I’ve been cooking since I could stand on a stool and reach the stovetop. My first love was always, and still is, baking.

My parents divorced when I was 8 and my father got full-time custody of me and my sister. He was a carpenter, so while he worked full-time, he left early and was home by 4:30 or so. We generally shared the cooking responsibilities.

My stepmom  brought this recipe over to me a few months ago. She had actually just made it and thought I might enjoy seeing it in it’s original form that I had written up for her so many years ago (like probably 38 years ago!). Please notice how I spelt autumn on the recipe. Judging from the spelling in the recipe and the quality of the quality of the handwriting I’d say I was probably 10 or 11 When I wrote this down for her. I don’t remember if this is a recipe that I made up — it’s kind of hard to imagine that at that age I had that capability, but I cannot give credit if credit is due here since it was so long ago. You can see that the recipe has been well-used.

I have actually several times over the past few years thought of this soup, as it was a regular in our house as kids, but never seemed to find a recipe on the internet that tasted quite the same.

I made this last night, and I did make some revisions to the recipe from its original form. In the end though it tasted just as delicious as I remembered it to be. It’s a really easy soup to put together, I got enough to make two meals for a family of 5 for dinner and even though there’s lots of veggies in it, the kids still love it. Well, India’s so picky she complained a bit, but she complains about any new food. It’s a great weeknight family meal. It’s pretty quick and easy to prepare, makes a lot, and served with a slice of crusty french bread it makes a delicious meal.

Autumn Soup

An original recipe by Crafty Farm Girl ^© 2011
Yield: 8-10 services

2 pounds ground beef 85%-87% lean works best
1 cup finely diced yellow or spanish onion
1 cup finely diced carrots
1 cup finely diced celery
1 1/2 cups idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into small dice
1 28 oz. can petite-diced tomatoes with the juice
2 35 oz. containers low-sodium beef broth
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated pepper
2 teaspoons Kitchen Bouquet (can usually be found by the worsteshire sauce or gravy at the grocers)
2 cups water

Wait – I forgot the celery in the first shot as it was in the sink to be washed.

Cook the ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat, turning to cook evenly a few times, until cooked through but not browned. Drain in a colander.



While the beef is browning put the diced tomatoes, beef broth, water, salt, pepper & Kitchen Bouquet into a large stockpot on medium heat and bring to a boil.

Add the drained ground beef, diced onion, carrots, celery & potatoes to the stockpot.

Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for approximately 30-45 minutes on low heat until the potatoes and veggies have been cooked though.

Delicious. Homey. Simple.

If you try it, let me know what you think. A great quick and easy meal.

When India and I were stranded unexpectedly in Salt Lake City on our way out to Wyoming for our Christmas Break we ate at an amazing foodie restaurant called The Copper Onion. The dish that India ordered was Beef Stroganoff. Now my mother used to make this all the time when I was a kid, but what India received looked — and tasted — nothing like the gloppy, overly sour-creamed, overly tomato filled meal my mother made. Good gracious it was delicious. A mildly creamy, flavorful sauce with just the slightest hint (a whisper you might even say) of tomato flavor. The noodles they used were really really wide – half the width of a lasagna noodle. The beef was so tender. I would have gladly traded my spaghetti carbonara with her if she’d been willing. She wasn’t.

So I came home from vacation determined to re-create this dish as best I could. I was pretty pleased with the results, and I think if you try it you will be too. I would try to buy the best cut of beef you can for this. You can certainly use the boneless sirloin steak that most recipes I researched seemed to call for (and that I used), but when I make it again I might try a flank steak or perhaps even splurge on a fillet and really live it up. I tried to get some really wide noodles similar to the ones at The Copper Onion, but the great local cheese store was closed that day because it was another one of those snow days we’ve had so many of this year. Feel free to try a different noodle too if you’d like.

Beef Stroganoff

An original recipe by Craft Farm Girl^©, 2011

Yield: Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 2-pound boneless sirloin steak, well-trimmed into 2” x 1-1/2” strips
• 2 tablepoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoons hot water
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Ground black pepper
• ¼ cup finely chopped shallots
• ¼ cup finely chopped Spanish onion
• 1 lb. small button mushrooms, thickly sliced
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon Cognac
• ½ cup whipping cream
• 1-¼  cups beef broth
• 1-tablespoon sour cream
• 2 teaspoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons paprika (optional)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 8 oz. wide egg noodles (I used an 8.8 oz. package of DeCecco brand)

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the egg noodles.

Pour the soy sauce over the steak and toss to coat. Set aside.



While meat marinates, place mushrooms in medium microwave-safe bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Remember to poke a hole or two in the plastic wrap with a knife. Microwave on high power until mushrooms have decreased in volume by half, 4 to 5 minutes (there should be as much as ¼ cup liquid in bowl). Drain mushrooms and set aside; discard liquid.



Combine water, dry mustard, sugar, and ½ teaspoon pepper in small bowl until smooth paste forms; set aside.



Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper & toss to coat. Heat half of the vegetable oil in heavy large skillet over high heat until very hot. Working in two batches, add meat in single layer and cook just until brown on outside, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped onions and shallots and sauté until tender, scraping up browned bits, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper and sauté until onions and shallots are nicely browned, about 12 minutes.



Add beef broth, cream & Cognac. Simmer until liquid thickens and just coats the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream, tomato paste and dry mustard paste and whisk to combine.


Add the microwaved button mushrooms. Add meat and any accumulated juices from bowl. Simmer over medium-low heat until meat is heated through but still medium-rare, about 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.



Now before you begin the final steps you should put the egg noodles on to boil. Cook according to package directions until the noodles are al dente. Drain and return to pasta pot.



Remove saucepan from heat.. Pour the mixture over the egg noodles and sprinkle with the paprika. Toss with tongs to combine and evenly coat noodles with sauce. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Braised Short Ribs

Printed originally in Gourmet Magazine, October, 1995, found on Epicurious.com. Revised by Crafty Farm Girl, January, 2011.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings


Assemble your ingredients and then “mise en place”. If I teach you only one thing in my life, this would be the most important thing. Before I start cooking anything, I gather all my ingredients and then measure and prepare them as directed in the recipe (i.e., dice onions). Once you learn to do this your cooking life will be much easier. Go to Home Goods or someplace like that and stock up on small nesting bowls in their cookware section. They’re unbelievably handy for holding those ingredients. You should also have a good set of small to really large nesting stainless steel bowls.

Ingredients

6 pounds beef short ribs, cut into 1-rib pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 medium onions, chopped
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
a 28- to 32-ounce can whole tomatoes including liquid coarsely puréed in a blender
1 1/2 cups beef broth
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
six 3- by 1-inch strips fresh orange zest removed with a vegetable peeler
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 ounces pearl onions (about 2 cups), blanched in boiling water 2 minutes and peeled
a 1-pound bag peeled baby carrots

Preparation

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Pat short ribs dry and season with salt and pepper. In a heavy kettle (at least 6 quarts) heat oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and brown ribs in batches, transferring with tongs to a large bowl.



Add chopped onions to kettle and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until golden. Add garlic and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add wine, tomatoes, broth, Worcestershire sauce, zest, rosemary, and salt and bring to a boil. Add ribs including any juices that have accumulated in bowl and simmer, covered, 30 minutes.



And can we just talk about the orange zest here for a minute? Using a regular peeler, peel large strips off of the orange. However, when doing this you will always get some ‘pith’ on the back of the rind – that white stuff under the skin that is bitter. If you take a small paring knife and, holding the rind down on a cutting board, scrape the pith,. You should be able to remove most of it.

Add pearl onions and carrots, stirring and pushing down to make sure they are covered by liquid and cover. Now the original recipe called for it to be simmered on the stovetop for 1 1/2 hours.

I chose to do this in a low oven rather than the stovetop. “Slow and low” is something I was taught a long time ago. Slow cooking at low temperatures provides moister more flavorful meats. This is a good rule to remember for things like pork roasts too — they have so little fat in them these days that a quick browning and then cook it “slow and low” in the oven and you’ll have a much juicier roast.

Cook ribs for about an 1 1/2 hours, or until meat is literally falling-off-the bone tender.

Now the original recipe called to do this: Transfer meat, pearl onions, and carrots with a slotted spoon to a large bowl. Discard zest and boil braising liquid, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened and reduced to about 5 cups. Return meat and vegetables to kettle and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Stew may be made 3 days ahead and cooled uncovered before chilling covered. Reheat stew, adding water as necessary to thin sauce.

Now while I love short ribs right out of the pot like this as a stew, I chose to do something a little different because I had plans for the leftovers (to be posted next). I decided to make this more of a pulled beef style short rib. I removed the meat from the pot and put in a bowl, removing the bones as I did so. This wasn’t hard as they had all literally fallen out of the ribs while cooking. Discard the rib bones. Then I took all of the other ingredients left in the pot and, with a very large bowl underneath a large colander I poured the ingredients into the colander and drained the juice, pressing down with a wooden spoon to extract as much juice as possible.



Now once the collected juice has settled there will be a bit of grease on top you’ll want to skim off. I used a turkey baster, but you can use a spoon or one of those grease separator cups if you have one. Once that’s done pour the liquid into a small heavy saucepan and on low-medium heat bring to a slow boil and reduce until thickened, about 10-15 minutes.



Once the ribs have cooled down enough to handle, one at a time I placed them on a clean cutting board and with a fork I just pulled the meat apart, which is does pretty naturally. If I came across fatty sections (which beef short ribs tend to have), I would scrape that away and set it aside. (my dog will love me forever, for this as he has been the recipient of some of these tender morsels.) As you finish pulling each rib apart put in a large bowl. When done you will have a delicious bowl of fairly fat-free shredded short ribs.



Now, take the reduced sauce and pour it over the shredded short ribs and toss to evenly coat. It’s ready to serve, but you may need to re-warm it a bit by this point.

Now wait until you see what I did with the leftovers next!

I was as in the mood for a good chicken stew a few weeks ago, so searched my favorite cooking website and found this recipe. As usual, I made a few minor changes (they added flour to thicken the sauce in the end and I didn’t find this a necessary thing to do), but the end result was really spectacular. The whole family loved it.

Now the original recipe calls for it to be cooked in a slow cooker. I will definitely be bringing this recipe out to Jackson over Christmas and setting it to cook one day when I’m out skiing. However when I made it I chose to cook it in the oven at a very low oven (like 225^o F) in a heavy stockpot with a tight-fitting lid. A word of caution – and I speak from experience here – this chicken gets fall-off-the-bone tender, so if you stir the stew too much when it’s cookings you’re going to end up with a bunch of small bones to pick out of your meal. You can eliminate this issue by either not stirring it as much as I did, or using boneless pieces of chicken, but the bones will add more flavor to the dish. It was meant to be cooked in a slow cooker, so I think the not-stirring option is probably the best one.

Moroccan Spiced Chicken & Apricot Stew

Prunes or raisins can be substituted for the apricots. If you are unable to find hot paprika, substitute sweet paprika and add cayenne pepper to taste. Cooking on the high setting will yield tough, stringy meat. We recommend cooking chicken exclusively on the low setting. TIME: 4 to 5 hours on low

Ingredients

• 12 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 4-1/2 pounds), trimmed of excess fat. [I used a combination of thighs and breasts]
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 2 medium onions, chopped fine
• 6 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 ½ teaspoons hot paprika
• 8 ounces dried apricots (about 1 cup), chopped in half
• 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 15-1/2 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• ¼ cup minced fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Instructions

Dry the chicken thoroughly with paper towels, then season generously withsalt and pepper. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Carefully lay the chicken thighs into the skillet being careful not to overcrowd, skin-side down; cook until golden, about 6 minutes. Flip the chicken over and continue to cook until the second side is golden, about 3 minutes.

Transfer the chicken to a slow cooker, or if you’re using the slow-cooking oven method I used, you can keep the chicken in the same heavy pot you browned it in. Using paper towels, remove and discard the browned chicken skin. Pour off all but 2 teaspoons of the fat left in the skillet and return to medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown the remaining chicken, transfer it to the slow cooker, and discard the skin.

Pour off all but 2 teaspoons of the fat left in the skillet and return to medium heat until shimmering. Add the onions and ¼ teaspoon salt; cook, scraping the browned bits off the bottom of the skillet, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic, cinnamon, cardamom, and paprika; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the apricots and the chicken broth, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom.

Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Transfer the mixture to the slow cooker until the chicken is tender but not falling apart, about 1 hour longer. If you choose to use the oven method as I did, then place the chicken back into the mixture, put a tight-fitting lid on the stockpot and place into a 225^o F oven for about an hour, until chicken is tender but not falling apart.

Transfer the chicken to a carving board and tent loosely with foil to keep warm. Discard the cinnamon stick. Set the slow cooker to high. Stir in the cilantro and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Return the chicken to the slow cooker and allow to heat through before serving.