Watercress Soup

Ingredients for 6-8 people:

2 bunches watercress
3/4 lb potatoes
1 onion
2 pints chicken stock
1-1/2 oz butter
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic (optional)
salt and black pepper
3 tablespoons of double cream or 1/2 cup milk

Garnish: nutmeg (optional)

1 - wash watercress and discard tough stalks/ yellow leaves

2 - Peel and thickly slice potatoes and onion.

3 - Put potatoes, onion, half the watercress, stock, butter, bay leaf and peeled garlic (if using) in a large saucepan. Season with salt and pepper.

4 - Bring soup to boil, cover pan and simmer until the potatoes and onion are quite soft.

5 - Remove bay leaf and liquidise soup (DH likes a few lumps in it - you may not!)

6 - Stir in cream or milk plus the other half of watercress chopped finely and heat soup without boiling.

Serve in heated bowls with crusty bread.

This is from Reader's Digest 'The Cookery Year' - 'tonsed' a la Beesknees ... tasty and good for you .... nice chilled as well as hot, with or without nutmeg to serve.

Vegan-friendly falafel (and not-vegan tzatziki sauce)

These recipes are from Allrecipes.com. The falafel is vegan, but the tzatziki sauce is not. But if you wanted to make it vegan, you could just substitute soy yogurt for the dairy yogurt, easy peasy. I'm not sure how everybody else eats this stuff, but we just dip the balls in the sauce and eat them that way. Super yummy.

Falafel:
INGREDIENTS

* 1 pound dry garbanzo beans
* 1 onion, quartered
* 1 potato, peeled and quartered
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
* 1 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 cups canola oil

DIRECTIONS

1. Rinse the garbanzo beans under cold water and discard any bad ones. Place in a large pot, and cover with water. Let soak 24 hours, and rinse again.
2. Place the garbanzo beans, onion, and potato in the bowl of a food processor. Cover, and process until finely chopped. Leaving about 1 cup of the garbanzo bean mixture in the food processor bowl, pour the rest into a mixing bowl. Add the garlic, cilantro, coriander, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to the garbanzo bean mixture in the food processor bowl; process on low to blend thoroughly. Return the reserved garbanzo bean mixture to the food processor bowl, and add the lemon juice, and olive oil; process on low into a coarse meal. Cover, and refrigerate 2 hours.
3. Stir the baking soda into the garbanzo bean mixture until evenly blended. Using damp hands, form the mixture into 1 1/2 inch diameter balls.
4. Pour the canola oil into a wok 1 to 2 inches deep, and heat over medium-high heat. Cook the falafel balls, turning so all sides are evenly browned, about 5 minutes. Remove falafel from oil, and drain on paper towels. Repeat to cook remaining falafel balls.

FOOTNOTES

Cook's Tip: If you don't have time to soak the dry garbanzo beans for this recipe, substitute three 15 ounce cans of garbanzo beans, and start with Step 2.

Tzatziki sauce
INGREDIENTS

* 8 ounces plain yogurt
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
* 3 cloves pressed garlic

DIRECTIONS

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, dill and garlic. Blend thoroughly and serve.

** QB's Notes:

The sauce is better if you chill it in the fridge for an hour or so before eating. You can mix up the falafel ingredients the day before if you want to, but be warned, it will change colors. I'm not sure why. It doesn't affect the taste, but it looks different. Darker. Also, I used about twice the amount of dill in the sauce, and I ramped up the spices in the falafel. We like FLAVOR in this house. It's good the way the recipe says to do it, but if you like spicy food, feel free to play with the amounts. You can't screw it up.

Enchilada Casserole

taco meat
1 can refried beans
1 can rotel
1 pkg soft tortilla shells
1 pkg shredded cheese
1 can enchilada sauce

pre heat oven to 350 deg. grease a 9x13 baking dish.

mix first three ingredients together and put one large spoonful in the middle of a softened tortilla shell. sprinkle with a bit of shredded cheese and roll up. place roll in the bottom of the baking dish. continue until you run out of tortillas or your dish is full.

i had left over meat mix so i just spooned the rest over the rolled tortillas in the dish, but you could save it and freeze for the next set, i suppose.

pour enchilada sauce over all that and then sprinkle the rest of the shredded cheese over the top of it all.

bake for about 20 mins or so. the meat is already cooked so all you are doing is melting everything together.

Taco Cornbread Casserole

i swear this is almost as easy as ordering take out!


make taco meat and add a can of diced tomatoes
pour it into a greased 9x13 pyrex
on top, pour one can of creamed corn...
over that, spread out a double batch of cornbread mix

bake at 400 for about 20 mins or so. when you scoop into it, it will freak you out, but it's not raw cornbread, it's creamed corn juice.

Seasoned chicken and veggie bake

Lame title, but I don't know what else to call it, and I just made it up tonight. So yummy. I apologize for the large size of this dish, but you can adjust it as needed, or make the whole thing and freeze half for later. Also, I don't measure. Think of these amounts as rough estimates.

4 to 6 chicken leg quarters, skin removed (any cut of chicken will do)
1 package dry veggie soup mix
2.5-3 cups of water
2 small onions, chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 cubes chicken bouillon
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 carrots, washed and sliced
2 stems of celery, washed and sliced

Brown the chicken, and transfer it into baking pans. (I needed a 9x13 and an 8x8 pan to hold everything.) In the same skillet where you browned the chicken, toss in your chopped onion and brown (add oil if necessary to keep it from sticking) and your flour. When onion is browned, add water, bouillon cube, soup mix, and pepper. Simmer until everything is dissolved and the mixture thickens slightly. Slice carrots and celery and scatter the slices amongst the chicken pieces. Pour your liquid over everything (if you use 2 pans, try to be judicious -- you don't want one pan swimming and the other one with like a drop). Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about 1 hour, or until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with hot cooked brown rice. I added a little butter and Italian seasoning to my rice, but you can do yours however you want.

My husband also suggested cutting the chicken up into small chunks and mixing the chicken and veggies in with the rice, and serving it as a one-dish meal. It's an option, and it would be easy if you're using boneless chicken.

Spicy Tomato Sauce for Meat

i poured this over pork chops, but i bet it would be good over chicken or steaks, too.

one can of diced tomatoes (undrained)
one can of rotel (undrained)
1/4 cup (maybe less) of all-purpose flour

brown your chosen meat in a skillet. remove the meat. pour both cans, juice and all, into the skillet to "deglaze" the good stuff off the bottom. add the flour and stir to thicken. add the meat back into the skillet and spoon the sauce over it. let it simmer for a few minutes and then try not to choke on the bones as you inhale it. :-D

JIMMY YOUNG TRIFLE

This trifle is from a book I'd recommend by Gill Holcombe called 'How to feed your whole family a healthy, balanced diet with very little money ... and hardly any time, even if you have a tiny kitchen ....' - recipe originally supplied by Audrey Hurst from Bramley in Surrey for the JY Show - thank you Mrs Hurst! (For some reason she missed out the alcohol though - not recommended in my house - see my adaptation below.)

Serves 4-6 - you will need:
1 small tin mandarin segments
2 small bananas
1 orange jelly (jello)
1/2 pint (250ml/ 1 cup) boiling water
1 swiss (jelly) roll or an angel cake
1/4 pint (125 ml/ half cup) evaporated milk
Sweet Sherry is traditional - or fortified wine - or liquor of choice eg brandy or S. Comfort

1 - Put jelly in measuring jug with 1/2 pint (250ml/ 1 cup) boiling water, stir until dissolved then add juice from mandarin segments and 2 or 3 ice cubes if you have them (I didn't) to make jelly up to just 3/4 pint (375ml/ 1-1/2 cups).
2 - Allow to cool while your arrange pieces of cake (or a packet of trifle sponges) in a large glass bowl and pour over the Sherry or what you will - allow the cake to soak it up ... then pour over some more!
3 - Arrange the mandarin segments around the edge and the sliced bananas in the middle ... pour pour over 1/2 pint (250ml/ 1cup) of the cool jelly over and refrigerate.
4 - Leave the remaining 1/4 pint (125ml/ half cup) jelly to cool completely in the fridge ... I think it's best if you can get it when it's nearly setting but Mrs H's recipe doesn't say ... Then add 1/4 pint (half cup) evaporated milk to the jug and whisk by hand or mixer till it's thick and frothy and leaves a trail. The level in the jug should be near the 3/4 pint (375ml/ 1-1/2 cup) mark.
5 - Carefully pour the milk jelly over the trifle and return to the fridge to set for a couple of hours.
6 - Serve the trifle as it is or finish it off with whipped cream and decorate with fruit (I used strawberries) and grated chocolate (I sieved some cocoa powder over).
7 - Enjoy!

Seasoned Baked Potato Wedges

preheat oven to 350

peel potatoes and cut into thin wedges

mix in a large mixing bowl with just under 1/4 cup of oil and whatever seasoning you prefer. i use greek seasoning, but any flavor will work.

line a cookie sheet with foil and spread wedges out in a single layer. bake for about 20 minutes or so...until they are tender.