Chop Suey in Progress

Chop Suey

1 1/2 pounds Chop Suey meat (chunks of pork)
1 can chop suey vegetables, undrained
1 can sliced water chestnuts, undrained, if desired
1 4-oz can mushrooms, undrained
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped.
3 tablespoons corn starch
1 tsp salt, if desired
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons brown gravy sauce OR 1 tablespoon regular molasses

Brown the meat. Add chop suey vegetables, water chestnuts, mushrooms, chopped onions and chopped green peppers. Simmer for 20 minutes, uncovered. (celery added later)

While that simmers, mix the corn starch, salt, if wanted, soy sauce, water and brown gravy sauce or molasses thoroughly. Add chopped celery. Pour gradually into meat and vegetable mixture. Cover and cook on low for 15 minutes. Serve with rice.

Serves 6

Someone on twitter asked us about childhood memories of food.  Chop Suey was the first thing that popped into my head.  So, then I wanted to make it and even thought I thought I had a recipe, I couldn’t find it.  So, I called my mom.  She hadn’t made it in a long time, either and didn’t think she had a recipe.  Lo, and behold, I got an email from her today, that she’d found the recipe.  Yay.  So, supper plans were set in stone yet, so I made Chop Suey.  It was good and brought back a lot of memories of making it as a teenager and eating it as a kid.

Also, that 81 degree day in March was a fluke.  It got cold again the next day and has been cold since.  Days in the 40′s and 50′s happening pretty regularly.

Here’s an updated picture of the lilac bush.

Buds getting bigger 4-18-12

Lilac leaf buds getting ready to open

It’s so nice outside. You’d think we went on a spring break trip, without leaving the house. So odd, though, to have it so warm, for so many days in a row. It’s only March. I have on capris and I’m looking forward to wearing sandals, when I go out again!

Tomorrow the snow is supposed to come.  We’ve also made it to January 11, 2012, without a major snowfall yet.  The most we’ve had so far, is about 2 inches and that was long gone already.  The weathermen tell us to expect 5-7 inches of white fluffy snow, that will be blown around like crazy, because of the wind.

So, no knit-night for us tomorrow!  We will be staying home!  Darn it all.  We went grocery shopping yesterday, so we don’t have to go shopping tomorrow.  I will probably have to work both my jobs tomorrow, because the snow isn’t going to be fast and furious. I’ll have to dig out the boots.

Back in November of 2010 (based on the comment I left on a blog post), Emily and I made Stuffed Acorn Squash and White Bean Chicken Chili.  I’ll be darned if I remember what recipe we used for the white chili.  I just remember it being good.  Then I remembered the yummy soup I made once for a Lenten soup and sandwich supper, that everyone liked and tried to remember where that was from.  Sheesh.  I googled chicken soup with spinach and rosemary and found this link:  Italian White Bean and Spinach Soup  Phew!

It will be fun to take pictures of snow, once we get it!  I took pictures of the yard, the other day, so I could document our snowlessness.  They are still on the camera, though!

Our Christmas tree from this year. It was a combination of a balsam and a fraser fir!  I’d never heard of that before.  My coolest gifts were a Mac Mini and a small 4-cup Cuisinart Food Processor!  The kids are having fun learning how to use the food processor.  Some day I won’t have to work so much and I can have a little more time to play with it.  I’m still working hard on getting my computer set up with my old files and trying to navigate a Mac.

Tomorrow the temps and dewpoints will go up again. Just in time for us to have to mow the lawn again! Ugh! Still it won’t be as hot as last week’s heat advisories. We might have to dodge some raindrops, though.

The flowers are blooming nicely. I should take some pics tomorrow. I have off tomorrow, so I will have time!

Wind stirs up Lake Michigan on 10-26-10.

Emily and I made soup for supper, because with such blustery weather, what else would you be hungry for?

TURKEY VEGETABLE SOUP

1 1/4 pound ground turkey
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced celery
6 cups water
1 can diced tomatoes with juice – 14-16 ounces
1/3 cup white rice, uncooked
1/4 cup ketchup
1 T. instant bouillon – chicken or beef
1/2 T. dried basil
1/8 tsp pepper
1 bay leaf

Crumble ground turkey into a Dutch oven. Stir in onion, carrots and celery. Cook and stir over medium high heat about 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Drain.

Return to kettle and add the water, tomatoes, rice, ketchup, bouillon, basil, pepper, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat. Cover and simmer 25 – 30 minutes or until vegetables and rice are tender. Remove bay leaf before serving.

I don’t know where my mom found this recipe, but I’ve had it so many times as an adult, I finally asked for the recipe. Tonight we served it with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and salads we made at the grocery store salad bar.

I need to brave one more trip outside with the dog and then I can go to bed.

Oh yeah, diagnosed with bronchitis last Thursday, October 21st, after coughing for 1-1/2 weeks. Finished my Z-pak yesterday. I’m still coughing. I’m hoping for improvement by the time the full 10 days is up, which will be October 30th. Everyone, including me, is sick of hearing me cough. Coughing for 2 weeks is not my idea of a good time!

My new blue sweater has been keeping me nice and toasty all evening! I’m so glad I have it!

3 cups water
1-1/2 pounds stewing meat, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 medium onion, diced
4 carrots, diced
14-1/2 oz can tomatoes
2 tsp salt
10-oz package frozen mixed vegetables OR your choice of frozen vegetables
1 Tbsp dried basil
1/2 cup dried vermicelli (We couldn’t find vermicelli, so we used orzo instead.)
1 tsp dried oregano
Added 1 15-oz can cannellini beans, because minestrone should have beans in it
grated Parmesan cheese

1. Combine all ingredients in slow-cooker. Stir well.

2. Cover. Cook on Low 10-12 hours or on High 4-5 hours

3. Top individual servings with Parmesan cheese

Also, we don’t add that much salt to our food.  We have sea salt in a grinder and I probably just added a couple turns of that.  I’m sure it wasn’t 2 teaspoons.

The 3 of us (Gary, Emily, and me) all loved it!  It was gone in a matter of days.

California Chicken

3-lb chicken, quartered
1 cup orange juice
1/3 cup chili sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp molasses
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp garlic salt
2 Tbsp chopped green peppers
3 medium oragnes, peeled and separated into sections  OR
1 13-1/2 oz can mandarin oranges

1. Arrange chicken in slow cooker.

2. In separate bowl, combine juice, chili sauce, soy sauce, molasses, dry mustard and garlic salt.  Pour over chicken.

3. Cover; cook on Low 8-9 hours

4. Stir in green peppers and oranges. Heat 30 minutes longer.

Variation:

Stir 1 tsp curry powder in with sauces and seasonings.

Stir 1 small can pineapple chunks and juice in with green peppers and oranges.

Plus, I made Chunky Cinnamon Applesauce in the crockpot, from Two Peas and Their Pod.

I love using my crockpot, because you can set it up with a minimum of work, then go about your day, and supper’s made when you come home at 5 or 6pm. I made the applesauce during the night, then transfered the applesauce to a container to go in the fridge, washed the crock, and got the California Chicken all set to go.  I’ve used it 3 times in the past two weeks.

Today, it’s been snowing all day!  There are probably 7-9 inches on the driveway and it was very much NOT done snowing yet.  The snow is almost up to Jasmine’s belly.  I need to measure from belly to end of legs, to find out how many inches that is.  Emily did not get a snow day and my clinic hours went on, as scheduled, so no slacking for us! I’m glad I had nowhere to go tonight!

I finally found my Lands End sweatpants.  I haven’t known where they were, for months and with the cold weather upon us, I wanted an extra option to wear to my school job, to keep me warm, since we are outside with first graders, for 20-25 minutes.  I’m so happy!

I need to get caught up on my dishcloth pictures.  Some on my camera need to be downloaded.  I”m so behind.

We are hoping that the flu passes us by. So far we””””ve been lucky, although Emily and I recently had colds.  Mine is still here, but getting better everyday.  So far, Gary has still been healthy.  Emily is hoping they DON”T have a “flu-cation” from school.  She thinks it””””s bad enough that we have to make up the wintry days on June 12th and June 15th.

Today, the sun is shining and the temperature is in the high 50””””s, which is a huge improvement over last week””””s rain. A few blocks from us, a sewer collapsed, so a major intersection is going to closed off for a month.  Ugh. I hope the time goes fast.