Recipes

There’s nothing like blessing someone with a dish of homemade food! Check back often for recipes to use for church pot lucks or outreach ministries. Catch funny and poignant stories about food in history and in Karen’s daily life. I’ll also share recipes from the past and how those dishes weave into my historical fiction.

April 13, 2020 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Hot Cross Buns – Karen Wingate

Hot Cross Buns are a great Easter giveaway.

Yes, I know. Easter was yesterday, the day before I posted this blog. But hey, Easter can be like the way my family celebrates birthdays. We stretch out the festivities for over a week, or whatever works for most of us.

So, if you’re looking for a new shelter in place cooking project or know some neighbors or shut-ins that need to see a smile and enjoy the scent of homemade bread, this recipe for hot cross buns can be a fun, festive way to keep sharing the meaning of Easter.

[Read more…]

February 3, 2020 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Joe’s Special: When You’re Scrambling for An Easy Recipe

Joe's Special - a wonderful scrambler of spinach, hamburger, and egg — Joe’s Special – a wonderful scrambler of spinach, hamburger, and egg

I’m looking for easy recipes these days.

Easy, healthy, and quick without having to resort to prepackaged dinners. I think I’ve found a winner that I want to share with you – Joe’s Special.

Joe’s Special is a delectable mixture of hamburger, spinach, mushrooms, and onions scrambled together with a couple of eggs and topped with Parmesan. Low carb, nice and protein-y, and an all-in-one dish that includes the veggies. If you need your carb fix, accompany the dish with a loaf of sourdough bread or pita bread.

My Fanny Farmer cookbook calls it Little Joe’s and said it has a San Francisco flavor.

That’s misleading, because when I googled Little Joe’s, I read lots about a famous Italian restaurant called Little Joe’s, that spilled over the side of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Here’s a very interesting link about a local restaurant gone famous, but alas, no mention of the spinach/hamburger dish. With a little more research, that’s when I found the recipe is really called Joe’s Special and it was popularized in another San Francisco Italian restaurant called Original Joe’s. The dish became so popular in a number of San Francisco restaurants, that one San Francisco mayor once dubbed the dish “famous.”

That makes me think of the story behind the Mexican chimichanga, which originated in Tucson, Arizona’s famed El Charro Mexican restaurant. The story I grew up with was the restaurant owner was running out of food when a large group came in the restaurant mid-afternoon. She threw together what she had, wrapped it in a tortilla, and deep fat fried it. When asked the name of the dish, she blubbered, “Umm,” and made up a word. “Chimichanga!” It stuck.

Happy sigh. I love food history.

I rediscovered this dish when I needed a fast meal after my diabetic husband had been exposed to too many carbs in the previous two days. It was perfect and is going in my rotation for fast easy meals over the next few months when my writing and ministry responsibilities ramp up.

This recipe is very adaptable. You can easily cut the recipe in half if there are just two of you, or half again, using 1 egg for just a single serving. Adjust the mushrooms and onion to taste. I’ve changed the recipe in the book to use fresh mushrooms because I like fresh mushrooms. But you can always keep canned mushrooms on hand, which might be more convenient for you.

Cook the hamburger, onions, & mushrooms together. Cook the spinach in a separate dish.

Stir the spinach into the beef mixture. Whisk the eggs and Tabasco together.

If your schedule is getting filled to overflowing and you’re scrambling for easy, but you want to stay with healthy, from-scratch meals, try Joe’s Special. Or Little Joe’s. Whatever. Make up your own name. It’s good whatever you call it. And yes, this is straight out of my Fanny Farmer Cookbook, circa 1979.

Joe’s Special (Little Joe’s)

3 Tbsp oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms OR 1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound fresh spinach, blanched, well drained & chopped
OR 1 16 oz bag frozen spinach, cooked & drained.
Salt
Tabasco
4 eggs, slightly beaten
Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a large skillet, add the onion, and cook over medium heat until the onion is soft. Add mushrooms, if using fresh, and cook until the mushrooms turn soft. Add the beef, mixing with the veggies and breaking it up into small bits with a fork, cooking until the redness is gone. Drain any grease. Add the spinach and mix well. Stir and cook for about 3 minutes, then salt to taste. Mix a dash of Tabasco with the eggs, then pour over the beef mixture and stir until the eggs are set. Remove from heat and serve, sprinkling a bit of Parmesan (or Cheddar Cheese) on top of each serving.

January 19, 2020 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Club Chicken Casserole – Karen Wingate

Club Chicken Casserole is my all time favorite main dish meal to take to church potlucks.

Club Chicken Casserole - a savory blend of chicken, rice, and broccoli. — *Club Chicken Casserole – a savory blend of chicken, rice, broccoli, and almonds*

It’s my go-to dish when I need to take a main dish to one of my church’s quarterly potluck dinners. Club Chicken Casserole is easy, has simple, on-hand ingredients, and satisfies my obsession with bringing a healthy dish that includes some vegetables to a potluck. Leftovers heat up well and it doesn’t contain canned cream soup, like so many casseroles do. In fact, I use the chicken broth collected when I cook chicken in my Instant Pot. So my chicken broth is rich and full of good nutrients without any added salt.

Okay, confession. While, like any cook, I’m delighted when I take home an empty dish, I don’t mind bringing home the leftovers of Club Chicken Casserole. I love it that much. It’s also tailor made for a Sunday noon church potluck because you can make it the day before and then stick it in the church oven 45 minutes before the potluck begins, adding the cheese and almonds ten minutes before it’s done.

The recipe for Club Chicken Casserole is from a 1979 Better Homes and Gardens All Time Favorite Recipes Cookbook. Our family cherishes many recipes from this well organized cookbook, including baked custard, cabbage rolls, Chili Relleno Bake, Strawberry Souffle Salad, and Stir Fry Beef Asparagus. Is your mouth watering yet?

So here’s my recipe for Club Chicken Casserole. Better grab a spoonful at the potluck. You might not get to take home any leftovers.

Club Chicken Casserole

Club Chicken Casserole
2 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup regular or jasmine rice
2 cups frozen chopped broccoli
¼ cup butter or margarine
¼ cup flour
1 ½ tsp salt
Dash pepper
2 cups milk
2 cups cooked chicken or turkey
½ cup fresh sliced mushrooms or 1 small can fresh mushrooms
¼ cup slivered almonds
Grated cheddar cheese, optional

In saucepan, bring chicken broth and rice to a boil. Reduce heat. Cook, covered for 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Let stand for ten minutes covered.

Meanwhile, cook broccoli according to package directions. Drain well.

In saucepan, melt butter or margarine. Sauté mushrooms, if fresh, in butter until tender. Add salt, pepper, and flour; mix well. Add milk all at once. Cook and stir constantly until thickened and bubbly. Stir in chicken, cooked rice, drained broccoli, and mushrooms, if canned. Turn into a 2-quart casserole. Bake at 350 degrees 25 minutes, covered. Sprinkle chees and almonds on top, pressing almonds gently into the casserole. Bake, uncovered, ten more minutes.

OVERNIGHT: Before baking, cover with foil and refrigerate. When ready to serve, bake, covered, in preheated 350-degree oven for 35 minutes. Add cheese and almonds as above and bake, uncovered for ten minutes.

September 30, 2019 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Instant Pot Ministry: Using What You Have To Bless Others

Everything we own can become a tool to bless others in the name of Jesus. Even an Instant Pot.

I loved my Instant Pot the first time I used it. I’ve been a fan of pressure cookers for years. There’s no better way to cook dried beans, potatoes for potato salad, or corn on the cob.

Because food takes longer to cook in high altitudes, my pressure cooker and crock pot were life savers when we lived in the high alpine San Luis Valley in Colorado at 7500 feet elevation.

But a traditional pressure cooker needs watching and my grip isn’t as strong as it used to be. Lifting the cooker to carry it to the sink to depressurize it was getting to be painful. I was ready to move on to the simplicity of the Instant Pot. So I persuaded my husband to buy me one last year as an early Christmas present.

Okay, my new electric pressure cooker isn’t an Instant Pot. It’s a Power Quick Pot. This brand is more limited than the Instant Pot, but there are some things it does better. But this blog article is not a fine-toothed comparison of Pressure Cooker brands. Nor am I trying to convince you to purchase one.

Look around your home space to see what you do have that you can use to honor God and bless others.

I’ve learned to cook all kinds of new things in my Instant Pot.

Hard Boiled eggs: How simple! You don’t have to monitor them on the stove.

Cooked Chicken Meat: I used to cook 5 pounds of chicken leg quarters in the Crock Pot for 3 hours. No more! 23 minutes in the Instant Pot!

Dried Beans. So much quicker than cooking on the stove or in your Crock Pot. And a lot less smelly too.

More Instant Pot Wonders

Beef Stew, Pot Roast, potatoes, corn on the cob, green beans.

And rice! Oh my! Rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan anymore. Brown rice doesn’t take forever and a day.

The best prep was making steel cut oats. No longer do I stand and stir oatmeal for half an hour in the morning. Getting up is hard enough, thank you.

One Friend’s Story

Food prep has become easier, allowing me to have more time with less stress to do the things that matter most to me. I was already convinced this was a good gift in my life. Then the day came when my Instant Pot became an investment in the Kingdom of God. A dear friend, who was wheelchair bound after recovery from surgery for a ruptured Achilles tendon, discussed her food needs with me. She wanted to cook healthy for her husband so didn’t want a lot prepared processed food. Nor was she interested in a round of church lady casseroles.”I have a new Instant Pot,” I told her. Cooking basic foods like cooked chicken and no salt added dried beans would be a cinch.

We agreed I would bring her some prepared basic ingredients that she could easily freeze and use later to combine into easy to prepare dishes. In less than four hours, I was able to cook and debone 5 pounds of chicken, cook up two separate batches of dried beans, make refried beans with part of the pinto beans I’d cooked, and make homemade whole wheat bread.

Okay, I did not use the Instant Pot to make the bread. It, like anything else, has its limits. But, not having to stand over the stove monitoring a stew pot or traditional pressure cooker gave me the time and energy to make the bread.

I could not have done all of that in such a short time without my Instant Pot.

What can you do with an Instant Pot?

Here are some ways you can use an Instant Pot to bless others.

Hard boil eggs for deviled eggs. Take to the next church potluck.

Cook a whole chicken or five pounds of chicken leg quarters. Debone the meat to use in various recipes. Bag the cooked chicken meat in 2-cup measures and give to an elderly friend recovering from surgery or illness, or who might be going through chemotherapy. It’s hard to get good protein when you don’t feel well. Chicken is easy to digest. Your recovering friend can easily nibble at some cold chicken if their appetite or energy level is puny.

Make custard. It’s another nutritious, easy to digest but rich in protein food. Know someone who is diabetic? Use Splenda instead of the sugar, cup for cup. Here’s a recipe I found online.

Beans, beans, beans. So many things you can do with beans. Pintos for refried beans, Black beans for black bean soup. White beans for ham and bean soup or White Chili. Stick in a ham hock with some split peas to make Split Pea Soup. Yum. My mouth is watering.

You can either give the cooked beans to the person to make into their favorite dish or prepare the dish for them. Advantage? You control the amount of salt. Like my friend, who was watching her husband’s salt intake, I didn’t cook the beans with any salt, letting her add the amount she preferred.

Cook a pound of beans at a time in the Instant Pot and then make your favorite dish from what you’ve cooked, sharing half with a family who needs some comfort food. Or, make enough chili or soup just for them and use the rest to make something else for yourself. Make your dish on a Saturday and invite a family from church home for Sunday lunch. You can make a Jello Salad or a 7 layer salad ahead too. Easy meal!

Beans freeze well. I made White Chili for lunch and then froze the leftovers. We’ll have it for a quick meal before a ministry meeting or I can take my disposable container to a friend in need.

Do you have an Instant Pot? Do you have trouble keeping track of times and amounts like I do? I found this great chart.

Is your mouth watering? At the end of this blog post, I’ll give you my recipe for White Chili.

Now it’s your turn.

Don’t have an Instant Pot? No problem. As I said, this blog is not meant to convince you to go buy one. I think you would love it if you did, but that is not my purpose.

Look around your kitchen and the rest of your home. What appliances and devices do you own? What are your four favorite? Grab a piece of paper and a pen and write them down.

I’ve shared with you four foods I make in my Instant Pot for God’s Kingdom work

Hard boiled eggs
Dried beans
Chicken meat
Custard.

I can:

Give food to an elderly shut in
Share a meal with a recuperating couple who can make easy meals but need help with basic preparations
Invite a family to your home to share a meal
Take a dish from your Instant Pot to a church Pot-luck.

What home appliance or possession did you choose?

Crock Pot
Waffle Iron
Computer
DVD player
Car
Lawn mower

Now. brainstorm four ways to use that item to bless and connect with others for the sake of the Kingdom. Be creative! Pray to God, the ultimate Creator, for out of the box ideas. And let me know in the comments section what you decided to do with what you have.

Here’s my recipe for White Chili, Instant Pot Style.

White Chili

1 pound dried Great Northern beans
5 cups water
½ cup chopped onion
¼ tsp ginger
2 cups cooked chicken meat, shredded
1 7-ounce can chopped green chilis
½ cup chopped green bell pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano, crushed

Rinse and sort beans, removing any broken beans. Soak beans in enough water to cover them for 1-2 hours. Drain.

Place beans in inner lining of Instant Pot. Cover with 5 cups of water. Add chopped onion and ginger. Cook on high pressure for 20 minutes, doing a natural release of 12 minutes. Vent and remove lid. Add chicken, green chilis, chopped bell pepper, salt, chili powder, cumin and oregano. Stir. Set on Slow Cooker setting, cooking for 1 hour.

Serve in soup bowls, garnishing with shredded Cheddar Cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips.