Snowy Day Recipes

[Front-Ranger]

My son's favourite soup:

Quick Italian Wedding Soup

Chop up:

One onion
4 carrots
4 ribs celery

and saute them in some olive oil in a Dutch or French oven until the onions look done.

Then add:

2 cloves chopped garlic

and saute for another minute or so.

While this is all happening, wash

One large head escarole (like spinach, it can keep dirt, so be careful)

and cut it into ribbons.

Add

About six cups chicken broth

and bring it up to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer, covered, for a few minutes. Most recipes say an hour, this is not necessary IMO.

Salt to taste.

Add the meatballs and greens and simmer covered for 20 minutes.

Finish off by either making egg-drops in the soup with 1-2 eggs or throwing a good hand of Parmesan in.

[Front-Ranger]

Snowy days are coming! So, I'm resurrecting this.

[CellarDweller]

Oh, snowy days!

[Jeff Wrangler]

Snowy days are coming! So, I'm resurrecting this.

French toast, to use all the eggs, milk, and bread everybody around here buys at the least hint of snow. 

[CellarDweller]

actually, I found a recipe I'm going to try for Thanksgiving as an 'appetizer'.  It would be good for a snowy day too!

Pull Apart Pizza Bread.


Easy Pull Apart Pizza Bread


Prep time:  10 mins   Cook time:  30 mins    Total time:  40 mins    Serves: 8


Ingredients
•2 Cans of Pizza Dough or Biscuits
•2 cups Mozzarella cheese (or your favorite cheese)
•2 tablespoons of a really good Italian seasoning (link in post) or parsley flakes
•⅓ cup olive oil
•1 - 8 oz package of pepperoni (we used the turkey)
•1 cup Parmesean cheese
•Optional: Add a ½ teaspoon of fresh garlic or garlic powder (it's amazing)



Instructions
1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2.Cut pizza dough or biscuits into quarters (as shown in the photo)
3.Cut the pepperoni into smaller pieces
4.Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and toss so that the oil is spread evenly on each piece of dough
5.Bake for about 30 minutes (or until the top is brown and the center is thoroughly cooked) TIP: Be sure to check it in the middle before you pull it out. If the middle is still not cooked thoroughly be sure to leave it in another 5 minutes at a time until it's done.
6.Flip over on to a plate while it's still hot.
7.Serve with a side sauce and enjoy!

[Jeff Wrangler]

Lots of things you can do with store-bought biscuits. You can "stuff" them with lots of things. I did it once with sausage patties. I just fried up the sausage, carefully separated the biscuits, then put the sausage between the two layers of biscuit and pinched the dough together to cover up the sausage. Then I baked the biscuits according to the package instructions.

You could probably do the same thing with cheese, pepperoni, and a spoon or so of pizza sauce.

Any of these might work on a snowy day.

I might have to try the pizza idea myself! 

[Penthesilea]

Ohhh, that looks delicious!
And seems easy enough to make. I think I might replace half of the pepperoni with tomatoes.
Served with a soup, it'll make a full meal for us. I'm so gonna try this!

[CellarDweller]

Yaaaaaaaaaay!  The recipe I found is a hit!

I get paid on Friday this week, I'm thinking I may make it on Sunday, and take it to work on Monday, just to see how it turns out.   A 'test run' before I serve it to my family.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Yaaaaaaaaaay!  The recipe I found is a hit!

I get paid on Friday this week, I'm thinking I may make it on Sunday, and take it to work on Monday, just to see how it turns out.   A 'test run' before I serve it to my family.

Are you supposed to serve it hot or cold?

[CellarDweller]

You would serve it hot, but we have a microwave here.  People could take a serving and some sauce to dip it, and then heat it in the kitchen.

[Front-Ranger]

What I am cooking today is pot roast. I find a nice large cut of meat at the store, oftentimes in the "manager's special" section. Pat it dry and let it come to room temperature. In a large pot that has a lid, I melt butter and olive oil or grapeseed oil and brown the meat on both sides. Oftentimes, I have to do it in stages. Return the meat to the pot and add in a container of broth. I use the garlic and roasted onion infused beef broth. It's best to warm the broth before pouring it in, but I often skip this step. I add some bay leaves or some Old Bay seasoning, and usually some wine. Tomatoes or tomato sauce may also be added. Simmer for at least 1 hour, then add potatoes, carrots, and other root vegetables. A half hour before serving, add any greens you would like and a dash of lemon juice. Adjust seasonings, heat, and serve.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Sounds good. 

You're using store-bought beef broth?

No offense intended, but I'm kinda surprised you don't make your own stock. You strike me as a homemade stock kind of cook.

[Front-Ranger]

I used to make my own broth but in my new home I have limited freezer/fridge space and haven't unpacked my big storage containers yet. The new stocks they're coming out with are less salt-laden and a little healthier now. I especially like the Thai Ginger broth with soy sauce, cilantro, lemongrass, ginger, coconut and lime. Oftentimes, I warm up some broth in a pan and throw in some fresh or frozen veggies, some spring onions, some bits of meat or fish, and maybe some cooked rice or rice noodles and make a nice soup. I shake some seasoned seaweed and sesame seeds in for added flavoring. I think this is better than eating canned soup anyway!

[Jeff Wrangler]

I used to make my own broth but in my new home I have limited freezer/fridge space and haven't unpacked my big storage containers yet.

I sympathize with you on limited storage space. 

The new stocks they're coming out with are less salt-laden and a little healthier now. I especially like the Thai Ginger broth with soy sauce, cilantro, lemongrass, ginger, coconut and lime. Oftentimes, I warm up some broth in a pan and throw in some fresh or frozen veggies, some spring onions, some bits of meat or fish, and maybe some cooked rice or rice noodles and make a nice soup. I shake some seasoned seaweed and sesame seeds in for added flavoring. I think this is better than eating canned soup anyway!

Have you tried the boxed, even if they are hard to pack? 

[Front-Ranger]

Have you tried the boxed, even if they are hard to pack? 

Yes, I've tried Annie's Soups, the Butternut Squash version and a few others. Most of those I've tried were very skimpy with the ingredients.

[CellarDweller]

yes, boxed soups don't tend to be very hardy.

[Jeff Wrangler]

yes, boxed soups don't tend to be very hardy.

Better stick with beans, then. 

[CellarDweller]

Ooops!  that's what happens when you post too quickly...that should be "hearty".

[Front-Ranger]

Ooops!  that's what happens when you post too quickly...that should be "hearty".

and they are bad to pack! That reminds me that I should go back and read Ruthlessly's interpretation of this comment from the Basque once again. He was the only one who ever made sense of it to me.

[CellarDweller]

Ohhh, that looks delicious!
And seems easy enough to make. I think I might replace half of the pepperoni with tomatoes.
Served with a soup, it'll make a full meal for us. I'm so gonna try this!

I did try this recipe tonight (even though it's not snowy!) and it wasn't bad.  I do have some tips.....

1.  Don't follow the cooking time of 30 minutes at 350.   I did that, and the dough in the middle of the pan was still raw.  Cut the temp down to between 270-300 and cook for 45 - 60 minutes.

2.  The pepperoni will make it greasy.  When you remove it from the oven, gently tip the pan, and pour off the grease.  Then pat the top to remove excess grease, and turn it onto a plate.  After you put it on the plate, take a paper towel and pat the sides and top (which was the bottom) to remove any leftover grease.

[Penthesilea]

Thanks for the additional tips, Chuckie.
I bought the dough; the other ingredients I have in the house anyway. Now I can't find the bundt cake pan
I know I have one somewhere, but I've never used it so far.

But considering your additional tips, that it wasn't completely done by the time, a spring form with middle thingie might be better anyway. It's similar to a bundt cake form, but wider and not as high. I would think the heat gets better into the dough with that one.

[CellarDweller]

I think you may be right.

[Jeff Wrangler]

But considering your additional tips, that it wasn't completely done by the time, a spring form with middle thingie might be better anyway. It's similar to a bundt cake form, but wider and not as high. I would think the heat gets better into the dough with that one.

That's the kind of pan my mother and grandmother always used to make cheesecake.