We surely hope Kitchen Kapers readers noticed our recent page’s headline during this cold wintry weather we’re all enduring and surviving here in 2016.
“Mmm……Chili!” was the brief and very-attention-catching wordage of that earlier issue’s Kitchen Kapers headline, accompanied by a picture of a beautiful big bowl of hot chili and that recipe.
Just warming up a chilly day here with good hot chili or soups while this winter-season environment here currently replaces our usually sunny warm Florida can be a bit comforting.
It’s been really cold in recent days down here in this state celebrated for its sunshine and warmth. Way down here in the Sunshine State the weather just has been a bit too brisk lately.
Actually sitting down at the table to enjoy a big bowl of very nicely still steaming hot chili or an equally hot-and-steaming soup or a big plate of hot vegetables certainly can be a major comfort on these seemingly-freezing rare cold winter days in our usually nice and warm Florida.
That is why we so much enjoy sharing with others via this Kitchen Kapers column our Apopka-area readers’ recipes for lots of hot and steaming home-cooked nutritious vegetables or warming soups, chowders, stews or chili and all kinds of other hot foods for our rare-in-Florida but occasionally happening really chilly days here in usually so very sunshine-warmed Florida.
All of your shivering friends and family fortunate enough to be included in that treat next time you cook a really big pot of good hot foods on a cold day with plenty enough for all present surely will be warmly appreciating being invited in for a taste of your good cooking or having it hand-delivered by you.
Enjoy the rest of this so-far-comfortable-enough cool season and as long as it lasts enjoy cooking up more of those good friends’ and neighbors’ favorite cold weather recipes from our Apopka-area cookbooks, including the recipes here this week.
This week’s “hot potato” recipe, the second recipe here, gets repeated in Kitchen Kapers a lot of winters because the recipe title sure sounds like it was created for the city of Apopka.
That historic city name Apopka translates as “the Big Potato” in our locally indigenous native ancestors’ language.
That hot potato soup recipe so special for us is from the Apopka Historical Society’s cookbook, Preserving the Big Potato: A Collection of Potato Recipes.Stay warm as you can indoors cooking some good hot meals from Apopka’s cookbooks through these mostly-comfortable though surely cooler-than-usual days while we are appreciating our mild Florida-style winter season, which sure beats the intense summer heat!
MARTHA LANDSMAN’S
CHILI FOR A COLD DAY
Recipe from Apopka Life Outreach Center’s Women Of Destiny
Recipe Book
2 cans of small red beans (not kidney beans)
3 pounds hamburger
1 large onion
1 envelope of taco seasoning
Old Bay seasoning (1 to 2 tablespoons)
Garlic, 1 tablespoon
A-1 Sauce, amount to your taste
Salt and pepper, amounts to your taste
1 large can of whole tomatoes
1 large can of tomato sauce
Brown the hamburger and drain it. Add taco seasoning and mix all well. Rinse beans and put in large pot. Add the tomatoes (with their juice), breaking them apart with your hands as you add them to the pot, the tomato sauce, onions and rest of the seasonings.
Simmer on low heat for about one hour, adding more seasonings to your taste. Serve hot, topped with Cheddar cheese, diced onions and tomatoes. (Leftovers are great as refried beans and for burritos.)
APOPKA HISTORICAL SOCIETY’S EASY BIG POTATO SOUP
Recipe from the Apopka Historical Society’s Preserving
the Big Potato
1 bag (16 ounces) frozen hash brown potatoes
1 can (14-and-a-half ounces) ready-to-serve chicken broth
1 can (10-and-three-fourths ounces) cream of celery soup, undiluted
1 can (10-and-three-fourths ounces) cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups water
2 cups milk
Optional garnishes: Shredded cheese or diced ham or bacon
Combine the potatoes, chopped onion, chicken broth and water in a Dutch oven and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in the can of celery soup and the can of chicken soup and the two cups of milk. Heat thoroughly. Garnish if you wish. Recipe yields 2-1/2 quarts of hot potato soup.
ZENATTA WALLACE’S
COUNTRY POTATOES
Recipe from Grace United Methodist Church’s Treasured Recipes
2 pounds hash browns (frozen)
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup (undiluted)
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 stick melted butter
Crushed potato chips, enough to cover the top of casserole generously
Mix together all ingredients except the chips and the four tablespoons melted butter. Put mixture in a 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle top of dish with chip mixture and bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Recipe makes 12 servings.
TONI LAPIERRE’S
WARM FUDGE-FILLED
CHEESECAKE
Recipe from New Vision Community Church’s Feeding The Flock
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon vanilla, divided
2/3 cup chopped pistachios
4 (8-ounces-each) packages cream cheese, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 (12-ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate mini-morsels
Sweetened whipped cream (optional)
Garnish: chocolate shavings
Beat butter at medium speed with electric mixer until creamy. Add one-third cup sugar, beating well. Gradually add flour, beating at low speed until blended.
Stir in one teaspoon vanilla and the pistachios. Press into bottom and up the sides of a nine-inch spring-form pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack.
Beat the cream cheese at medium speed with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add 1-1/2 cups sugar, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears. Stir in remaining two teaspoons vanilla. Do not overmix.
Pour half of the batter into the crust. Sprinkle with chocolate morsels to within 3/4-inch to one inch of edge. Pour in remaining batter, starting at outer edge and working toward center.
Place cheesecake on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until set.
Cool on wire rack for one hour. Serve slightly warm with sweetened whipped cream if you wish.
Garnish if you like. Recipe yields 12 servings.
NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER FOR A COLD FLORIDA DAY
Recipe from The New Good Ole Boy’s Cook Book
2 cans (10 and a half ounces) of whole clams
2 cups raw potatoes, cubed
1 medium onion, sliced and diced
1 quart whole milk
3 tablespoons finely diced salt pork (also known as fat back and/or streak o’lean
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup finely chopped celery
Salt and white pepper
Drain liquid from the can of clams. Reserve and use to cook the potatoes and onions until they are tender. Separate the hard part from the clam and chop fine.
Add to the potato and onion mix when partially cooked. Add the milk, salt pork, soft part of clam and the butter and seasoning. Garnish with a sprig of fresh parsley.
