Home-Made Beef Vegetable Soup

1 Lb Lean Stew Meat, diced

6 - 8 cups water

2 cans beef or chicken broth (optional - reduce water proportionally)

4 beef or chicken bullion cubes (reduce 2 cubes if using canned broth)

1 cup medium carrots (appx 2 medium), peeled and diced

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup onion (appx 1/2 medium onion), diced

1 cup celery, broccoli stems, or leeks, diced

1 cup potato (appx 1 cup), diced (peel if russett)

1 cup yellow sweet potato, diced (peeling is optional)

1 tomato, diced (optional)

1/2 cup pearl barley (optional)

2 oz oil or butter for frying

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tsp italian seasoning (ok to substitute oregano or tyme)

1/2 tsp dill weed (or more, if you like it)

dash salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste

Directions

Brown the stew meat in one or two ounces of oil. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. When meat has browned, add water, chicken/beef broth, pearl barley, italian seasoning and bring to boil. Reduce heat until soup is at a very low boil. Add carrots, celery, mushrooms, onion. Allow soup t come back to low boil, simmer for appx 5 minutes. Next add potatoes, leeks and tomato to pot. Bring back to a boil for 4 - 5 more minutes. Check potatoes frequently, they should be cooked but not too soft. Turn heat off immediately when potatoes are nearing the desired firmness. Stir in onion powder, dill weed. Check flavor, very carefully add salt or celery seasoning to taste - it is very important to slightly under-salt the soup.

For best flavor, allow soup to rest 15 minutes before serving.

Creamy Garlic Salad Dressing

I have to thank my friend Phil for this one -- it was kinda his secret recipe but it is so dang good I have to share it with everyone.  If you serve this at a gathering, you will surely be asked for the recipe.  Bonus: it is rather intense, so a little goes a long way.
  
4 oz Fresh garlic cloves

5 oz Vinegar

2 oz Maggi seasoning*  (available at many Asian markets)

4 oz Mayonnaise

2 oz Dijon mustard

1.5 oz Olive oil

1/8 tsp Salt (optional)

1 tsp Ground pepper

Directions:

Microwave garlic cloves for 45 seconds to take the bite out of them. Place them in a (small) blender along with vinegar and blend until smooth. Place blended contents into a 20+ oz container for which you have a lid. Add all remaining ingredients, put lid on tightly and shake vigorously until dressing is smooth and uniform.

Makes about 18 oz. About 45 calories/oz if you use light mayonnaise.

Refrigerate in a closed container. Shelf life is about two weeks.

*Note: there is an American version of Maggi seasoning -- it's called "Bragg's Liquid Aminos".  It is basically a soy sauce variant with some MSG in it.  If you don't have it, you can fake it with these two ingredients.

Mountain Stew (aka Shepherd's Pie)

This recipe is one that goes back all the way to my childhood, we had it on our first snowy winter night's visit to our rented cabin in Lake Arrowhead, California. There are lots of variations, it is essentially a simple stew with cornbread that bakes on top of it. With the right touch and in the right environment (like a frosty cabin being slowly warmed by a fire in the hearth), it is so good it simply cannot be forgotten.

Ingredients:

Stew:

1 – 1.5 lbs ground beef, browned and seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano or italian seasoning.

1 med onion, diced

1 lg carrot, diced

1 cup peas, frozen

1 cup corn, frozen or canned

1 can condensed soup of your choice, e.g. chicken noodle, minestrone, or mushroom

(Note: feel free to mix/match/substitute your favorite stew ingredients such as frozen mixed vegetables to replace the corn, peas and carrots)

Cornbread:
2 cups corn meal

½ cup flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 ½ oz olive oil or melted butter

1 oz sugar

1 egg, pre-beaten

1 ¾ cups milk

1. Line a 9 x 12 baking pan with aluminum foil.

2. Add the vegetables and browned ground beef to the bottom of the pan, spread evenly.

3. Mix the cornbread ingredients, add a little extra milk if necessary until consistency is like a thick pancake batter. Avoid over-stirring the batter or cornbread will not be fluffy.

4. Pour the batter over the top of the meat and vegetables, do your best to evenly distribute the batter over the top. It actually comes out nice if you pour so that the batter does not touch the edges.

5. Cover loosely with foil and bake on center rack for 45 mins at 375F.

6. Remove foil covering and bake for 20 mins at 425F. Done when cornbread is beginning to brown in places.

(Note: may be done sooner at higher altitudes)

Juiced Shredded Carrot Bread

Hi Friends,

I modified this recipe from one I found elsewhere because I wanted to do something with my shredded carrot tailings/threads (what DO you call them?) left over from a session of juicing carrots with my Juice Weasel. It takes about 5 carrots to make one cup of carrot juice, I hated to throw away the all the fluffy carroty left-overs. 5 or 6 medium sized carrots will create enough juiced carrot shreds for this recipe. As an alternative, you can use 1 1/2 cups finely grated un-juiced carrots.

This recipe is quite good, and if you really wait until you smell the raisins begin to toast, the bread comes out crispy on the outside and very moist and crumbly on the inside. Amazingly it does not taste particularly carroty at all, I think it is because the carrot shreds are a little dehydrated after leaving the juicer.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup olive oil

- - -

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups finely grated raw carrots -or- 2 cups juiced carrot shreds

1 cup chopped walnuts

3/4 cup raisins or craisins

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

- Beat eggs and add sugar and oil. Sift together flour, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, and add to egg mixture.

- Beat well. Add carrots, nuts and raisins. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and pour in batter.

- Bake one hour. Will be done when scent of toasting raisins is detected.

- Let cool for 5 minutes, carefully (!!) pop the bread out of the tray and let cool for at least 5 more minutes.