I seem to be stuck on a theme here… has anyone noticed?  Sauerkraut last week and now Kielbasa.  I grew up with many meals designed around these two items so must be feeling nostalgic.  Or, maybe it’s just that these two foods are quite inexpensive and are fitting into my grocery budget more and more these days.

The obvious use for Kielbasa is the good old fashioned skillet meal which, once again, includes sauerkraut and potatoes.  This frugal meal is an all time favorite in my house.  I like to brown up the Kielbasa a little in my favorite heavy cast iron skillet, take it out and set aside, add the potatoes and sauerkraut, and just stir the vegetables up a little in the skillet.  That gives the vegetables a chance to soak up some of the good bits left in the skillet from the meat.  Then, I put the Kielbasa back in the skillet, cover it with foil, poke a few holes in the top, and simmer until the potatoes are done.

Does anyone have a recipe that has been your family’s favorite for as long as you can remember?  Have you created any new recipes for Kielbasa dishes… recipes that might surprise us?  Feel free to share your cooking successes, and failures if you wish.  I’d love to hear from you!

My husband has simple tastes.  He loves food, but likes to keep his meals uncomplicated.  Breakfast should include fried eggs with a nice pork sausage pattie alongside.  A few skillet potatoes are a nice addition, but he’s happy with just those two items if that’s all we have.  So, needless to say, I often have an abundance of pork sausage in my refrigerator and would like to use it for something other than patties for breakfast.

We typically have every kind of pork sausage you can buy, from mild prepared pork sausage, to the super-spicy and hot stuff.  The spicy variety, I find, is excellent for quick spaghetti sauce or other meat-based “feel good” casseroles.  The mild pork sausage is good for casseroles where a moderate taste is needed to let the flavor of the other ingredients, like wild rice for instance, come through.

In case you would like to try my quick meat sauce using pork sausage, this is my method (can’t call it a recipe… it’s too easy)!

In a large skillet, put pork sausage in and break it up.  Add a small diced onion and a small diced green pepper to the skillet with just a touch of olive oil.  Cook everything together slowly until the meat is no longer pink and the onions and green pepper are soft. Pour in a can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato paste.  Sprinkle in some dried basil and oregano until it tastes like spaghetti sauce.  Simmer everything for at least 15 minutes or until the flavors blend.  Taste and add salt and pepper if you like.  See?  Really easy.

Since I always have pork sausage of some kind on hand, it’s a good go-to food for me, so it would be great to have an abundance of recipes to choose from.  If you have a delicious recipe or two for pork sausage dishes, I’d love to hear from you!

When I was growing up, sauerkraut made an appearance at our family’s table at least once a week.  My Mom made a couple standard sauerkraut dishes, which included the classic skillet meal of pork chops, potatoes, and sauerkraut.  She included a generous sprinkling of caraway seeds on top to, how shall I say, lessen the affects of the sauerkraut on the digestive system.

I continue the tradition to this day and often serve sauerkraut meals to my family.  Maybe not once a week, but routinely.  My problem is that I am running out of ideas for new recipes.  Don’t get me wrong; I love the traditional skillet meal that I grew up with, but also would like to enjoy sauerkraut in other dishes.

Does anyone have a nice side dish, main dish casserole, or an unusual but tasty sauerkraut dish they would like to share?  I’d love to hear from you!

I don’t often see beef consomme used in recipes anymore, do you?  Has it been replaced with beef broth?  If anyone is still attempting to make consomme at home, I can see why we don’t see it around too much.

Consomme is actually a brown soup stock that has been “clarified.”  The method to clarify your brown stock is tedious and slow.  It involves stirring in an egg white and, believe it or not, the egg shell.  Then simmering the stock very, very, very slowly until a foam forms on the top and then straining it through some clean cloth into a bowl all the while not disturbing the foam.  Good heavens!

Anyway, I do happen to have a can of beef consomme in my cupboard so, of course, I’m wondering if anyone has seen a recipe that calls for it.  I know consomme is a very rich and clear stock, basically.  The flavor seems to be a bit more intense, making it better no doubt when used in casseroles and pot roasts, and not so much soup.

What do you think?  Does anyone happen to have a good recipe that uses beef consomme.  And, just for fun, has anyone tried actually making beef consomme from scratch.  I’d sure like to hear from you!

My pantry is now home to four boxes of assorted croutons.  We have a partial box of garlic flavored, some herb flavored, some plain, and even some Parmesan croutons.  My family likes croutons on their salads, but we’re beyond our quota at this point.  Before they get stale, I would like to know if there’s anything I can make with them.

Sometimes when a casserole calls for a buttery breadcrumb topping, I’ll just grab a pile of croutons, crush them up, and use those instead of breadcrumbs. Since my croutons are normally flavored, they make a great topping for oven-baked vegetable dishes.  A nice, cheesy broccoli casserole is the perfect dish to top with these croutons.

What do you think about using crushing up croutons for a crunchy coating for fried fish or chicken?  If you use the really flavorful ones that should be delicious, right?

Now, if all this talk about garlic and herb flavored croutons has you craving them, I do happen to have a recipe to make your own.  Give this a try the next time you’ve got to have croutons and, unlike me, don’t have a pantry full!

Skillet Croutons:

Dice up bread into tiny, bite size squares.  Think about 1/4 to 1/8 inch squares.  You can use any kind of bread you wish, even rye or pumpernickel.  In a big, heavy skillet, brown the bread pieces in a bit of butter mixed with canola oil.  Drain on paper towels, but while they’re still hot, sprinkle with salt and any other seasoning you wish, like garlic powder, onion powder, or crushed thyme, or even curry powder.

These are very yummy.  I think I’ll make a batch once I figure out how to use up the ones I’ve already got… Help please!

Here’s something you don’t see very much of anymore – ground ham.  I remember it from when I was a kid, mostly used for what we always just called “Picnic Sandwiches”.  Mixed with mayonnaise and cut up pickles, this was our sandwich of choice whenever we went on family picnics.  Therefore, the name Picnic Sandwich.

I don’t, however, remember any other dish made with ground ham.  I would assume you could make a ground ham meat loaf, or ground ham patties, but haven’t a clue where to begin.  Would the texture be too grainy for most dishes where we are used to ground beef?  I suppose you’d have to watch out for the salt that you add since ham is already quite salty.

This one has me stumped and I wouldn’t even be asking except I happened to see ground ham in the butcher case and it got me remembering and thinking.  How about you?  Are you curious about what you can make with ground ham?  I’d sure like to hear from someone who has the answer!

I bought myself some red wine vinegar for a recipe a couple months ago and have been staring at the bottle ever since.  I guess I need to find a few more ways to use it or eventually it won’t be any good and it will end up down the drain.  That is not a happy thought.

The recipe I used the red wine vinegar for was a really good salad dressing.  I know you can use regular white vinegar for most salad dressings, but wanted this dressing to be a bit fancier.  So, that’s why I ended up with red wine vinegar in my pantry.   The recipe is for Creamy French Dressing.  This is what you’ll need if you want to make it:

1 tblsp paprika
2 tsp light brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 egg
1 cup canola oil

Mix together in a bowl all the dry ingredients with a fork, then add the red wine vinegar and the egg and mix with a hand-held beater on low until it’s all blended well.  Then slowly drizzle in the oil while running the beater constantly until you see the dressing get thicker.  This makes enough dressing for quite a few salads.  Store in a glass jar with a tight lid.  You’ll need to shake it up each time you use it.

This is an easy dressing to make and I wouldn’t mind making some more, but I’m just wondering if anyone has a really good recipe to try so I can use up my red wine vinegar.  Any marinades or other main dish recipes?  I’d love to hear from you!

Other than tomato soup, that is.  I must say, though, that since I found a sale on tomato soup and filled my pantry with a good supply of the stuff, I’ve seen several recipes that use tomato soup.  I normally find recipes that call for tomato sauce, but suddenly I see tomato soap instead.  Wonder why…

To me, canned tomato soup is very sweet.  The one recipe that this additional sweetness sort of made sense in was a recipe I saw for Sweet and Tangy cabbage soup.  It was from one of those old time recipe magazines from I don’t know how long ago, so it is really nice and simple.  This is how you make it:

1 medium head of cabbage, cut fine
2 quarts of chicken stock or broth
1 small onion, diced fine
1 small can tomato soup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything in a soup pot, bring to boil, and simmer until cabbage is tender.

You can’t get much simpler than that!  I love a recipe I can remember off the top of my head.  If you have any ideas about either how to dress up this soup, or create anything else with cans of tomato soup, I’d love to hear from you!

You may be familiar with tapioca only as a pudding, but it actually has other uses.  I learned about tapioca when I was doing a lot of crockpot cooking one winter.  Several recipes I came across called for using “quick tapioca” to thicken the gravy in the crockpot dish.  It worked so well that I now use it more often than I use cornstarch or flour.

If you’re not familiar with tapioca, it’s not surprising.  Tapioca is one of those things I remember vaguely as a child at my grandparent’s house.  Tapioca was sort of a staple back in the old days, but has since disappeared for some reason.  I never quite got used to the tapioca pudding Grandma made because of the “bubbly” texture, some would say like fish eggs.  Well, that’s enough to turn off a little kid, but my Grandpa sure loved it!

Aside from using tapioca to thicken meat gravy, I have a little recipe that uses tapioca in a dessert-like soup.  This is a fun recipe to surprise your kids with.  When you yell “Soup’s on!” they won’t be expecting this soup at all!  Here is my Mixed-Up Fruit Soup:

Mix and stir over medium heat, 2 tablespoons quick tapioca in 1 and 1/2 cups of water, until thickened.  Take off the burner.  Add 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate that’s been thawed, stir together well and heat through.  Put about 2 to 3 cups fruit in a bowl and pour mixture over the top.  Use whatever fruit you have in season, like strawberries, blueberries, or even some pitted cherries and yellow raisins.  You can serve this while it’s still warm, or serve it cold.

Tapioca is something that’s been forgotten, but shouldn’t be.  If you’ve been using tapioca all these years, or you’ve just discovered it, I’d love to hear your stories.