Tiz a New Year, January Coffee is up

[Major 2]

Bowl of Lobster Bisque soup & a Mojo Pork sandwich for dinner , bought it at the concrete pantry.

"SHE" made a salsa called Texas caviar .....

Boils some apple cider vinegar with some sugar ....allows to cool ....

Pinto beans, Black beans both drained , add chopped celery, onion, green & red pepper add the cooled vinegar solution...
chill and serve with tortilla chips.....

very colorful, and Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good !    as a salsa or a even salad.

[Major 2]

Morning Gents... put the coffee maker on , should be ready in short minute or two....
Maybe a waffle from the toaster too...

Headed in , have $8000 worth of building material hitting the dock today, gonna be busy for the next few, getting a rush project complete and trucked out to shaky side ... 

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Thanks for the coffee,M2

28 and still dark here. Might get some frizzle here later, maybe some flakes mixed in with it. We may get some considerable snow on Sunday, guessers are sayin' 3-6"

[Arcey]

Mornin'.

Mid twenties 'n guessin' to mid forties. Not much air movement. Didn't feel as chilly as yestitty when I put the cans containin' my donations to the city at the curb.

Be spendin' time sittin' it the home nest taday. The pair are steady werkin' on it. Fat lady caught 'em doin' the dirty in the tree yestitty shortly past 1700. Less than a hundred yards from six lanes of rush hour traffic.

Gonna put 'nother mug fulla grits 'n cheese tagether. First batch didn't fill me. Dunno whether I'm wantin' Mexican or Italian for the evenin'. Figger it out later. Might not be either.

[Silver Creek Slim]

Morning y'all.
Thanks fer the coffee.

'Tis 28 and overcast. "Blustery. Cloudy. A chance of freezing drizzle and snow showers in the morning. Highs in the lower 30s. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation 40 percent."

Slim

[Texas Lawdog]

Thanks for the Cawffee this morning. It looks like another nice day ahead.

[Delmonico]

OK we're all cooks to some degree around here, my book is not for beginning cooks, hundreds of books out there for that, a degree of skill with a dutch oven is good, but there is enough information there to teach a newbie or to teach a charcoal briquette/cooking table patio dutch oven to cook in a historical camp.  Also the recipes have a little facts about them as to why I do them and why I do them the way I do in camp.

Most of us don't follow recipes to a letter, to a degree I'm writing my recipes (receipts for those who can't spell recipe)  to convince people they can vary off course.   In my mind there is no reason to have a recipe for vegetable soup, but it's such a good camp dish I decided I should.

I know some besides me have used camp ovens, if not, you know I could teach you in a weekend.   So lets say you know how to use them, and you have decided to do historical camp cooking, have never made vegetable soup and wonder how to make it period correct, does this seem good, not so simple someone don't understand it, yet not so complicated it is hard to understand.   

The hardest part of the recipes is getting them right in words so someone knows how much to use, since I just do it and it comes out just right for the oven.   




A little background on the first one, the ever popular Vegetable Beef Soup, today we often use all or part canned or frozen vegetables for making it as well as using hamburger for the meat, I would first refrain from using ground meat in camp, today by careful buying and cutting a cheap roast into stew meat, the savings would be little or nothing over hamburger and in most cases till very close to the end of the period, ground meat would have been more expensive (see beef).   The other is period recipes say to use what ever vegetables are in season; one must remember canned goods were still expensive (although by the end of this period the cost had dropped a lot) and frozen vegetables simply did not exist.   This is not to say to not use these items, but for a more period demonstration they need to be low key.   Also most modern recipes call for premade broth instead of water; if you have good meat and simmer it proper you will have broth without the extra cost.  Although the following recipe is called Beef Stew, other meats can be used such as venison, pork or even chicken if desired.   

Today most vegetable soups are going to end up with the pretty much standard, onions, potatoes, carrots, peas, corn and green beans or some combination there of.   Looking over recipes and notes from the time, one seems a lot more variety since people grew or bought a greater variety of vegetables than today and used them in ways seldom seen today.   An early spring soup would often contain lettuce, radishes, peas and turnips, perhaps some carrots or potatoes if any had survived in the root cellar.  Later on things like new potatoes, carrots, green beans and cabbage would be added to the mix and by fall rutabagas and salsify could end up in the mix and by winter mostly items that stored well in the cellar would be seen such as cabbage, winter squash and root vegetables.    Barley was sometimes added, often in winter when fresh vegetables were scarce.  I like some tomato in mine so I often add some canned tomato if fresh is not available.   

As far as amounts of vegetables a ratio in volume of around 1 to1-1 1/2 of vegetables and water is about right, for reference most common vegetables; 1 pound will make 3-4 cups of chopped vegetables, depending on how fine they are chopped and the exact type.   

Vegetable Beef Soup 

3 pounds of beef (shank or chuck is fine)
12 cups (2 ½ quarts) of water
12-18 cups of chopped vegetables (4-5 pounds)
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional

28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 cup pearl barley
Herbs of your choice (I like a little rosemary) Cut up the beef and brown it will, adding the water and the salt, pepper and any herbs desired.   Simmer on a low heat 1 hour or until the meat is tender and a good broth is formed.   Add the vegetables and simmer low until the vegetables are tender, about 1 hour.   
If using the barley reduce the vegetables by about 2 cups, if using the tomatoes reduce water and vegetables by about 1 ½ cups each or one can simply go to a 14 inch deep dutch oven.   

[Texas Lawdog]

Del, That looks like a good recipe. I usually cook enough for my wife and I . We always have some leftovers for extra meals.

[Delmonico]

Del, That looks like a good recipe. I usually cook enough for my wife and I . We always have some leftovers for extra meals.

If you do a lot of looking around, it is really almost any Veggie beef  soup recipe all added together and divided out to make a recipe that fits a 12" deep dutch oven or can overflow into a 14".  LOL when you really study recipes there are really just basics tweeked to fit the individual taste.   That's what I try to teach in cooking, learn the basics and teak them to what you want.   

[Texas Lawdog]

We are supposed to have rain this weekend, so the vegetable soup will be a viable option. I made some whole wheat pancakes for my late breakfast. They turned out good enough that I am full. No plans for lunch and no clue for supper.

[Delmonico]

Simplicity is what I want in recipes, but this does seem to confuse a lot of people. 


Beef Stew

To turn the above soup into a beef stew, take 1 ½ cups of cold water and stir in either 1/3 cup (6 tablespoons) of corn starch or 2/3rd cup (12 tablespoons) of flour to make a slurry.   Add to the soup and stir in, let simmer while stirring for 5 minutes or so, remove from heat, stirring occasionally and it will thicken as it cools.   

[Major E A Sterner]

Have some Beef Barley soup simmering on the stove right now, should be ready for dinner...

[Delmonico]

Have some Beef Barley soup simmering on the stove right now, should be ready for dinner...

I wasn't going to mention that part of it.

[Arcey]

Some the gas was still trapped in the cushion when I threw that ole chair away.....

[Delmonico]

I was posting that for information and feed back, never in my wildest dream would I think someone would bring up your digestive problems with barley, it was very insensitive and not very politically correct, don't know how a cross state lawsuit making light of a disability would be handled.   

[Texas Lawdog]

Arcey has mentioned that the Barley soup is "gassy", so I am not going to try it. Beans are bad enough. I always remember the scene in "Blazing Saddles". Moose is making beef enchiladas, ranch style beans, and a green salad for supper tonight.

[Arcey]

Have yer call call my girl, Del. Werk out an agreement.

Made an ole gal's day. Post office in the Ace Hardware. Somethin' was said 'bout an eagle stamp. Tolt 'em soon's I got outta there I was goin' 'cross the street after real ones. Asked where 'n I told 'er. Said she saw 'em while she was walkin' with a neighbor. Neighbor tolt 'er there weren't no eagles here. Thanked me a bunch 'n said she knew damned well she wasn't crazy. Told her I didn't know about the crazy part but she probably wasn't seein' things.

Birds werkin' the nest heavy. Saw three flights for buildin' materials, includin' a big hunka grass.



Grass is the last thing to go in, lookin' positive. They were still werkin' on it when I had ta leave. Hope we're all back tomorrow.

It was mexican, sorta. Not bad, definitely.

[Delmonico]

Off on another deal now, gonna go Class Action, we was discussing this sayin' someone has "selective hearin" among a bunch with tinnitus and high frequency loss, gonna sue the soft speakin, mush mouths with an attitude.   

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Eh?? Couldn't hear ya for the ringin' in my ears,Del My tinnitus has been getting worse over the last couple months. My mid range is whats going on me, 'bout right where SWMBO's voice hits Hate wearing my aids, definately can't work with'em, and can't play with'em in either. Get this kind weird echo effect, throws off my intonation.Batteries are finally going south after almost two years. They're rechargables and run $50 a pair. Not available other than where I got the aids or another hearing aid specialist. The rechargeable part was what got me to get'em, kinda like the shock them Prius owners get when they gotta replace those batteries in those cars

[Delmonico]

They tell me they won't help me or so they said about 16 years ago, actually do pretty well  as long as people use a little curtsy, they need to be taught that if you have a higher pitch voice talking louder only makes it worse as the pitch goes up, face me when you talk, be in the same room, my left is much better than the right so if I'm driving it's best to shut up and not worry about it.