours, or until all of the okra "slime" has disappeared. Uncover the casseroles during the last 20 minutes. Give a shake or too of sea salt on top when you are done.

Provides 45-50 servings

Roasted Red Potatoes and Onions for a Crowd

Cooking for a crowd: Here's a tasty vegetable dish to serve a crowd.

Ingredients:

• 10 lbs redskin potatoes, cut in small chunks
• 9 large onions, cut in small chunks (3 red, 3 sweet, and 3 yellow)
• Olive oil to coat vegetables (does not need to be extra virgin olive oil)
• Drizzle of truffle oil (optional)
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• 1 cup or more of chopped fresh basil
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Instructions:

Put chopped potatoes and onions in a large mixing. Pour enough olive oil over the top to lightly coat the vegetables. Use your washed hands to toss the vegetables to coat them with oil. Truffle oil is pricey and therefore optional, but mixing in a drizzle of this choice oil will add a earthy flavor to the dish. Now liberally sprinkle the vegetables with sea salt and pepper. Scoop the vegetables into two hotel pans and roast the vegetables at 350 degrees for an hour. Do stir the vegetables two or three times during the hour. Use a fork to make sure the vegetables are done. Sprinkle the top of the potatoes and onions with chopped fresh basil.

Provides 50, 4 to 5 oz servings