Cheeseburger & French Fry Soup

Cheeseburger & French Fry Soup
Dorcas Annette Walker

March is known for its fickle weather. You never know what the next day will bring. One day is sunny and warm the next day chilly and rainy causing the temperature to drop sharply overnight only to wake up with a frosting of snow. Despite the up’s and downs of weather spring flowers valiantly bloom and trees continue to send forth buds. Each day is a new delight of color that boldly announces the fact that spring has arrived. After the drabness of winter months the rainbow of blossoms is a feast for the eyes- each fragile flower a miracle. As the earth comes alive there is magic in the air. People start smiling more, kids act like spring lambs let out into the pasture for the first time, birds start building nests, everyone’s thoughts turn to gardens, and even arthritic bones loosen up a bit. This past week during a cold spell I made up a pot of my Cheeseburger & French Fry Soup. My meat and potato husband loved it so much he nearly ate it all up.

Meanwhile the garden on my dining room table continues to grow. My Hubbard squash decided to bloom while my lima beans continue to climb all over my chairs. I plan on setting out my pea vines, lettuce, and spinach this week. I need room to start more flower seeds. In the henhouse our baby chicks have outgrown the brooder and are in the nursery section as they feather out. We bought three ducklings that seem to grow an inch a day. All sleep and eat until startled into a mass of squawking and flapping wings making an unbelievable racket. We have already started feeding them out of our hands. Our little farm is bursting with life.

My Cheeseburger & French Fry Soup is a filling soup with chunks of potatoes and hamburger floating in a creamy sauce. Any leftovers can be heated up in the microwave. The Cheeseburger & French Fry Soup makes a perfect meal for a chilly day. Preparation time for the Cheeseburger & French Fry Soup is 45 minutes and this recipe serves six- unless you have an appetite like my husband.

Cheeseburger & French Fry Soup

1 lb hamburger
1 small onion chopped
½ tsp garlic salt
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
3 c hot water
4 c crinkled cut French fries
1 tsp dried parsley
½ tsp salt
Pepper
1 c cubed processed cheese

Brown hamburger and onion with garlic salt in a medium-sized pot. Drain the grease. Add milk, water, French fries, parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and cook for five minutes. Lower the heat and add the cheese. Simmer for fifteen minutes until the cheese is melted. Garnish with parsley and serve!

Weekly tip: Did you know that you can grow potatoes in containers, trash bins, buckets, garbage bags/cans, and burlap sacks to free up garden space for other plants and avoid the backbreaking chore of digging potatoes out of the ground? All you need is a sunny spot, put holes in the bottom of your container/bags for drainage, and keep watered as needed!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

St. Patrick's Day Jello Salad

St. Patrick’s Day Jello Salad
Dorcas Annette Walker

There are two kinds of fiascos in cooking; one where the dish tastes horrible or where your recipe didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to, but it still is delicious. I think it is the magic of combining and preparation of ingredients knowing that the results can either be perfection or a disaster that captivates us cooks. No matter how long a person has cooked or prepared a certain dish, who among us hasn’t come up unexpectedly with a flop? That’s why some folk don’t cook. They figure it takes too much effort, have become discouraged when recipes don’t turn out, or are intimidated by professional chefs that use high-fluting sounding words and costly equipment. While there are all kinds of gadgets today advertised as must-have for cooking- some which takes a science degree in order to know how to operate the complicated item- good cooking can still be done with simple utensils. Some folk jump on the bandwagon of every new cooking apparatus that comes out. I’m not against modern conveniences, equipment that cuts down on preparation time, or shortcuts, but I think each cook has to decide for themselves where to draw the line. Staying in homes all across the United States while out traveling on the road in evangelism with my husband, I’ve worked with all kinds of cooks. Some kitchens have been any cook’s dream filled with the latest up-to-date modern equipment; others have been sparse and simple, while some kitchens were a nightmare of cutter and confusion. I quickly found out that it was the cook that made the difference not the equipment.

I still smile whenever I think back to my first little kitchen in a rental cabin on a college campus where one had to use pliers to turn on the oven. That stove was a big challenge and easily could have overwhelmed me, but I was determined to rule it and not it me. When we moved a year later to a place that actually had an oven with a knob, I had become adept at knowing just where to twist the pliers for the correct oven heat. It stood me in good stead as I moved to different parsonages switching back and forth from electric to gas heat. I’ll never forget one kitchen where you had to prop the oven door shut with a chair to keep it closed. Today I cook on my own stove with a solid top and self-cleaning oven surrounded by a kitchen I designed myself. Ironically, it has been on broken down stoves and less than ideal kitchens throughout the years where I have produced the most of my home cooking entertaining folks from hitchhikers my husband picked up along the road to conference dignitaries.

My simple St. Patrick’s Day Jello Salad was the first molded jello salad that I attempted that turned out beautiful and is still a family favorite. The St. Patrick’s Day Jello Salad melts in your mouth with its creamy smooth texture. You can use other flavors of jello or add nuts if you prefer. Preparation time for my St. Patrick’s Day Jello Salad is around ten minutes (not counting chilling time) and this recipe serves fourteen.

St. Patrick’s Day Jello Salad

2 (3 oz) boxes of lime jello
2 c boiling water
1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple
1 (8 oz) container cool whip

In a medium-sized bowl mix water and jello together until dissolved. Stir in the pineapple. Chill until starting to thicken. Add cool whip and mix thoroughly. Pour into a large jello mold and refrigerator overnight. Turn out onto a plate and serve!

Weekly tip: To remove a jello salad from a mold flawlessly first spray the jello mold with a non-stick cooking spray then dip the mold in hot water afterwards. Also rinse the salad plate with cold water before turning out the salad for ease of repositioning to the center of the plate!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

3-Bean Salad

3-Bean Salad
Dorcas Annette Walker

Springtime always turns my mind towards salads. Here is an old fashion Mennonite vegetable salad that can be made year round and is perfect for warm spring days when you are busy outdoors. While I wait impatiently for the weather to warm up enough to start planting, I keep occupied with my vigorous indoor garden that has outgrown my dining room table pinching back my lima beans that are over two feet tall and clambering up the backs of my chairs. My peas have outgrown the wooden stakes and are curling around the squash plants that in turn trail over into my tomatoes. I plan to start giving them a taste of some real sunshine during a warm sunny day soon. Meanwhile I find myself walking around outside checking to see the latest flowers that have popped up out of the earth to reassure me that spring is near.

Salads have been around since ancient times, but here in United States salads were not used regularly until the 1960’s when cold salads needing little refrigeration became popular for picnics and outings. During the J. Edgar Hoover era the bean salad was known as his favorite dish. The first half of the twentieth century garden salads were usually made of lettuce switching over to fruits in the winter season. Dressings were either oil and vinegar or mayonnaise sometimes with a sour cream base. Soon using other garden vegetables in salad became all the rage. Beans add fiber, protein, complex carbohydrates, and iron to the diet.

My 3-Bean Salad is quick and easy to make as well as being an ideal and economical dish to use when feeding a crowd. Not only does the 3-Bean Salad give you a fresh summer taste, add color to the menu, but it is very nutritious as well. You can include other kinds of cooked beans such as limas or black beans, sprouts, carrots, broccoli, or sliced radishes to add a unique twist to your bean salad. You can also substitute the oil and vinegar dressing with mayonnaise if you prefer. Preparation time for my 3-Bean Salad is fifteen minutes and this recipe serves eight.

3-Bean Salad

1 (15 oz) can of cut green beans
1 (15 oz) can of cut wax beans
1 (15 oz) can of red kidney beans
1 small onion
½ c cooking oil
½ c sugar
1/3 c vinegar
1 tsp salt

Drain beans, mince up part of the onion, and place together in a serving bowl. Mix together the oil, sugar, vinegar, and salt. Pour over the beans and stir until well coated. Chill overnight and stir before serving. Garnish with onion rings!

Weekly tip: Beans are classified into two basic categories: pod and shell with a peak season from May until October. Fresh beans can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 to 5 days. If you want sweet-tasting and crisp fresh beans cut them as little as possible!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Strawberry-Pretzel Salad

Strawberry-Pretzel Salad
Dorcas Annette Walker

Growing up we always had pretzels in our house. Every time we ate ice cream at my grandmother’s house you had a soft fat pretzel with it. While I don’t make homemade pretzels as a special treat like my sister does, I still enjoy eating pretzels with my ice cream- often getting funny looks from others until I talk them into trying it. Some folk to my amazement have never eaten pretzels.

There are two main kinds of pretzels: soft and hard. It is said that hard pretzels began from a baker, who accidently baked his batch of pretzels without first letting them rise and then forgot about them until they became hard and dark. Soft pretzels with their unique knot-like shape (called the pretzel loop) are often served with mustard or dips. The pretzel originated in Europe thought by monks as a way to teach children the Trinity or as a reward for saying prayers. Pretzel baking took firm root in Southern Germany and developed into an emblem of bakers by the 12th century. During the 1500’s the city of Vienna was under siege and was saved by pretzel bakers working through the night, who heard tunneling underground and notified the guard. The grateful emperor awarded the pretzel bakers with an honorary coat of arms. Pretzels were a convenient way to give food to the poor and considered to be a blessing becoming such a scared sign that they were often packed in coffins of the dead. By the 17th century the “marriage knot” was signified by a pretzel wished upon, broken, and eaten together during a wedding ceremony. By the 19th century soft pretzels were introduced to North America by German and Swiss immigrants. In 1850 the Sturgis Bakery in Lititz, Pennsylvania started the first commercial hard pretzel bakery. A popular treat of crumbling pretzels as a topping and eating them with ice cream became popular and led to the pretzel ice cream cone. Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York became renowned for their soft pretzels during the 20th century. During the Depression era hot pretzel vendors sold inexpensive pretzels on the streets for lunch. A Pretzel Museum was opened in Philadelphia in 1993 and in 2003 the Governor of Pennsylvania declared April 26 as National Pretzel Day.

My Strawberry-Pretzel Salad can also be used as a dessert. This salad has a crunchy nutty-like crust with a creamy filling and jello topping. You can substitute raspberry jello with raspberries or orange jello with mandarin oranges. Preparation time for my Strawberry-Pretzel Salad is around thirty minutes (not counting cooling time) and this recipe serves twelve.

Strawberry-Pretzel Salad

2 c mashed pretzels
2 sticks margarine melted
1 c sugar
8 oz cream cheese
16 oz cool whip
3 (3 oz) boxes of strawberry jello
3 c boiling water
2 c cold water
strawberries optional

Mix pretzels, ½ c sugar, and margarine together and press into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes at 350º and let cool. Beat cream cheese, other half of sugar, and cool whip together until fluffy. Spread on pretzel crust sealing around the edges and chill. Make jello and let cool for 30 minutes adding strawberries if you desire. Pour on top of cream cheese mixture and refrigerate until firm. Cut into squares, garnish with cool whip, and a strawberry!

Weekly tip: To mash pretzels quickly, place in a baggie and crush with the side of a hammer!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Homemade Tomato Soup

Homemade Tomato Soup
Dorcas Annette Walker

February is a tantalizing month that teases you with thoughts of spring. Daffodils poke their heads out of the ground showing the first sign of green as trees and bushes start forming buds despite frigid temperatures. The sun shines and the thermometer rises hinting at warmth, yet there is a cold brisk breeze along with lingering snow in shady spots that lets you know winter is still not over. Usually about this time I get “cabin fever”. This year I am too busy keeping up with the green plants overflowing my dining room table. I decided in January to start some plants for my garden from heirloom seeds and talked my husband into setting up a light on my dining room table. While the snow was flying outside and the wind was howling around my house, I played in the dirt.., uh, potting soil. After planting some tomato seeds I couldn’t resist planting peas, beans, lettuce, Hubbard squash, and a couple of flowers. They hardly took up any room. I didn’t think all the seeds would sprout, but lo and behold if they all didn’t come popping up out of the soil. I transplanted the tiny plants into small Styrofoam cups. In a couple of weeks the plants had tripled in size so I again transplanted the healthy plants into large cups amazed at the size of their roots while crowding my dining room table. I’m not worried about my foot high peas as I will be able to plant them in the ground in a couple of weeks, and my tomatoes and lettuce are coming along nicely, but it is my nearly two foot tall lima beans that are starting to concern me as I can’t set them out until about the middle of April. Dana keeps telling me that we will be picking our first crop of limas inside the house. I’m beginning to feel a close empathy with Jack in the Beanstalk in the midst of my dining room jungle. Instead of reclining in my chair by the fire looking at flower magazines at leisure, this year I am kept on the go transplanting and watering all my growing plants. I’ve come to understand the true meaning of winter gardening. Hopefully if I cut back on the miracle grow I can stunt the growth of my lima beans for a little bit.

For a taste of summer in the middle of winter my chunky Homemade Tomato Soup makes a healthy and yummy lunch with its high vitamin C content. I love eating a grilled/fried cheese sandwich along with my Homemade Tomato Soup. Any leftovers can be heated up in the microwave. Preparation time for my Homemade Tomato Soup is fifteen minutes and this recipe serves around five.

Homemade Tomato Soup

1 qt tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
Salt & pepper to taste

Chop tomatoes in a blender or pour into a kettle and mash. Boil tomatoes and sugar for ten minutes stirring with a Wisk. Add milk, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then immediately remove from the heat, and serve!

Weekly tip: To prevent the milk from curdling in tomato soup you can also add a teaspoon of baking soda to the tomatoes and then 1 tb of flour with the milk. Warning: doing this makes your tomato soup taste like canned soup!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Valentine Petit Fours

Valentine Petit Fours
Dorcas Annette Walker

Probably next to Christmas, Valentine’s Day is the most celebrated holiday; a day for sweetheart’s young and old. New love is exciting to behold in a new couple, but there is something even more romantic about an older couple, whose love instead of diminishing has deepened throughout the passing years. Unfortunately today, love seems too often be just a passing fancy for a short spell of time where commitment is thrown out of the window over trivial or selfish reasons only to discover later that they have shortchanged themselves in the long run. Instead love is a tender sprout that must be nourished and given careful attention if it will continue to grow, bloom, and bear fruit. When my husband and I got engaged on Valentine’s Day thirty-five years ago (and was married four months later), we set a goal of reaching fifty years together although people around us shook their heads and said that we would never last. Here are some things I’ve discovered throughout the years that love is:

- Not only romantic moments, but faithfulness during the daily grind of life
- Seeing a person at their worse and still loving them
- Communicating even when you don’t agree
- Giving each other space to be their own individual person
- Disagreements and arguments, but not quitting until it is worked out
- Being willing to forgive
- Sharing the enchantment of a newborn, frustrations of toddlerhood, and the whirlwind of teen years
- Spending hours at the bedside of young children during sickness and hospital stays
- Being flat broke and hanging in there together
- Hidden love notes, daily phone calls to stay in touch, and saying, “I love you”
- Facing an empty nest and discovering that you are still are friends
- Continuing to love each other as our bodies age

My Valentine Petit Fours are unique ways of showing your special valentine that you love them. You can write words, individual messages, or decorate your Valentine Petit Fours any way your heart desires. You can also use this idea for other holidays as well.

Valentine Petit Fours

1 pound cake
1 (16 oz) can vanilla frosting
wax paper
decorative candies/sprinkles/gel icing

Freeze the pound cake and then cut into 2 inch cubes. Microwave frosting 15 seconds at a time stirring in-between until the frosting is the consistency of heavy cream. With a fork holding the cube dip or run frosting until completely covered then use a knife to slide it onto wax paper. Decorate with candies, sprinkles, and gel icing. Let harden and serve on ruffled baking cups!

Weekly tip: You can use a hair dryer to slightly melt the frosting for a smooth glossy look before decorating!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com