So what's for dinner?

Not for dinner, but I made these cinnamon rolls yesterday for breakfast and they were a hit.

Today I am going to make spaghetti and these breadsticks for dinner, I think. It depends on what time I get back from my shopping trip.

BBQ pork ribs!

Biscuits. .and whatever other leftovers there are.

stormie said:

I have milk and lemons (and 2 pounds Ricotta) to use up. Do you have a recipe for this, or do you just wing-it? And if you wing-it, what do you do? This recipe would be a great idea for dinner some night.

Click to expand...

I saw this message and typed up a reply, only to discover the site went down in the meantime! Fortunately I typed in Notepad so I saved my post.

I usually wing things! This is a very simple dish, though, just a variation of primavera. I'll give some approx. amounts, per person. Multiply times the number of servings.

3 oz pasta (I used fettuccine and it worked well)
1/2 cup peas
any other vegetables you'd want to add. I added a large handful chopped beet greens last night, but any greens would work. Or asparagus, red bell pepper, etc. Just make sure you cook them if you want them cooked.

juice from a 1/4 of a lemon
a bit less than a TBSP of olive oil
1/4 cup grated asiago or parmesan (fresh-grated is best, but pre-grated works in a pinch)
garlic to taste (I like jarred garlic for applications like this where it's not cooked. Makes it less bitey)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup ricotta
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh basil, or dried basil in a pinch

Set your water boiling and add your pasta. Set the timer for 3 minutes BEFORE al dente. When the timer goes off, add your frozen peas and bring back to a boil for the last three minutes. If you have non-greens vegetables, I'd add them here too. If you're using fresh peas, you'll probably only want to cook for a minute or two.

Drain your pasta and peas and add back to the pot. Add greens, if you're using them. They'll wilt in the hot pasta. Drizzle in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt and pepper. Stir well, then add the grated hard cheese and stir well again.

Portion out, and top each serving with the ricotta and basil.

Tada! Super easy and flexible. It's about 650-700 cal per serving as written, probably could drop that by reducing the oil a tad.

And I made the ricotta from milk myself, in case you're wondering where the milk comes in. I use this basic recipe except I make a much larger batch, I do it on the stove (I find it easier than the microwave, honestly), and I heat to 180F. 165F has never worked right for me.

stormie said:

Okay, I'm game. What's taco pizza?

Click to expand...

Make your pizza crust (I have a recipe for a good pizza crust if you want it.) Put salsa or taco sauce on the bottom, hamburger seasoned with taco spice, chopped tomatoes, olives, cheddar cheese. Remove from oven when done and top with lettuce and sour cream.



We had General Tso Eggs & Rice yesterday. Dad made home-made Tso sauce (super delicious!), cooked the rice then transferred the rice into a skillet where he added 2 eggs for each cup of cooked rice. Scrambled the eggs, then topped with snap peas and Tso Sauce.

We have to get creative with out eggs since we have chickens and give us about a dozen a day. We sell some, but we usually have a ton in the fridge.

My dad actually got an article called 'Thinking Outside the Carton' published in March/April issue of The Country Side Magazine, and he gave eggs recipes.

Tonight we had spaghetti and ice cream for dessert. Tomorrow we might try to General Tso sauce with chicken.

shestval--thank you! I even copied the recipe for easy homemade ricotta.

Quentin--love that the taco pizza is something different. And everyone here loves tacos and pizz. I do make my own crust. I have a simple recipe I've been using. Thanks!

Tonight I might do quesadillas. But the guys here want hamburgers. I'm the cook tonight, so I get the final say.

stormie said:

Tonight I might do quesadillas.

Click to expand...

Read my mind: spinach-onion quesadilla with chipotle guacamole.

Dinner tonight is coffee cake with homemade bacon (maple cured) and eggs in some form or another. Simple farm dinner because no one feels like cooking and we've got too many eggs.

Quentin--We might need some of those recipes. We were out of eggs on Monday and already have more than two dozen again. ^_^

harmonyisarine said:

Dinner tonight is coffee cake with homemade bacon (maple cured) and eggs in some form or another. Simple farm dinner because no one feels like cooking and we've got too many eggs.

Quentin--We might need some of those recipes. We were out of eggs on Monday and already have more than two dozen again. ^_^

Click to expand...

Have your own chickens, eh?

Stuffed artichokes. Overstuffed, I may not be able to move until tomorrow, what was I thinking?

Shestval--When I'm putting peas in a pasta dish, I just throw them into the bottom of the colander, then drain the pasta right over/into them.

watermelon, bing cherries, blue berries, and if the bacon ever lasts long enough BLT's. We've eaten the cherries and blueberries already... I love spring fruit season.


Did I mention I love the spring fruit season???

harmonyisarine said:

Quentin--We might need some of those recipes. We were out of eggs on Monday and already have more than two dozen again. ^_^

Click to expand...

This is a copy of my dad's article:

Thinking Outside the Carton

Eggs, look at all the eggs! We had plenty in the refrigerator. You can only do so much with omelets or scrambled eggs. I'm tired of over easy and sunny side up. Like they say, "real men don't eat quiche," besides it doesn't do much for me. The soufflé I made turned out well but again how many times a month can you eat that? So let me tell you the story of how we got the eggs and what we did with them.

Then a thought crossed my mind "they have a Hamburger Helper why don't they have Egg Helper," when a flash of inspiration crossed my mind: "why not substitute scrambled egg for hamburger and use the boxed mix?"

Besides that, scrambled eggs can be used in taco shells in place of beef. The sauce is the dominating flavor, therefore one can't taste the eggs though the texture will be different. This works well with Sloppy Joes, Chinese Egg Rolls, Lasagna, Stuffed Peppers, Chili, and Italian Wedding Soup which already requires eggs.

A few recipes of my own design, which all met with family approval include:

Egg Loaf

2 Cups of Shell or Elbow Pasta
1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup
8 Eggs,
1 Cup Summer Squash
Dash of Salt
Dash of Pepper

Mix ingredients together and pour into a greased and floured loaf pan, ring pan, or casserole dish. (It will stick, but the grease and flour help make cleaning up easier.) Bake for one hour at 350 or till the eggs set; 15 minutes less for a ring pan.

Remove and cut into slices. Serve with Tomato Sauce, Parmesan Cheese, Salsa, Cheese Sauce or Gravy.

My daughter thought the use of broccoli and cream of broccoli soup would be a good variation.


Egg Loaf #2

3-4 Cups Stuffing Mix
8 eggs
¾ Cup Milk
1 Cup Green Peas
Salt and Pepper to taste

Beat eggs and milk together, add stuffing mix. Let set for 3-4 hours. Bake at 350 for one hour or till eggs set. Remove and cut into slices. Serve with beef gravy or ketchup.

The bread made the loaf filling. My wife said it was like French Toast Casserole, and by using plain dried bread, raisins, cinnamon, perhaps a touch of brown sugar we could serve it for breakfast with syrup.

Stir Fry

1 Cup Rice
2 Cups Beef or Chicken Broth
Stir Fry Vegetables
8 Eggs
¼ Teaspoon Salt & Garlic Powder
1/8 Teaspoon Pepper & Ginger
¼ Cup Soy Sauce

Cook rice in broth. Add stir-fry vegetables of your choice to cooked rice. Mix in spices and soy sauce. Bake for 45-60 minutes or till eggs are set at 350. A ring pan works well. I Serve it with Sweet & Sour Sauce or Thai Sauce, however feel free to use your favorite sauces.

Thai Sauce
½ Cup Ginger Ale ¼ Cup Soy Sauce 1 Tablespoon of Peanut Butter 1 Tablespoon of Corn Starch
For Thai Sauce: Mix ingredients and boil till thick.

For Sweet & Sour Sauce: Mix first four ingredients together and cook until sugar is dissolved. Mix cornstarch into cold water. Add to pineapple mixture. Cook until thick.

Curry Eggs

1 Chopped Onion
1 Chopped Apple
1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 Cup Milk
2 Teaspoons Curry Powder
Dab of Butter
1 Cup Rice
8 Eggs

Melt butter in large skillet. Cook onions and apples until tender. Mix curry powder, mushroom soup, and milk together, pour into skillet, stir and bring to boil.

Cook rice and scramble eggs, mix eggs into curry mixture and serve over rice. (Eggs can also be hard-boiled, cut into quarters, and added to curry mixture)

Bean Burritos

5 Eggs
1 Can Black Beans
2 Teaspoons of Chili Powder
½ Cup Taco Sauce
1 Teaspoon Cumin
Garlic Powder to taste
Onion Powder to taste
Pepper to taste
Paprika to taste


Smash black beans in a skillet then add the spices, taco sauce, and eggs. Cook till the eggs are scrambled. Top with melted American cheese,(or cheese of your choice) and serve in a tortilla wrap.

Chocolate Meringue Pie

Pudding 4 Egg Yokes 2 ½ Cups Milk ½ Cup Sugar 3 tablespoons Cocoa
3 Tablespoons Corn Starch
1/8 Teaspoon Salt


Mix 2 cups milk, sugar, and cocoa together and bring to boil. Separately, mix the egg yokes, corn starch, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup milk together. Pour hot liquid into the cold egg mixture. Stir, return to pan, and simmer 2-3 minutes till pudding thickens. Pour into pre-baked pie shell.

Meringue: Beat egg whites into stiff peaks and slowly add sugar and vanilla.

Top the pie with meringue, bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes till meringue turns a golden brown color.

I didn’t have cream of tarter for meringue so I skipped it. It still turned out fine, I just had to beat it a little longer. The only thing was the pudding seemed to shed some liquid which I poured off the pie, perhaps more corn starch was needed?

Ever hear of egg cheese? I found the recipe online. It comes from Slovakia. I cut the recipe down for experimentation purposes.


Egg Cheese

1 Cup Whole Milk
3 Eggs
½ Tablespoon Honey
1/8 Teaspoon Vanilla (Optional)

Combine ingredients and cook in a double boiler for 20 to 30 minutes till it separates into curd. The curd will look like scrambled egg. The water in the double boiler should not touch the inner pan but be just below it.

After it is cooked, put in a cheese cloth or a scrap of old sheet and drain in a colander. Let cool, place in the refrigerator and continue to drain. I found, however, when it was cool you could squeeze the remaining whey out of it so it didn't need to drain all night in the refrigerator.

The Egg Cheese didn't taste bad. . .it didn't taste good. . .it didn't taste like much at all! It would be good for a filling in something like lasagna, but not to spread on crackers. I wasn't satisfied yet. The original recipe was very specific stating, only whole milk--No Substitutes! So I substituted sweetened condensed milk.

Egg Cheese #2

1 14 Ounce Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
3/4 Cup Whole Milk
4 Eggs
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla or to taste

I went through the same cooking process, combining ingredients and cooking in a double boiler for about 30 minutes. The whey didn't seem to separate out, even though it got the scrambled egg look. When it was cool enough to handle in the cheese-cloth, I squeezed a fair amount of whey out of it. This made a nice sweet dessert cheese although a bit crumbly. I used it in an apple cheese coffee cake and a plain cheese coffee cake. In the apple coffee cake the apple dominated so I didn't taste much of the cheese. I would recommend putting in a flavoring like vanilla, almond, peppermint, orange, anise etc. into the cheese when making it to give it extra flavor.

Next, I remembered a very good recipe for carrot burgers on Allrecipes.com. I decided to use it as a basis for vegetarian egg sausage, replacing the carrot--which would be too coarse--with winter squash instead.

Egg Sausage

1 Cup Winter Squash Cooked and Mashed
2 Eggs Beaten
1 Cup Bread Crumbs
2 Tablespoons Oil (Preferably Olive Oil)
1 Teaspoon Italian Seasoning (or your preferred spice)
1/8 Teaspoon Salt
1/8 Teaspoon Pepper
¼ Teaspoon Garlic Powder


Mix all the ingredients together, form into ropes about the length and diameter of a hot dog. Roll in extra bread crumbs. The mixture should resemble very soft cookie dough. Place on greased tray. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Best served fresh.

I had some failures with eggs, too. My chiffon tomato soup didn't pan out very well. I added egg yoke to the soup, whipped the whites into meringue, and mixed it into the soup while it was hot. It was too fluffy, kind of like a soup latte'. Then I had a wild idea of eggeroni; pickling eggs in vinegar and pepper and using it as a substitute for pepperoni on pizza. That didn't fly well with the family. The pickled eggs were good and worked well in pasta salad. They also added a nice flavor to egg salad sandwiches. There are some nice pickled egg recipes online. The National Center for Home Food Preservation had several.

So these are some recipes that we came up with to use eggs in a non-traditional way. With the economy looking like it's going to take another dive, being able to feed your family properly is going to be very important. Eggs can be an essential food during this time, but eggs can get boring, to prevent this a person certainly needs to think outside the box, or in this case, outside the carton.



Daniel Strauss, New York

Copy of my dad's article he hopes to send off soon:

Rice and Eggs with Private Tso’s sauce.

Long before he created General Tso’s Chicken, Private Tso was poor and only made rice with eggs. To make his rice dish taste better he made a sauce to top it with. Later, when he became General, he could afford better and fresher ingredients, but below is his primitive sauce that still tastes good with eggs scrambled into cooked rice. Ok, so the above story about Private Tso is not really his story but mine, I fashioned a sauce after the General Tso’s sauce but used common ingredients that I did have and could afford.

The rice, eggs, and vegetables:

Add 1 cup water and 1 chicken bullion cube for every ½ cup of uncooked, white rice you wish to serve. (Or 1 cup of chicken broth per ½ cup rice.)

Bring rice to boil turn down stove to low heat and simmer till tender. (Takes about 10 minutes.) Every ½ cup of uncooked rice becomes 1 cup of cooked rice. I figure about ½ cup of cooked rice per serving.

Empty rice into a skillet, heat rice and add 2 eggs for every 1 cup of cooked rice. Scramble eggs into rice, eggs will seem to disappear into the rice. Once the eggs set, serve with your favorite steamed or canned vegetables on top and cover with sauce below.

Private Tso’s Sauce:

1 cup water
1 chicken bullion cube ( or instead of water and cube use chicken broth)
3 tbs. tomato sauce (or 1 ½ tbs. tomato paste)
1 tbs. soy sauce
1 tbs. vinegar ( rice, apple or white vinegar is fine)
2 tea. sesame seed
¼ tea. powdered ginger
¼ tea. powdered garlic
½ tea. red pepper flakes
3 tbs. sugar
2 tbs. corn starch

Place the above ingredients into sauce pan stir and bring to boil to thicken then remove from heat, cool slightly, and serve. The sauce easily covers 2 cups of cooked rice. Feel free to adjust spices, sugar and corn starch to your desired tastes and texture. You may easily double or triple the recipe. Extra sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for later use.

It seems to me the above sauce would work well on other dishes. I didn’t feel right about calling it General Tso’s sauce, since I changed it so much. If General Tso were ever to be reincarnated as a chicken, I feel he would resent being covered by a sauce so different from the original recipe that bears his name. Yes, he might resent me eating him in his reincarnated body as well, but my sympathies only go so far.

Daniel Strauss, New York.

Burritos. Om nom nom.

For a wallowing-face-down-in-the-plate meal, I do a chicken and mushroom dish I came up with myself. It's pretty easy to make.

1 package of chicken breast, cut into medallions
1 package of fresh thyme, cut the leaves off the stems
1 package of fresh rosemary, cut the leaves off the stems
1 package of sliced mushrooms (8 oz)
1 yellow onion medium sized, diced small
White wine, about a cup, separated into two portions
flour, about a tablespoon worth
butter, two parts, one is a tablespoon and one is two tablespoons
about a tablespoon of olive oil
About 1 & 1/2 cups of half and half cream

Heat a tablespoon of butter in a large frying pan, with the olive oil.
Add the mushrooms and the onions, you want to saute them until they wilt.
As you are cooking the mushrooms and onions, add half of the fresh thyme and half of the rosemary leaves.
When the mushrooms, onions, rosemary and thyme are mostly cooked, add 1/2 cup of the white wine.
When cooked, put the mushroom, onion, rosemary and thyme mix in a large cooking bowl, set aside and don't clean the frying pan.
Using the same frying pan, add the chicken, the rest of the rosemary and thyme, and saute the chicken for a few minutes on a medium high heat, adding 1/2 cup of white wine towards the end, until you have browned the chicken.
Remove the chicken mixture from the frying pan, put it in the same mixing bowl with the mushroom and onion mixture.
Put the two table spoons of butter and table spoon of flour into the frying pan over a medium heat. You want to lightly brown the flour.
Once the flour is very lightly browned, start adding the half and half slowly, stirring to eliminate lumps.
Now add the contents of the mixing bowl.
Simmer for about 10 minutes or so.
At this point, you may wish to add more wine, but do a little at a time. The sauce should be creamy, thickened, but not runny.
If you want to add pepper and salt, do so at this time.

Serve with quinoa, rice or mashed potatoes and a salad or vegetable of your choice.

Chicken Wonderfulness

Dredge chicken in flour, salt and pepper and fry in heavy pot with a diced onion.
Add mixed vegetables and diced potatoes
Add chicken broth and sherry
Add garlic powder
Cook until potatoes are done.
Add sour cream, stir and serve with crunchy bread.

I do 2 chicken breasts, 1 onion, three potatoes, 2 pounds of mixed veggies, a carton of broth, 1 cup of sherry, flour enough to thicken it a bit, salt, pepper and garlic to taste and 16 ounces of sour cream or plain yoghurt. Your proportions may vary.

Haggis said:

Have your own chickens, eh?

Click to expand...

We've got eight hens and a rooster. The rooster only gets to stick around because he actually helps herd them to safe places when predators show up (which isn't common, but we do live in the woods). Six of the hens are barred rocks and the other two and rooster are all Rhode Island reds. The rooster has the most lovely feathers, I collect them whenever I see them and have decided to actually sit and hand-pluck him whenever he outlives his usefulness. Seeing as he's managing to jump up to chest level when he gets ornery at the humans, that might be sooner rather than later.

Quentin Nokov said:

(So many recipes)

Click to expand...

Those look fantastic, and will be incredibly useful for using up the surplus. Thank you, and thank your father for us! We're all getting a bit tired of boiled eggs. ^_^

Edited because I forgot this.

I noticed that your father wasn't pleased with the egg cheeses he'd made. We use this recipe ( http://www.coalregion.com/recipes/hrudka.php ) and the ratios are a bit more egg to milk, which gives a different curd texture. It comes out pretty vanilla-y, and of course egg-y. I don't know if he'd be interested in trying this version, but figured I'd leave it here.

harmonyisarine said:

We've got eight hens and a rooster. The rooster only gets to stick around because he actually helps herd them to safe places when predators show up (which isn't common, but we do live in the woods). Six of the hens are barred rocks and the other two and rooster are all Rhode Island reds. The rooster has the most lovely feathers, I collect them whenever I see them and have decided to actually sit and hand-pluck him whenever he outlives his usefulness. Seeing as he's managing to jump up to chest level when he gets ornery at the humans, that might be sooner rather than later.

Click to expand...

Not surprising people are now thinking there's a closer relationship between birds and dinosaurs than they might have thought before.

Might I suggest that before you strangle the rooster for his insolence, you consider a nice stew or chicken and dumplings.

harmonyisarine said:

We've got eight hens and a rooster. The rooster only gets to stick around because he actually helps herd them to safe places when predators show up (which isn't common, but we do live in the woods). Six of the hens are barred rocks and the other two and rooster are all Rhode Island reds. The rooster has the most lovely feathers, I collect them whenever I see them and have decided to actually sit and hand-pluck him whenever he outlives his usefulness. Seeing as he's managing to jump up to chest level when he gets ornery at the humans, that might be sooner rather than later.

Click to expand...

We have two roosters and they actually get along, which I think is pretty rare! We have 2 black hens that came from my grandfather when he passed, plus the white rooster. We bought 12 Rhode Island Reds from the local Tractor Supply, but we unfortunately lost one. It got out when it was still fairly young. It might've died of hypothermia first and then the dog found it. The dogs are good with the chickens so I'm thinking it might've died first and then they grabbed it. The coop is heated and so we figured the chickens would stay in on the nippy day in April, but one didn't. By September we got one peep from the others laying and that was a rooster. So now we have two, but the old one looks like he might not last much longer.

Those look fantastic, and will be incredibly useful for using up the surplus. Thank you, and thank your father for us! We're all getting a bit tired of boiled eggs. ^_^

Edited because I forgot this.

I noticed that your father wasn't pleased with the egg cheeses he'd made. We use this recipe ( http://www.coalregion.com/recipes/hrudka.php ) and the ratios are a bit more egg to milk, which gives a different curd texture. It comes out pretty vanilla-y, and of course egg-y. I don't know if he'd be interested in trying this version, but figured I'd leave it here.

Click to expand...

I'll show my dad the recipe. We're glad you find the recipes useful! Yesterday we actually grilled hard boiled eggs on kabobs. They were pretty good. A bit smokey. You just have to be careful they don't stick to the grill.

We're having STIR FRY tonight.

Haggis said:

Not surprising people are now thinking there's a closer relationship between birds and dinosaurs than they might have thought before.

Might I suggest that before you strangle the rooster for his insolence, you consider a nice stew or chicken and dumplings.

Click to expand...

The link to dinosaurs is terrifyingly obvious when the rooster starts growling. He especially hates my brother, which is hilarious for the rest of us, but he'll chase my brother around. While he's stalking up on Brother, he'll start growling so quietly that you can hardly even hear it.

I am also rather looking forward to when we turn him into soup. It's my favorite part of getting roosters, really.

Quentin Nokov said:

We have two roosters and they actually get along, which I think is pretty rare! We have 2 black hens that came from my grandfather when he passed, plus the white rooster. We bought 12 Rhode Island Reds from the local Tractor Supply, but we unfortunately lost one. It got out when it was still fairly young. It might've died of hypothermia first and then the dog found it. The dogs are good with the chickens so I'm thinking it might've died first and then they grabbed it. The coop is heated and so we figured the chickens would stay in on the nippy day in April, but one didn't. By September we got one peep from the others laying and that was a rooster. So now we have two, but the old one looks like he might not last much longer.




I'll show my dad the recipe. We're glad you find the recipes useful! Yesterday we actually grilled hard boiled eggs on kabobs. They were pretty good. A bit smokey. You just have to be careful they don't stick to the grill.

We're having STIR FRY tonight.

Click to expand...

Our first batch, we had four roosters. We slaughtered them young, but they were starting to get into fights by the time we finally took care of them. Our last rooster and our new rooster would probably take very poorly to any others around, they hardly tolerate the hens. And our hens won't actually brood. ;_; We have to buy all of our peeps.

We've had two unspecified deaths so far. One was a meat chick that grew too fast for his heart to keep up, and another was a hen who just stopped eating and drinking and wasted away. We couldn't find a single injury and, except for not eating, she didn't seem sick. We still don't know what's wrong, but at least it wasn't communicable.

harmonyisarine said:

Our first batch, we had four roosters. We slaughtered them young, but they were starting to get into fights by the time we finally took care of them. Our last rooster and our new rooster would probably take very poorly to any others around, they hardly tolerate the hens. And our hens won't actually brood. ;_; We have to buy all of our peeps.

We've had two unspecified deaths so far. One was a meat chick that grew too fast for his heart to keep up, and another was a hen who just stopped eating and drinking and wasted away. We couldn't find a single injury and, except for not eating, she didn't seem sick. We still don't know what's wrong, but at least it wasn't communicable.

Click to expand...

That's so weird. Poor little hen. My dad spent the extra money to have the peeps all female. He's been a farmer all his life and he doesn't even know how one tells them apart when they are that young! But we got all females which was nice.

That's seems odd the rooster can't tolerate the hens--although I think it's the other way around here when I get thinking about it. Some hens can not tolerate the rooster. The other day he was chasing one all around the yard; she wanted nothing to do with him. It was an amusing sight.

Only one hen has laid on her eggs. We want to use them for meat someday, but as of right now we're just after eggs.


------------------------

Last night my mother made up the most amazing chicken recipe! Off the top of my head it was:

4 Chicken Breasts
4 Apples Diced
8 Oz of Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Lemon Pepper

Cut the chicken breasts down the middle, but do not cut in half. The sides should remain intact, but an incision should be made deep enough to stuff the diced apple and shredded cheese inside. Any extra apples and cheese can go on top; then sprinkle with lemon pepper to taste. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until done.

Serve with side vegetables or salads of your choice.

IT WAS AWESOME! And very easy to make. We're lazy cooks we don't spend a lot of time prepping.

I just realized this wasn’t available by searching Google any more. It dropped off the Snopes site for some reason. There used to be a thread like this over there with people from all over the world listing what they’d added to it when they made it. Lots of fun.

Casserole ULTRAGOTHA

1 15 ounce can sweet corn (NOT creamed corn) rinsed to reduce salt, or 2 cups frozen corn. If there’s a Trader Joe near you, try 2 cups of frozen roasted corn.

1 15 ounce can of black beans Or pre-cook your black beans and use two cups cooked.

1 ~15 ounce bottle of salsa, your choice as to hotness

Mix together and put in slow cooker on low all day or heat in a pot over the stove.

When it’s hot, add 8 ounces of Neufchatel lower fat cream cheese. (Hmm. For the Europeans, this is a very soft cheese rather like marscapone. You could substitute Greek style pain yoghurt also. Maybe even crème fraiche.) Stir in until completely melted.

Serve over chips (corn chips, not French fries!) or, my favorite, brown rice.


This is the basic recipe and it is very cheap for those on a budget. I can buy all the ingredients at Aldi for less than $5, plus rice or chips. As listed above, it makes at least six servings that are more than enough for dinner.

However, you can add anything you like to this to make more or just add cool stuff. Onions, peppers, chicken, zucchini (courgette) shrimp, other kinds of beans, ground beef (minced beef) tomatoes, you name it.

Chicken breasts steamed in lime and orange juices, lemongrass, ginger, fish sauce, sesame oil, chili-garlic paste & black pepper; orange rice and sliced tomatoes.

This is my third day and counting of fennel, parsnip, onion and potato soup.

It says much for it that I'm still enjoying it

I've been a little sick and haven't eaten a full meal in two weeks.

I'm feeling a lot better now and tonight will have a full course meal.

Breaded pork chops, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Looking forward to it.