BLT Pasta Salad

This is a salad that always gets good comments at a picnic or barbecue. It's a little different than the norm, but it's easy to make. And it has bacon. It's hard to go wrong with bacon.

BLT Pasta Salad

2 cups uncooked macaroni
5 green onions, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
1-1/4 cups diced celery
1-1/4 cups mayonnaise
5 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled

Cook macaroni, drain and rinse in cold water until cooled. In a large bowl, combine the macaroni, green onions, tomato, and celery. In a small bowl, combine the mayo, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Pour dressing over macaroni mixture and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Just before serving, stir in bacon.

New England Clam Chowder

This recipe is a family favorite. As always, the amounts here make a pot of soup big enough to feed a family of 7. Or a hungry family of 5. Possibly a starving family of 3...well, you get the picture. This soup really improves with age, so if you can make it the day before, refrigerate it overnight, and then reheat, it will be even better.

Clam Chowder

1 large onion, chopped
3 Tablespoons olive oil (or bacon grease, if you have it)
1/4 c cooked, crumbled bacon *
~1lb. frozen hash browns (or equal amount potatoes, 1/4" dice)
1/2 cup flour
3 cans clams, drained (reserve juice)
1 c. cream or half and half
3 cups milk
2-3 teaspoons salt

Saute bacon and onions in oil until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add potatoes and stir to coat. Cook about 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour over all and stir to incorporate. To reserved clam juice, add water to make 2 cups. Stir clam juice, cream, and milk into potatoes, stirring well. Add salt. Bring almost to a boil, stirring, until thickened. Reduce heat and cook until potatoes are done, about 15 minutes. Stir in clams, heat through, and remove from heat. Let sit about an hour, reheat, and serve. Alternately, you can refrigerate overnight and reheat and serve the next day.
(*If I have time, I will cut up and fry the bacon before cooking the soup, leaving the appropriate amount of grease and bacon in the pan to saute the onions.)

Homemade yogurt

We talked about homemade yogurt at the park the other day. Here is a link to a recipe for crock pot yogurt that sounds like the recipe I used to use (which I cannot find.)

Per our conversation...

Yesterday at Picnic at the Park, we were discussing cream soups, because it's case lot sale month and everyone wants to stock up. I mentioned I have greatly reduced my canned cream soup use by making my own mix of flour and milk. Here is a recipe I found in the fabulous compilation book, The Complete Tightwad Gazette, by Amy Daczyczn. (This specific recipe isn't one I have made, per se, although I have used the basic premise frequently. The book is highly recommended.)

Cream Soup Mix

2 c. dry milk
1-1/4 c. cornstarch OR 2-1/2 c. flour
1/4 c. chicken bouillon
2 Tbsp. dried onion flakes
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. thyme (opt.)
1 tsp. basil (opt.)

Mix all ingredients and store in airtight container. If using cornstarch mix, add 1/3 c. mix to 1-1/4 c. water. If using flour mix, add 1/2 c. mix to 1-1/4 c. water. This makes concentrated casserole consistency. For soup consistency, double the water.

If you have a lot of milk, like we do (yea, cow!) you can just put milk in the blender with the flour or cornstarch and use that.

Not only is this soup healthier (especially if you use raw milk for a base, and a good quality chicken bouillon), it is significantly cheaper.
Store brand soup - 69 cents for a 10 oz. can
Homemade soup mix- Recipe makes ten 12 oz. batches at 18 cents each.

You could also get dried mushrooms at the store, and if you wanted a cream of mushroom concentrate, I would just throw some dried mushrooms in a chopper and add to the dry ingredients, or add mushrooms to the other part of your recipe.

For comparison, here is the list of ingredients from a can of Western Family Cream of Mushroom condensed soup: Water, mushrooms, wheat flour, soybean oil, salt, cream, monosodium glutamate, whey powder, soy protein concentrate, modified corn starch, autolyzed yeast extract, disodium phosphate, maltodextrin, spice, garlic powder, natural flavors (contains milk), dried mushrooms, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils.

Waffles/Aebelskievers

This recipe is the same for both waffles and Aebleskievers. We have a tradition in our family of serving aebelskievers at General Conference time in the spring and the fall. I have a humongous family (okay, not so huge in number, but humongous in appetite), so feel free to reduce this recipe by as much as you need. Parenthetical numbers are for a half size batch.

Waffles

8 eggs, separated (4 eggs)
2 Tbsp. sugar (1 Tbsp.)
1 cup melted butter - or other oil of your choice (1/2 cup)
4 cups milk (2 cups)
5 1/3 cups flour (2 2/3 cups)
1 tsp. salt (1 tsp.)
2 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder (4 tsp.)

In a small bowl, whip egg whites and sugar until stiff. Sift together dry ingredients. In a LARGE bowl, beat together egg yolks and butter/oil. Alternatively mix in dry ingredients and milk (adjust milk if needed for the batter consistency you want.) Fold in egg whites. Bake in hot waffle iron or aebleskiever pan. Muy delish.