Beef Stew and Orange Tapioca Pudding

One of my favorite busy-day recipes is Gone All Afternoon Stew.  I first found this recipe in 1994 in a cookbook binder distributed among my youngest son’s fellow engineers at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) – Bits & Bytes. It is easy to throw together and bake in a slow oven for the afternoon.

GONE-ALL-AFTERNOON BEEF STEW

• 1 lb. round or chuck steak, trimmed and cut into small pieces
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 3 medium carrots, sliced (I use 9 baby carrots, sliced lengthwise)
• 2 large potatoes, sliced
• 1 tsp. salt
• Grinding or two of black pepper
• One 10-3/4 oz. can tomato soup
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• 10 oz. package frozen peas (add during last 15 minutes of baking)

Preheat oven @ 275 degrees F for 4 hours’ baking time or 250 degrees F for 5 hours’ baking time.

Put all ingredients except peas in a large casserole.  Mix well, cover and bake in preheated 275 degree F oven for 4 hours or 250 degree F for 5 hours.  Add peas during the last 15 minutes of baking.

Yield:  4-6 servings

This makes a thick, delicious stew.  If the stew is too thick, it can be thinned with a little bit of water.  I like to serve a good homemade yeast roll with this dish.

After a hearty dinner, it’s nice to have something lighter for dessert.  I had come across a bargain on oranges this week.  They were super-large and I had way more than I would be able to eat out-of-hand, so I went looking for a dessert to use some of them.

I found this recipe for an easy tapioca pudding that sounded just right.

ORANGE TAPIOCA PUDDING

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tblsp. quick-cooking tapioca
• 1-1/4 cups fresh orange juice
• 1 tsp. orange zest
• 1-1/4 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed (divided)

Mix sugar, tapioca and orange juice in a medium saucepan.  Let stand for 5 minutes.

Heat mixture to boiling over medium high heat, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and let cool for 20 minutes.

Stir the tapioca mixture, then fold in 1 cup of the whipped topping until smooth.  Divide mixture between 4 serving dishes and top each with one tablespoon of the reserved topping.

This is such a pretty dessert with a bright, fresh flavor.

It was a good meal.

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Mother’s Butterscotch Pudding

When I was a child in the 1930s-1940s, my mother always served a light dessert with supper.  It might be as simple as a can of fruit cocktail, carefully portioned into four dishes so that each person got a piece of a cherry or a package of My-T-Fine pudding cooked with diluted canned milk (my favorite was chocolate which had the tiniest bits of nuts in it).  Sometimes she made a steamed chocolate pudding which my father loved and I ate only because of the nutmeg hard sauce on top of it.  Many times, she whipped up her own delicious pudding such as her Butterscotch Pudding.  Mother never considered herself a good cook but her puddings were perfect – sweet, smooth and comforting.  I especially liked butterscotch which she also made into a pie sometimes on Sundays, with a thin one-egg meringue.  This cooked pudding is so much better than the packaged kind and easily reaches smooth perfection  if the cook is willing and able to stand at the stove and whisk until the pudding is done.

MOTHER’S BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING

• 1 egg
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup cold milk
• 1 cup hot milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 Tblsp. butter

In a medium saucepan, place the egg, brown sugar, cornstarch and salt.  Whisk together until smooth.  Gradually add one cup of cold milk, whisking to blend.  Add one cup of hot milk, blending well.  Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until mixture begins to bubble.  Continue to whisk for 2 more minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and butter.

Pour into serving dishes and cover until ready to serve.  I like this pudding best at room temperature but it’s also delicious chilled and leftovers should be refrigerated.

Yield:  4 servings

I’ve posted previously about Mother’s pudding – her banana pudding….

and her rice pudding….

….all of them nice desserts for family supper.

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A Snowy Day Retro Meal

My oldest daughter was here for supper in the middle of a weeklong siege of snow and I wanted to fix some kind of comfort food.  What says “comfort” more than a casserole and some cookies from the late 1940s-early 1950s?

The Casserole:  I loved to have lunch at my Aunt Mabel’s house when I was a kid.  Mabel shared a two-family house with my maternal grandmother and each week they and Mabel’s two young children got together with my mother, my sister, and me.   Mabel was something of a kid herself – in her early 20s, funny, good with young people, a tomboy in jeans long before girls had started to wear them in the mid-1940s.  She wasn’t particularly interested in cooking but she always served fun food – cold cuts, store-bought cookies, potato chips – and sometimes she would try out a popular recipe such as her Tuna Noodle Casserole.  My father wouldn’t touch anything that even looked like a casserole with its conglomeration of ingredients, so this was a real treat for us.  At Mabel’s, we enjoyed the food we never had at home, as well as all the latest magazines and, the best thing for me, the chance to sit with the three women and listen to them talk while the younger children went off to play.

This is my version of Mabel’s casserole:

LILLIAN’S TUNA NOODLE CASSEROLE

• 6 oz. dry noodles (about 1-1/2 cups)
• One can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
• Several gratings of black pepper
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 2 Tblsp. chopped pimiento
• 2 Tblsp. dry minced onion
• 2 cans white albacore tuna (6 oz. each), drained &  flaked
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup crushed cheese crackers

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Spray or oil a 9″ baking dish

Cook the dry noodles in boiling, salted water until al dente (about 7 minutes).  Drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the soup, milk, sour cream, salt and pepper.  Mix well and stir in the peas, pimiento, onion, flaked tuna and grated cheese.  Stir in the drained noodles.  Pour into the prepared 9″ pan.  Sprinkle the top with the crushed cheese crackers.

Bake @ 400 degrees F for 20 minutes until the mixture is hot and bubbly.

Serve at once.

The Cookies: These cookies are especially good when they’re first baked and the chocolate is still soft.

PEANUT BUTTER BLOSSOMS

• 48 Hershey milk chocolate kisses
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 Tblsp. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Remove wrappers from chocolates.

Beat shortening/margarine and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended.  Add granulated sugar and brown sugar, beat until fluffy.  Add egg, milk and vanilla, blending well.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Gradually beat the flour mixture into the peanut butter mixture.

Shape dough into one-inch balls.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2″ apart.  Bake @ 375 degrees F for approximately 8-10 minutes until cookies are lightly browned.  Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate kiss in the center of each cookie.  Remove cookies to wire rack to cool.

Yield:  48 cookies

I would love to have just one more chance to sit around the table with those dear people, listen to them talk and enjoy Mabel’s casserole.

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Pork, Apple and Sweet Potato Casserole

After being stuck in the house for three days after a major snowfall, I was ready for my daughters and grandchildren to come for Sunday dinner.  I wanted to try something new and found a recipe on Allrecipes.com which I adapted according to our taste and what I had on hand plus I made some changes in procedure based on readers’ comments on Allrecipes.  I thought this casserole was very tasty served over rice and made good leftovers.

PORK, APPLE AND SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE

• Six 6″x 3″ pork loin pieces, about 3/4″ thick – cut in half to form 12 3″x3″ pieces
• 1/2 cup of flour for dredging
• salt and pepper for dredging
• 1-2 Tblsp. olive oil for browning pork loin
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, sliced thinly
• 2 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 3 Tblsp. light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. curry powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Dredge pork loin pieces in the flour that has been mixed with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.   Heat oil in a large skillet and brown pieces of pork loin on both sides.  Pour the half cup of water in the bottom of a large casserole or baking pan.  Place meat to form a single layer in the bottom of the  pan.

In a large bowl, combine the sliced onions, sweet potatoes and apples.  In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, pepper, salt and curry powder.

Pour the brown sugar mixture over the vegetable mixture and toss to coat.  Spoon the vegetable mixture over the pork loin pieces.

Cover and bake for one hour @ 375 degrees F until the sweet potatoes are tender and the pork has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.

The grandchildren, known here as Jellyfish and Dolphin, showed different attitudes at the presentation.  Jellyfish looked like he might be willing to try some, but Dolphin definitely didn’t look impressed.

Serve over rice. Sprinkle with snipped parsley if desired.

Yield:  4-6 servings

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Wintertime Fruit Drops

My youngest daughter is a busy stay-at-home mom who always finds time to get together with me on Fridays for lunch.  I try to make meals that are tasty, quick and easy, and reduced in fat and calories.  Here is the meal we had this week.

I developed this recipe in the early 1980s to enter in an Archway Cookie contest at the Ohio State Fair.  I didn’t win, but the family liked this soft cookie with all kinds of healthy ingredients and not too bad for a dieter.

WINTERTIME FRUIT DROPS

• 1/2 water
• 1/3 cup snipped dried apricots
• 1/3 cup snipped prunes
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/3 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small saucepan, heat the water until boiling.  Remove from heat and add apricots, prunes and raisins.  Stir and allow mixture to stand for 15 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, cream brown sugar and butter, add egg and lemon extract.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Add to brown sugar mixture and beat until blended.  Stir in drained dried fruit and chopped nuts.

Drop by a level measuring tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving 2″ between each cookie.

Bake @ 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes until cookies are golden brown.  Cool on a rack.

Yield:  Approximately 2 dozen cookies

Nutrition per Diet Power software based on 24 cookies:  One cookie = 88 calories, 3.27 g fat, 15.2 mg cholesterol, 25.1 mg sodium, 85.1 mg potassium, 14.1 g carbohydrate, 0.659 g dietary fiber, 1.4 g protein

Weight Watchers Points based on 24 cookies:  2 points per cookie

For our entree today, we had an old favorite – Mom’s Tuna Melts (see recipe here).

This week, we were joined by my oldest daughter and the three of us enjoyed a reduced calorie/fat lunch with a lot of good flavor.

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14th Anniversary Quilt

My youngest daughter was born in 1970 and loves all things from that era – music, art, fabric, home decor.  We were in a quilt shop and she spied this book cover showing a quilt with a 70s look, something I’ve never done in seven years of quilting.

I told her I would make it for her as a 14th wedding anniversary gift.  I bought the book, she picked out all of the fabric, and I set about making the quilt.  The instructions called for fusible web and stitching down the edges with a zigzag stitch.  In my experience, this technique has been OK for wall hangings that don’t get much wear but this quilt was going to be in a family room with two kids, two cats and a very large dog named Frank.

The quilt had to stand up to a lot.

I traced the templates from the book but used them only as a placement guide, making separate templates for the petals.  I used a technique I had learned from Eleanor Burns’ Quilt-in-a-Day TV shows and books, using non-woven interfacing.  The template is placed on the interfacing and a line drawn around it.  Allowing for 1/4″ seams, the interfacing piece is cut out along with a piece of fabric.  Having a fabric piece and an interfacing piece right sides together, the piece is machine sewn on the drawn line. Then a slit is cut in the interfacing and the piece is turned and pressed.  This gives a nice edge to the applique and it can be machine-stitched onto the background fabric.  Admittedly, with 20 separate petals for each of 16 blocks, this added extra time to the project but I think it made a much sturdier quilt.

My daughter wanted the quilt to be longer than the pattern and I added some extra borders for this.

Quilting was very simple stitch-in-the-ditch with outline stitching around the petals.  She couldn’t find a cotton backing that fit the 70s mode, so she chose bright Snoopy fleece which added extra warmth.  I scanned one piece of the background fabric so I could use it as part of the label, printed from the computer onto fabric and hand-stitched onto the back of the quilt.

I knew my son-in-law didn’t share the love of 70s stuff, so I gave him a check instead, but my daughter and her menagerie love the new quilt, especially Frank.

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