I’m trying to integrate the various aspects of CheapCooking better. To that end, I’ve installed forums so you can all write your own message etc. rather than just commenting on my posts. I will do my best to combat the inevitable spam but I hope you will come join the forums and share what you know with others!
Ellen
Pasta with Bacon and Tomatoes
This came from a Paula Deen cookbook my stepson and his wife gave me for Christmas. It is creamy and good and easy–hard combination to beat! I’ve been watching the Lidia Italian cooking shows on our PBS station and she almost always adds a bit of pasta water to a sauce, saying the starch in the water helps thicken the sauce I think. I did that here. The other thing I see her do is to not drain the pasta in a colander but instead lift the pasta out and add it to the sauce in the pan, which I also did here.
This comes together easily. You just cook the bacon and remove it (and drain off some of the grease), cook some diced onion, then add a can of tomatoes and the bacon and simmer for a bit while you cook the pasta. Stir in the cream cheese and then the pasta. That’s it.
Easy weeknight dinner. Here’s the recipe for bacon and tomato pasta.
If you wanted to be more Italian you could use pancetta of course, instead of bacon.
All You magazine has a special promotion going on where you can get 6 issues for just $1/issue. I signed up to be an affiliate and they’ve been sending me free issues of the magazine. There are always some interesting useful articles and always a LOT of coupons. I’m not a big coupon user but even I find at least a few bucks worth I can use in each issue and most people probably use many more. I am an affiliate, so I will make a small commission if you sign up after following the link. But I wouldn’t promote it if I didn’t think it was a good deal.
A great dinner for New Year’s Eve or Day–but I did it a few days early. I saw shank end hams on sale for .99 a pound and that was all I needed to see.
The ham was super easy and super delicious. I got the recipe from The Pat Conroy Cookbook
Preheat the oven to 325F. Trim the excess fat from the ham, down to 1/4 – 1/2″ thick, then score it in a diamond pattern. Put the ham cut side down (fat side up) in a pan and pour the apple juice, cloves, and water over it. Bake 2 hours, uncovered. Mix the glaze together and pour over the ham and bake another 45 minutes, basting now and then.
The green beans came from CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day
Cook the bacon in a 10″ skillet (so there will be room for the beans to spread out) and remove when done. Leave the bacon grease in the pan. Cook the onion until soft, about 5 minutes, then add the green beans, minced garlic, tsp thyme and 1/3 cup water. Cover and once the steam starts escaping set the timer for 5 minutes. This cooks the beans and then you can finish off by removing the lid and cooking another minute or two until done to your liking. The water steams away and the beans saute in the bacon grease. Stir in bacon, 1 Tbs balsamic vinegar and pepper to taste, then serve.
I’ve seen these called all three of the above names. It’s an easy recipe because you don’t need to measure and can adjust depending on how many you are feeding.
Peel and slice as many potatoes as you want to cook, probably 1 or more per person depending on how much you want leftover. (They’re good leftover!). Butter a shallow baking dish, 9×9 or 9×12 or whatever. Lay the potato slices down in rows, slightly overlapping each until the bottom of the pan is covered. Lightly salt and pepper. Lay another layer of potato slices down, salt and pepper. Repeat as often as you’d like. Pour enough milk in to come to the bottom of the top layer of potatoes. Place dabs of butter on top. Bake about an hour at 350 (or a bit longer if you have the ham in at 325).
After 30 minutes, carefully slide the pan out and press the potato slices down into the milk if necessary, so they don’t get too crisp on top. Finish baking.
Forgot to take a picture of these!
My eldest wanted to make fudge today. I was going to the store so picked up the marshmallow fluff and evaporated milk. I was SURE we had those squares of baking chocolate at home… Not! Uh oh. Found this table for substituting different kinds of chocolate. Yay! So we used 2 1/4 cups semi sweet chocolate chips rather than baking chocolate squares. Looks good so far!
Sometimes you just need a simple dinner and it doesn’t get much simpler than this soup. It’s made with chicken broth, carrots and ancini di pepe pasta (little balls). Years ago we somehow named it Frog Eye Soup and the name has stuck. When you make it with good homemade chicken broth, it is unbelievably good. I had a quart of broth in the freezer and a quart in the refrigerator. A few nights ago I made fried chicken for dinner. While the chicken pieces were soaking in yogurt thinned with milk (instead of buttermilk), I cooked the wing tips, neck and back with water and half an onion to make broth so I could make chicken gravy. It was a light broth but good and combined with the richer broth in the freezer made a darn good pot of soup last night. I made some grilled cheese sandwiches for those that were a big hungrier. I have just a quart of soup left in the fridge which I’m pretty sure will get eaten up for lunch.
It’s been cold here the past few nights, down below freezing. This morning even the chicken waterer was frozen, as were the dogs’ water dishes. It was down to 29 last night. Glad my chickens are all feathered out again after molting!
I heated up some tomato soup for dinner the other night and while distracted the pot boiled over a bit, spilling tomato soup down the sides of the pot. Seeing the bright copper stripes where the tomato soup had spilled reminded me of how long it had been since I’d cleaned off the bottoms of the pans with something acidic enough to show the copper!
I started to think about buying some “copper cleaner” and then remembered I didn’t need to buy anything. I had started collecting homemade cleaner recipes and started a new site a while back. Here’s the “recipe” for how to clean copper bottomed pans. Basically just lemon juice, salt and flour to make a paste. Worked great!
I forgot to take before and after pictures but trust me, the pots look great now! And I think they conduct the heat better when clean.
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