SLOT CAR COOKING & RECIPES

[Ember]

Ok. So... Let's add some balance. A couple of quick soups. I know you guys are heading into the warmer months, but we're not. And really, not much beats a good soup and fresh crusty bread on a cold afternoon if you've been out playing.

Quicky cream of tomato soup
! small onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 tbl tomato paste
2 cups good chicken stock
2 tbl plain (all purpose) flour
Cream (pouring cream)
Herbs as desired

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil until onions are translucent. Add tomato paste and cook off a little. Add can of tomatoes, chicken stock and flour (mixed into a slurry with some of the stock). Stir well and simmer until thickened slightly. Add whatever herbs you may like. I'm a fan of fresh basil and oregano. Blitz with a wand blender. Add salt & pepper to taste and a little sugar if required. Finish off by stirring in a splash of cream and serve.

Easy Cauliflower soup
Quantities in this one are not really important.

Break a head of cauliflower into florets and chop the stem into small pieces. Peel and chop one medium to large potato (more potato will make for thicker soup). Place in saucepan with enough milk and stock to cover. About half milk and half stock works well. I use chicken stock, but vegie would be fine. Add salt and pepper to taste and a little grated nutmeg. Simmer with lid on until vegies are cooked. Blitz with a wand blender and add a little dash of cream. Serve with a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil and a grind of black pepper on the top.

[dreinecke]

Since we're sharing health secrets...thanks Jeremy...

Breakfast: I alternate days. Day 1 I eat 1 egg scrambled or in an omlette with some veggies and protein - usually chicken or steak - something left over. Day 2 - shredded wheat with blueberries or strawberries. Day 3 - Hard boiled egg and a blueberry yogurt.

Mid-morning snack: blueberry yogurt or fruit if I've already had a yogurt that day.

Lunch: Almost every day I have a salad for lunch or a reasonable portion of leftovers. (Embs - I love any of my wife's home made soup)

Mid-afternoon: Veggies like cherry tomatoes and baby carrots.

Dinner: Normal - usually meat (chicken/fish/beef/etc.), potatoes/rice/noodles, and a vegetable. Pasta, tacos, etc. at least once a week as well.

The secret for me? Don't eat like a guy - ie: 10 pounds of something, a MONSTER burger, etc. Eat every 2-3 hours or so, and my metabolism keeps up just fine. I dropped 25 pounds about 3 years ago. Went from 187+ down to 162. After shoulder surgery I went back up to about 170 and I'm at 167 at the moment. My goal is get to 160 and I should be there around June-ish now that the weather is decent again and I can walk. Losing both of my furry exercise machines has not helped either. Thinking of getting another soon.

[Ember]

Definitely a variety and moderation fan.

Ok... Another veg related tip, really good for those fussy eaters who won't eat veg. Rather than using flour or wheat starch to thicken a stew, use carrot puree. A couple of carrots peeled and boiled or bungee in the microwave and then whizzed through the blender. Works and doesn't alter the flavour greatly.

Sneaky, huh?

[Ember]

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Embs, you are rapidly becoming one of my favorite posters. LOL.

Here's one for the health nuts...

Alan King said that his mother was the classic Jewish mother in New York. She wanted all her sons to be doctors, and her daughters should marry doctors. She also made what he called "Jewish Pennecillin". It was the cure for everything. Someone had a cold? flu? ulcers? tuberculosis? broken leg? No matter what, she made chicken soup and all was well. Decades after Alan King was the hottest standup ever, the CDC and the AMA finally announced that the combination of herbs and seasoning in traditional Jewish chicken soup does more to help the body fight a cold or flu than anything ever devised by pharmaceutical corporations. Here's a short cut to a passable imitation: Remember that when you will want this to do something besides taste good, you will need to whip it up fast, rather than make it an all-day project like Alan King's mother. That why all these short cut things from the store are used. This will take about 15 minutes to make, and usually, someone with a cold will drain it all in a day.

Chicken stock (the little concentrated one from Knorr is very good)
canned chicken
water
canned chicken broth
dried parsley (don't leave this out, its important)
salt, pinch of dry garlic, pinch of dried crushed rosemary, pinch of white pepper
rice, small pasta or noodle product (orzo, risette, fine egg noodles- crushed, anything that will fit in a spoon)
TELMA soup cube- This is a product of Israel usually in the Kosher section of a good grocery, but also easily found online. The traditional herbs are in there, and its very very good.

Mix it all up, boil it, and when the noodle product or whatever you used is tender, let it sit for few a few minutes. Put a pat of butter in last of all, and stir it in. Taste to see if you need to add water. You probably will. The taste should be strong and slightly saltier than you might want if your nose wasn't stopped up. The salt is important for the easing effect for the sick. If salt worries you, skip the fries next time you have a sandwich.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

[dreinecke]

Mmmmm...those look good! Made biscuits and gravy this morning!

[HomeRacingWorld]

Yes, these look good!

The General even read this one :)

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Last night I used some of this batch for strawberry shortcake, as our strawberries came in early this year. I always hated how people started using sponge cake and pound cake for strawberry shortcake, which makes it too sweet to eat. Shortcake is just a sweetened biscuit, and these, though not sweetened enough to taste, do just fine with the syrup the strawberries form overnight in the fridge.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Hey, Bubba... You chose to live just that close to Humboldt, where the best strawberries in the South are grown!

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Do they still dress up the town for the Strawberry Festival in Humboldt? At one time it was a huge big deal. People commonly came from Paducah, Nashville and Memphis to be there. There were floats, marching bands, lovely girls from high schools all over the area, dressed as strawberries with their legs showing (a big hit with us high school boys!), convertibles with girls from UT Martin and other schools wearing strawberry red dresses and waving, white gloved, at the crowd, all in the teeny tiny farm town of Humboldt.