Mr. Lesley Cooks

Another Installment From The Infirmary

 

I have just enough strength to cook for a few minutes before collapsing back on the sofa to watch football.  After a while, I get up and do a little more.  From time to time, I stumble downstairs to Lesley’s sick room and to see if she needs anything.  This is a great technique for making stews and soups.  Try this one:

 

Green Beans and Ham Stew

1 lb gristly country ham steak with lots of bone and fat attached

3 large onions, chopped
8 stalks celery, chopped
8 carrots, chopped

2 bell peppers, chopped

8 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups fat free chicken broth
3 lbs fresh green beans
1 28 oz can maters with juices

2 lbs fat free ham, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
Salt and pepper to taste


Brown ham steak in a 6-8 quart stockpot or Dutch oven.  Remove ham from pot and saute until soft onions, celery, bell pepper and carrots.  Add garlic and cook for a minute.  Add ham steak, maters and chicken broth, cover and cook for an hour.  Remove ham steak, and cut any remaining lean meat into small pieces after discarding anything nasty or boney. Add green beans and cook for another hour.  Add cubed ham and bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer for about an hour longer.  Adjust seasoning and serve.

 

Tom

How sick are we?

Isn’t that the big question that people have been asking all our lives, or at least mine?  For today the answer is pretty damned sick still.  We held each other up going to the grocery store to get more soup makings.  Before I go back to bed, here is one of the results:

 

 Low Carb Mixed Mushroom Soup

 

3/4 pound fresh shiitake mushrooms

4 tablespoons butter

2 large onions, chopped

1 pound fresh button mushrooms, stems chopped, caps sliced

6 large garlic cloves, chopped

6 cups beef or vegetable broth

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup heavy whipping cream

 

Remove stems from shiitakes, add the stems to the broth and heat to boiling.  Let simmer 20 minutes.  Only Linda would use vegetable broth in this since it is so much better with homemade beef broth.  Slice the shiitake and button mushrooms caps pretty thin while you are waiting for this to simmer.  You will probably have time to prep the other veggies as well.

 

Melt butter in heavy large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add onion and button mushroom stems; sauté until onion is golden, about 10 minutes.  Then add garlic and stir for a minute or until you start to smell the garlic. Stir in broth with shiitake stems. Cover; simmer until soup is slightly thickened, about 30 minutes.  Remove shiitake stems and use emersion blender to help thicken soup some more.  If you don’t want to bother with a blender, you can add 1/4 cup of flour right after the garlic is done and then cook for a couple of minutes longer before you add the broth;  make sure you add the broth slowly if you use flour.

 

Add shiitakes and sliced button mushroom caps to soup and simmer just until button mushroom caps are slightly wilted, about 5 minutes. Add cream and simmer until heated through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving.)

 

Serves 8.

 

Tom

Lesley’s Second Day Cure

 

Yesterday’s chicken stew was pretty good, but poor Lesley is still ill.  Here is today’s attempt to cure her.

 

Cabbage Soup or Is It Stew

 

4 carrots, chopped

4 celery stalks, chopped

2 onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bell pepper, chopped

1/2 teaspoon paprika

2 tablespoons olive oil

10 cups chicken broth

1 10 oz can original Rotel tomatoes

1 medium head cabbage, shredded

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Tabasco sauce to taste.

Parmesan and/or feta

 

Saute first nine ingredients in olive oil until tender.   Add chicken broth, tomatoes, and cabbage.  Season with salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes or until cabbage is as done as you want it.  Correct seasoning and add parsley.  Top with parmesan and feta.  Serve with hot sauce and rice if you want to.

 

 

 Tom

A Magic Cure

Poor Lesley is sick again.  I think our recent trips to NY, DC, CT, and TX have lowered her resistance and she has caught a bug.  I have been fixing soup for her.   Yesterday it was a kind of chicken stew.

 

 Get Rid of That Bug Chicken Stew

3 carrots, chopped

4 celery stalks, chopped

2 onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 lb. mushrooms, sliced

2 quarts chicken broth

12 oz canned diced tomatoes

3 lbs each chicken breasts and thighs

24 oz. sour cream

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Tabasco sauce to taste.

Salt chicken part all over and then brown on all sides in a large pot with 2 tablespoons olive oil.  Do not crowd pot, but do this in several batches.  Set chicken aside and remove all but 3 tablespoons fat. Saute first seven ingredients together until the veggies are soft, then add mushrooms.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook for a few minutes until mushrooms cook down. Add 2 quarts chicken broth, tomatoes and chicken and simmer for 45 minutes or until chicken is done.  Remove chicken to cool.  Cover and set pot aside.  Bone chicken and return to pot.  Remove bay leaves. Add sour cream.  Heat and adjust seasoning.  Add parsley and serve.  Don’t forget the hot sauce This is good as is or with steamed rice. 

 

Tom

A Sure Fire Headache Cure

 

 

Poor Lesley had a headache this morning.  Maybe it was the homemade chicken and dumplings she was forced to eat for breakfast.   Instead of calling the rescue squad, I fixed the following home remedy.  I recommend this for many ailments.

 

 

Individual Hot Chocolate

 

Put in a 12-oz mug:

 

1 tablespoon Dutch process cocoa

2 tablespoons sugar or Splenda

 

Add enough vanilla extract to make a paste, around a tablespoon or two.  Non-alcohol imitation vanilla extract works well here. Stir until smooth with no lumps. 

 

Add 2% milk (since this is the health version) to fill the cup 2/3 full. 

 

Heat in a microwave on high for a minute or two until hot, but do not boil.

 

Take the cup out of the microwave and fill it with heavy whipping cream.

 

Heat for another minute or so.  Stir and serve with:

 

 

 

 

Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

 

 

1 3/4 cups (8.75 oz) all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup (100 g) powdered sugar

1/2 cup plus 1 Tb (4.5 oz) dark brown sugar, firmly packed

6 Tbs (3 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup (190 g) creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 tsps vanilla

1 large egg

1 1/3 cups (8 oz) milk chocolate chips

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and two sugars. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

 

Add the peanut butter to the butter and sugar mixture and beat to combine. Slowly drizzle in the vegetable oil, the vanilla, then the egg. Mix until fully combined. Gradually add in the dry ingredients, pausing to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.

 

Using a spatula or wooden spoon, gently fold the milk chocolate chips into the batter until evenly distributed. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake for 11-12 minutes until the tops are lightly golden but cookies are still soft in the middle. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.   Makes 3 dozen cookies.

 

 

This probably would have been more effective had not Lesley gone to the bathroom and Lucy finished her hot cocoa while she was gone.

 

The big question is, should I fix these cookies for the folks at “Art Is You” coming up this week?

 

Tom