Cheeseburger Chowder

 We found this recipe from the November 1999 The Friend magazine and love it.  Here is the link to the recipe in The Friend: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/friend/1999/11/kitchen-krafts?lang=eng

Cheeseburger Chowder

1 pound (.45 kg) lean ground beef

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 cup coarsely shredded carrots

1/4 cup chopped onion

5 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 can (10 1/2 ounces/298 g) beef broth

5 cups milk

2 cups peeled, diced potatoes

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1. Brown the ground beef in a large kettle; drain off the grease. Add the celery, carrots, and onion; cook until tender.

2. Stir in the flour and salt. Then add the beef broth, milk, and potatoes, and bring just to a boil. Reduce the heat to low; simmer and stir for 5–10 minutes or until the potatoes are done.

3. Turn off the heat, add the cheese, and stir until it melts.

We usually use powdered milk and beef base rather than fresh milk and beef broth.  That lets you use as much water with beef base as needed to cook the potatoes and you can boil it without worrying about scalding the milk.  Then you mix double strength milk in water and add that, it will cool it enough to add the cheese without it being so hot that it curdles the cheese.

Zucchini Cake

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but I know and trust anything that comes from the kitchens of these women, my friends. It was posted on Whitney Montenegro's facebook page.

Mulligan Stew

 Boil 3 cups water drop 1 lb hamberger into boiling water add 3⁄4 tsp salt and 1⁄4 tsp salt. Add 1

onion chopped. Turn to simmer and dice 1 cup carrots, 1 cup celery and 2 cups potatoes.

Add to soup. Add extra water to cover top of potatoes. Cook until tender. Thicken with 1 1⁄2

cup cold water mixed with 1⁄2 cup flour. Let come to a boil to check thickness. Can add

more flour/water mixture if desired. Add 2 cups frozen green peas. Add more salt and

pepper if desired.

Stir let simmer until peas are hot. Serve with sour cream if desired.

A Really Good Pumpkin Cake (aka Gordon's 3rd Birthday Party Cake)

Beat together

 3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups pumpkin puree (if it's watery fresh pumpkin or if it's not watery pumpkin 2 cups and 1 cup of the drained pumpkin juice, if you use canned pumpkin you may want to add a bit of liquid)

Add:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger (or about 2 teaspoons fresh ginger)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir together (sift if you want):
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder

Mix flour mixture into wet ingredients.

Pour into cake pan and bake at 350 for 35-40 min or in muffin or baby bundt pans and cook shorter time.

Aria originated this recipe for Gordon's 3rd birthday celebration in Hawaii and we repeated it when they came for Thanksgiving (2025).

Aria says it's Gordon-approved when made it with cream cheese frosting. I sprinkled Trader Joe's pumpkin spice pumpkin seeds on top of the the batter before cooking and it was delightful. These are only available seasonally, make sure you pick up extras in October. They are also wonderful in my cabbage/apple/pomegranate salad and sprinkled on pumpkin pancakes batter before you flip the pancakes.

I planned to have the cake for dinner after we picked up Gordon and family from the airport. I also taught seminary that morning so I made a double batch to have it for seminary.  When we tried it the texture was off ...  Kim thought is was still raw ... it wasn't ... I just forgot to add the leavening.  

So I re-made a double batch, this time with the leavening agents and it worked out better. They were a hit at seminary.

When Spencer tried the first batch he thought it still tastes great and said it's almost like the texture of a pumpkin fudge.

Crustless Ham Quiche

 

Crustless Ham Quiche

 8 oz cubed ham (1cup)

½ pound fresh mushrooms

2 tbl butter

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 cup small curd cottage cheese

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

¼ cup flour

½ cup diced onion

1/3 cup milk

2 cups shredded gouda or guyere cheese

¼ tsp salt

4 tabasco drops

 

Saute mushrooms in butter iuntil tender. Drain, set aside. In a bowl, combine eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, parmesan, ham flour and milk. Saute onions in butter and add to the bowl. Also all the mushrooms. Add gouda cheese ,salt and tobacco.

 

Pour into a 10in porcelain pie plate, greased

Bake 325 for 45 minutes (until knife comes out clean)

Let stand 4 min before cutting.

 

For a 9 x13 casserole dish 1 ½ times the recipe bake 1 hour or more.

Can be made the night before and baked. In the morning put foil over pan and warm in oven on 200 or 250 degrees for 40minutes or longer

Orange, Grapefruit, Avocado, Pomegranate Salad is delicious and such a great winter salad

 

Orange and Grapefruit Salad

4 oranges

2 grapefruit

1 kiwi sliced

1 avocado sliced

 Butter lettuce head or 1 head iceburg

Pomegranate seeds

Crushed pistachios

Celery Seed Dressing

 

Section grapefruit by first peeling with sharp knife around and around getting all of the white pulp, then put knife between section to center without cutting through. Lift individual sections out so that no membrane is included. Squeeze remaining membrane on sections to get all of the juice out. Oranges sectioned the same. Arrange butter lettuce on the plate with slices of grapefruit, oranges, kiwi, and avocado. Pour a small amount of dressing and garnish with pomegranate seeds and pistachios.

Celery Seed Dressing

1 cup salad oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp paprika- can do ¾ tsp regular and ¼ tsp smoked paprika

2 5sp grated onion

10 tbl sugar

 

Blend well and slowly add:

1/3 cup rice vinegar

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 tbl celery seed

Chill and serve (makes a lot)

Gingerbread Cookies

This dough is so easy to work with, you can roll the cookies out immediately (you don't have to regrigerate dough before rolling it out like a lot of other rolled-out shaped cookies). I used to make them frequently until I married Kim and he doesn't really like gingerbread.

1 cup molasses

1 cup shortening
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger

Bring molasses and shortening to a boil in medium saucepan. Blend in baking soda and water (it will foam). Add sugar, egg and vanilla. Blend in flour, cloves, cinnamon, salt and ginger. Roll out and cut out while still warm. The dough is easy to work with--you don't need flour as you roll it out.  

Bake at 375 for 7-8 minutes for cookies to eat or 10-12 minutes for cookies to make a house.