Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
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Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
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Saturday, February 18. 2023

The Maggie's Farm Classic Mommys of America Cheap, Quick, 'n Easy Winter Supper Cookbook


Kid-friendly, unfashionable, and not for weight loss. Reposted annually by popular request.


I've collected the posts on old-timey Mommys of America non-gourmet, comforting (eg filling), quick 'n easy (eg no lasagna or fried chicken), and sensitively-multicultural (even Shrimp 'n Grits) winter suppers here, in no particular order. Such foods mean family love. 


I suspect some of our foreign readers - of whom we have quite a few - might be interested in what American moms (and sometimes modern dads) fix up for ordinary family suppers in Upper Yankeeland (with the exception of Shrimp 'n Grits which is real Southern food and suitable for breakfast, lunch, or supper).


A number of these are suitable to ye olde slow cooker aka electric crock pot.

Creamed Chicken with Peas


Mac and Cheese


Cacciatore


Easy Chicken Casserole


Shepherd's Pie


Meat Loaf


Pot Roast


Beef Stew


Pasta Fagioli


Stroganoff


Tetrazzine


Stuffed Bell Peppers


Corned Beef and Cabbage, aka New England Boiled Dinner


Chili


Spaghetti and Meatballs


Chowder


Beans: Black Bean Soup, and Red Beans and Rice


Moussaka


Tuna Noodle


Chicken and Dumplings


Stuffed Cabbage


Shrimp and Grits


Codfish Cakes

Posted by Bird Dog in Food and Drink at 13:10 | Comments (38) | Trackbacks (0)

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Oh Boy BD--you hit it big last night at our house! Because of your previous post I decided to try Ribollita. I used Ina Garten's recipe. I added two sweet Italian sausage links (skinned and chopped up). I cooked them after the prosciutto, then added onions. I used one leek and one onion rather than the two onions Ina's recipe called for. i was trying to use your Italian recipe as a reference. The house smells great this morning and we hated to have to eat breakfast -- wanted to just get into that soup. I did use dried beans I had pre-soaked the night before; they make a huge difference if you remember not to let them boil! Here is the link:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/ribollita-recipe/index.html
#1 apple pie on 2013-02-15 13:05 (Reply)
Who says you can't eat soup for breakfast?
#1.1 D on 2013-02-15 15:31 (Reply)
Or cold pizza? Delicious for breakfast.
#1.1.1 Bird Dog on 2013-02-15 15:59 (Reply)
Thank you much for putting this series all in one place, these dishes bring back many fond childhood memories.
#2 New Yorker on 2013-02-16 14:10 (Reply)
Here is how I do stuffed cabbage.
1) Cook the ingredients that you are going to put inside the cabbage- meat, rice, whatever.
2) Blanch the cabbage leaves- put in simmering water for a short while- enough to soften. Ten- twenty seconds or less.
3) Stuff the cabbage leaves.
4) Add the stuffed cabbage leaves to a pressure cooker. I add water to the bottom, and put the stuffed leaves in a bowl on top of a cooking rack. Water level should be just below the top of the bowl.
5) When pressure cooker is up to pressure, cook for 2-3 minutes.

Re soup or pizza for breakfast. In Guatemala, breakfast is the same as lunch or dinner. Beans w hot peppers on the side, coffee with or without milk, eggs scrambled with tomatoes and/or onions, and tortillas. Once you have eaten homemade tortillas- which actually taste like corn- you will never purchase commercially made tortillas.
#3 Gringo on 2013-02-17 12:35 (Reply)
These Bird Dog posts always make me go and make lunch or dinner. Back later.,
#4 vanderleun on 2014-02-19 15:09 (Reply)
R.I.P. Gerard, we'll see you after lunch.
#4.1 Aggie on 2023-02-19 10:36 (Reply)
Another classic creamed chicken:
Cut up chicken thighs (I use a thigh per person)
can of Campbell's Cream of celery or mushroom soup
Onion or celery chopped finely if you have it, as much as you feel like.
Sprinkle of thyme (if you have it) and black pepper
Mix together in a casserole dish
Bake in the oven for 45 minutes at 375
#5 acairfearann (Link) on 2014-02-19 16:58 (Reply)
What no Taco Salad?
1) get large bowl
2 Add shredded Ice Berg lettuce, Cheese (any), diced black olives, diced onion, diced advacado, diced jalapeño peppers,
3) Brown 1.5 lb ground round
4) Add Cooked Ground round to bowl, stir to mix all ingredients
5) serve family style or on plates
#6 L_J on 2014-02-19 17:17 (Reply)
opps forgot to add 1 14 oz bag of regular Fritos to the bowl before adding ground round
#6.1 L_J on 2014-02-19 17:21 (Reply)
and two diced tomatoes before adding ground round.

yeah I thought this thru. so obvious
#6.2 L_J on 2014-02-19 17:26 (Reply)
Cabbage and Kielbasa and grated cheese w dill, garlic and a chopped apple (chop everything into an enamelled cast iron pot with lid, put in 300 degree oven for 2 hours, while you go pick up everyone from fencing practice, the library, and buy the art supplies at Staples, then come home and dinner will be ready, with stirring or fussing. If you stick a storebought baguette in the oven the last five minutes, that's a good addition.

Oven Beef Curry: saute beef chunks w onion, celery, apple and curry paste in enamelled cast iron pan, add carrots, then a can of coconut milk, and put lid on and bake at 350 for an hour and a half or so. In meantime, set up rice steamer. This is a forgiving meal--if you get distracted trying to help with the math question that seems much harder than when you were young, the dinner will usually be okay. Or you can take SOMEBODY to go get something they need the next day.

Split Pea and ham bone soup (when you had roast ham for Sunday dinner. ). Simmer a pound of green split peas in a large pot with a ton of water (whatever the packet suggests, and a meaty bone, plus an onion, and a head of garlic peeled and chopped and half a pound of carrots sliced, and a head of celery sliced. At the last minute season to taste (salt toughens the peas, so don't do it right away). A touch of vinegar and red pepper is good. Lots of fresh herbs if you have them on the windowsill.

Chicken Pot Pie: Use leftover chicken from Sunday or Saturday dinner if you have been able to beat the jackals away from the carcass. Put in a storebought piecrust (probably better than anything I can make myself, and a lot easier), and either use up any leftover homemade gravy, or put in a can of cream of mushroom soup, plus some frozen mixed veggies, plus chopped onions, garlic, tabasco sauce. Put crust on top, and bake til golden.
#7 retriever on 2014-02-19 17:25 (Reply)
Thank you for posting this very useful list. I run out of ideas and get into food ruts. Which, I'm pretty sure is a thought crime.
#8 W. C. Taqiyya on 2014-02-19 18:10 (Reply)
Ha, ha, that picture looks like a $17.65 meal on account of presentation and small quantities.
#9 chuck on 2014-02-19 22:04 (Reply)
You probably ate some variation of this, as well - some call it goulash soup:

http://www.centralsynagogue.org/community/food/detail/sweet_and_sour_cabbage_soup_sauerkraut_soup
#10 Ben David on 2014-02-20 01:00 (Reply)
Tyler Florence's shrimp and grits recipe is a fail. You don't get grits from cornmeal.
#11 arcs on 2014-02-20 13:08 (Reply)
You don't get grits from cornmeal.

Where do grits come from, besides Winn-Dixie?
#11.1 barnhill on 2020-01-19 17:02 (Reply)
Well, I can't comment on any recipe you've listed, although I will surely try a couple or four, with the exception of the beef stew, or it's cousin, venison stew. Those we make.

Surprised I didn't see any soups. Through the winter we do turkey, chicken, and yellow pea-ham. The turkey comes from Thanksgiving and we make a giant pot of soup that provides about four dinners (grilled cheese sammiches not included) for the two of us.

Christmas hambone gets frozen and turned into pea (yellow) soup later in the winter as it begins thinking about yielding to spring.

Chicken soup is becoming a staple. The freakin' dog is old and decided to go on a hunger strike if we didn't stop feeding her nothing but dog food. One day, 13 years into this, she just simply said "I ain't eatin' this, big end dog food though it may be, another day. I'll lay here and starve or you can find plan B."

Plan B is a can of tuna in the morning (the cat is WAY on board with getting her meager morsels from it) and rotisserie (sp?) chicken and rice for dinner. So once each week I pick up 66 or 8 cans of tuna for $1/can or less, sometimes a little more, and a $4.99 rotisserie chicken from Costco (larger) or Wegmans, whichever is most convenient at the moment. Then I boil up some rice with some a beef bullion cube and add the chicken yuck to that.

About every third or fourth chicken carcass gets turned into chicken soup. The rest get picked clean and boiled into a stock of sorts which is used to moisten the chicken and rice which tends to thicken through the week.

The cat is even older than the dog but I can't abide that nasty little b***h and rarely give her more than scraps of what I prepare for the faithful mutt. I realize that makes me a bad person but so be it.

And all this reminds me that I need to make a venison stew with some venison a friend dropped off. Tried to drop the the cat in the back of his pickup but she jumped out.
#12 Knucklehead (Link) on 2015-01-22 20:11 (Reply)
Yes, I have plenty of venison too
#12.1 BD on 2016-01-16 21:49 (Reply)
Loved reading the boiled dinner recipe! You don't see writing like that in most cookbooks. Not being Irish, though, I add plenty of carrots when I make a boiled dinner. Add a few turnips chunked up like the potatoes, too. It cooks much quicker and easier if you substitute a couple pounds kielbasa cut into chunks for the corned beef, throw everything into the pot at once except the cabbage. Save the cabbage until it's halfway done cooking and add it on top, because despite what the recipe says you most certainly can overcook cabbage.
#13 Jerryskids on 2016-01-17 01:53 (Reply)
This is a very old German food you might enjoy called Schweinshaxen. Traditionally considered a poor-mans food, it is served with sauerkraut or rotkohl (sweet red cabbage).

This YouTube video is in German (sorry, no English subtitles) but the ingredients are simple...sugar, salt, pepper, vinegar and basil leaves. Boil and then put on the rotating grill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm0DVGu8nsU

I also found an American website that describes it in English.

http://www.foodrepublic.com/recipes/oktoberfest-pork-shank-recipe/

.
#14 Karl Horst (Germany) on 2016-01-17 07:21 (Reply)
Check out the recipes on Tasty at Facebook. Easy-peasy, all with video to show the steps.
#15 fiftyville on 2016-01-18 02:05 (Reply)
Maggie's farm is my favorite blog.
My wife knows nothig abut it but I can tell you from now on she be a big fan!
Thank you for posting.
#16 Phil Taylor (Link) on 2017-02-05 15:34 (Reply)
Over a dozen of those are among our favorites and standards. We also make a lot of oxtail stew, pozole, and something we call biroc (sp.?), which is cabbage boiled with ground beef, onions, and caraway seeds. Oh, also sausage and sauerkraut. And gumbo, and Rotel tomato casserole, and pork vindaloo, and pork with Thai basil, and a Mexican pork stew with pineapple and plaintains and lots of other stuff. All of those together would describe 90% of what we eat, I guess, not counting roast chicken and broiled steaks.
#17 Texan99 on 2017-02-05 21:46 (Reply)
I usually stuff non-bell peppers. A little more labor intensive, but it tastes better. Cubanelle, Carmen, various banana peppers.

Also prefer cumin/chile/smoked paprika spices to a herby Italian flavor.
#18 forest on 2017-02-06 06:39 (Reply)
Forest - use a pastry bag with large tip. Better yet, cut off the corner of a heavy ziplock bag so the tip fits snugly. No cleanup.
#18.1 Ben David on 2017-02-07 04:08 (Reply)
We almost always substitute mild poblano peppers for bell peppers, not just in stuffed-pepper recipes but in all dishes calling for bells. They're much easier to grow--faster and more disease-resistant. If you buy them in the store, they last better in the fridge than bells do.
#18.2 Texan99 on 2020-01-20 09:43 (Reply)
Lasagna (which can be assembled with dry pasta) is too much fuss - but stuffed cabbage is OK?
#19 Ben David on 2017-02-06 13:42 (Reply)
Boy, some of you people must have cast iron stomachs! I would like to be able to try some of these recipes but my innards would never tolerate it.
#20 JC on 2017-02-06 15:22 (Reply)
Corned beef and cabbage....just add some sauerkraut and cheese to dark bread and you have a Ruben sandwich. Beer for a side dish.
#21 indyjonesouthere on 2020-01-19 17:54 (Reply)
Lasagna is quick and easy!
#22 LP on 2020-01-19 19:09 (Reply)
Variation on the cabbage rolls: Instead of pouring the tomato juice mixture over them, arrange in a baking dish or casserole and cover with a layer of tomato soup (regular can, undiluted) mixed with a jar of sauerkraut, drained.

Cover and bake in a medium oven, say, 350 degrees, until bubbly. Don't cover with aluminum foil unless you use that non-stick kind.

Baking changed the flavor of the sauerkraut. Kind of addicting.
#23 KT on 2020-01-19 22:17 (Reply)
Suggestion, round it up to an even two dozen recipes by adding a Southwestern Tex-Mex dish, since hispanic cuisine is under-represented here: Carne Guisada, a hearty mexican beef or pork stew. Easy in a slow cooker. I use beef chuck, poblano and jalapeño peppers, fresh tomatoes and one tomotillo for a little tartness. Great in breakfast burritos, over rice, over mashed potatoes, or by itself A staple in most any Texas Tex-Mex joint.
#24 Aggie on 2020-01-19 23:10 (Reply)
A comment at the link on Chili suggested Homesick Texan, which I perused and also recommend.
#24.1 Gringo on 2020-01-20 14:24 (Reply)
I have discovered the magic of using an instapot for dried beans. Just made a pot of Senate Bean soup and for pintos (I’m in the South), it is fix it and forget it. I can get the rest of the meal going while they cook. Yum!
#25 Sheryl on 2020-01-20 11:46 (Reply)
Did Shepherd's Pie tonight. Sauteed ground beef, onions, garlic, and mushrooms with spiced salt, ground pepper and Worcestershire (pronounces "Wooster") sauce. Added a tin of fancy mushroom soup and a half bag of frozen mixed veg. Put it in casserole, topped it with mashed potatoes (boiled potatoes and garlic in salted water, drained and mashed with butter) and popped in oven. Removed when potato browning and sauce oozing up. Still a staple in our family.
#26 Frances (Link) on 2020-01-20 21:11 (Reply)
I wondered how your red beans and rice recipe differed from ours. The link is broken.
#27 James the lesser (Link) on 2023-02-18 15:54 (Reply)
You need to add the college student's favorite: Ramen noodles. LOL Except for the sodium, it's not bad if you add canned chicken, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and some green colored veggies (peas, broccoli, green beans, etc.)
#28 Tanstafl on 2023-02-21 15:24 (Reply)

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