Three Ingredients, Seven Hours

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I've been running around like a headless chicken (we all know about my fall to-do-list now) and we have house guests so I'm switching things up and posting the Sunday recipe today. Tomorrow, we all get an Oh, Kaye! as our friend Kaye Barley talks about her Bouchercon plans.


My friend Caroline, who is as cheap frugal as I, was telling me her secret for delicious low-cost meals: Put Into Crockpot at Low for Seven Hours. She takes inexpensive ingredients (or cuts of meat on sale) tosses them into the pot, and goes her merry way. I asked her her meal philosophy, and got the following pointers:


1. Keep the main dish to three ingredients and...

2. ...make sides that are quick to microwave (canned or frozen veggies) or easy to boil up (potatoes, noodles, rice.) Who wants to spend more than twenty minutes on prep time?

3. Serve on nice china with cloth napkins if possible. It doesn't cost any more to make the table look good.

4. Put the money you've saved into wine or dessert, depending on your proclivity.


HOT SPANISH THIGHS

Boneless, skinless thighs
Jar of hot salsa
Chopped onion

Put into crockpot at low for seven hours. Serve with Spanish rice and/or a can of refried beans. Olé!





BERRY GOOD PORK

Pork chops or a pork eye of round
Can of whole berry cranberry sauce
Package of onion soup mix

Put into crockpot in the listed order at low for seven hours.  Add flour to what's in the crockpot after removing meat, turn it up to high, and stir to thicken (depending on your crockpot, it may be quicker to transfer the liquids to a sauce pan for this part.) Serve over mashed potatoes, with green beans. That'll do.


BOEUF BOURGUIGNON FACILE

Package of beef stew meat (if you're really saving, get the chuck roast and cut it into cubes yourself)
Can of mushroom soup
Can of mushrooms (Caroline uses low sodium for both of these)

Put into crockpot at low for seven hours. Serve with mashed potatoes or egg noodles. Magnifique!


How about you, dear Readers? Do you have any three-ingredient recipes to share?

Mixin' It Up with Recipes on Saturday!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Recipes today because we're having a chat tomorrow. Saturdays are usually super-busy at my house (probably at yours, too) and thus a great day for throwing ingredients into a crock pot in the morning and forgetting about it until dinner rolls around. 

Today, I'm making soup, because 1) it's still cool enough to be welcome in the evening and 2)

I'm going back to Nantucket for five days!!!

The snow is probably gone by now.

Yes, The Best of All Possible Agents (TM), upon hearing me moan and whine about the lack of progress on the book, suggested another family-free writing retreat might be beneficial. Since this coming week is school vacation in Maine, and Ross will be available for driving/shopping/laundry/cooking, I can go. Please understand, I love my husband, three kids, two dogs and two cats. I just want the chance to love them from 200 miles away for a while.

Thus, soups, plural, a combination planning-ahead meal/guilt offering. The kids are sick of my potato soup variations and I don't have time to shop today, so I'm pulling out two family faves (handed down to me by my mother) that can readily be made with pantry and fridge staples.

Aunt Lil's Carrot Soup

This recipe comes from my great-aunt Lilian McEachron Yarter, who lived to be 92, so you know it's good for you. 


1 lb, hamburger
1/4 c chopped onion
2 cans Cream of Celery soup
3 c tomato juice  (I have substituted diluted tomato paste, canned diced tomatoes and even watered down ketchup - I was in law school - with no discernible harm.)
1 1/2 c boiling water
1/2 t pepper
1 T sugar
3 c grated carrots
1 bay leaf 
1/2 t garlic powder  (if substituting minced garlic, up it to 1 t and saute it with the onion.

Saute hamburger and onion. Add everything else. Simmer on stovetop for 1 1/2 hours, or 8 hours low/4 hours high in crockpot.


Vegetable Bean Soup

1 lb beans, canned or precooked
1 large can tomatoes
1 c chopped celery
1 large onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
parsley, fresh if you have it, dried if not
1/2 t chili powder, but you can add more when you adjust the taste
1 can chili beans (the kind with the flavor already added)
1 tsp. bouillon/1 cube

Add all together, cover with water, simmer for hours.  If I have it, I will substitute my own chicken broth for the water/bouillon. Helps reduce the sodium. With either of these, season to taste with salt and pepper.

Enjoy far away from your loved ones!

Winter Vegetables Kesich

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I know it's customary for the recipe-after-a-major-holiday to be all about reusing the leftovers, but we've gotten a little bored with turkey over the past few meals and the stuffing and cranberries ran out days ago. What I have that I want to use up are a bunch of assorted root vegetables left over from making roasted butternut squash, parsnip soup, and mashed potatoes. What I don't want is to spend any time cooking, which means little prep time and the crockpot. So I'm going to throw all of them together into something I have just now dubbed:

Winter Vegetables Kesich

after my friend Greg Kesich, who gave me the original, slightly different recipe. Those of you who need exact measurements, read no further. This is strictly a handful-and-dollop type of recipe.

Assorted winter vegetables, diced into bite-sized pieces ) I am using the above-mentioned squash, parsnips and potatoes, with some carrot thrown in for good measure. You want enough to almost fill your crockpot.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Fresh parsley, rough chopped, tossed with the veggies. Don't stint! I use one bunch at least.

Minced garlic, a generous amount. I love my pre-minced garlic in bottles for this. I'm adding about three tablespoons. (Don't worry, it mellows with the cooking.)

Flour, enough to dust all the veggies. Mix well and turn into your crockpot. (Greg's original recipe calls for the veg to be roasted in a shallow pan, so you can use this as an option as well.)

Douse it with a generous serving of olive oil, and cook on high for two hours or low for four hours in the crockpot. If roasting in the oven, it goes in for two hours at 325 to 350. (I told you this wasn't going to be a scientific measurement type of recipe!)

If you, like us, need meat to make the meal, I'd serve it with something dead easy, like pork chops or bratwurst or one of those little hams that just need to be heated up.

Voila! Delicious, filling, and leaves you plenty of time to watch THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG extended cut director's edition!