Jalapeño Cornbread with Ground Meat

   If you like cornbread, you will love this.  This casserole is not only very filling, it looks great when you plate it up.  You can serve it alone or with a side order of your favorite style of beans and guacamole.  Now that is a full meal.  Cue the Mariachi band.  Dinner is on the table.

Jalapeño Cornbread with Ground Meat


Ingredients:

1 lb hamburger meat
1 package taco seasonings, or chili powder
1 large can cream style corn
1 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup milk
¼ cup bacon drippings
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
2 eggs
grated cheese
1 large onion, chopped
5 canned jalapeños, chopped

Directions:
   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
   Combine corn meal, milk, eggs, salt, bacon drippings, and corn in medium bowl.  Mix well and set aside.
   Mix taco seasonings or chili powder with hamburger meat.  Brown meat in skillet and drain on paper towel.  Pour half of cornbread battter into well greased baking dish.  Add meat, sprinkle with onion and jalapeño over meat.  Sprinkle some of the cheese on rest.  Top with remaining cornbread batter.  Bake about 45 minutes in preheated oven.  Sprinkle remaining grated cheese over top after about 25 minutes of cooking time.

Notes:  If using cornbread mix leave out the baking soda.

                                   Now that is a real call to the table...

Italian Chicken Spaghetti Sauce

   This recipe takes a while to cook, but it is worth it.  You can always double the recipe and freeze half of it for dinner another night.  Serve this Italian Chicken spaghetti sauce with garlic bread and a salad.  Talk about comfort food.  What's more comfortable than pasta...













Italian Chicken Spaghetti Sauce


Ingredients:

1 chicken cut into pieces and boiled
1 large can tomatoes and 1 can water
1 can tomato sauce and 1 can water
1 cup celery, diced
1 bell pepper, chopped
½ tsp garlic powder
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp Italian seasonings
1 Tbsp mustard
salt and pepper
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Spaghetti, cooked and drained


Directions:
   Boil chicken and set aside. 
   In large sauce pan, cook celery, bell pepper, and onion in small amount of shortening or oil until tender.  Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, garlic powder, Italian seasonings, mustard, salt and pepper. 
   Simmer sauce for 2 to 4 hours, the longer the better.  Keep adding water to keep from sticking.  About 45 minutes before serving time, take chicken off of bones.  Add to sauce along with mushroom soup.  Cook amount of spaghetti needed, and drain. 
   Put spaghetti in large bowl and pour sauce over the top and serve.

Beef Royal

   This recipe is a good one to use with the less expensive cuts of meat.  The longer cooking time gives the meat time to tenderize.  Serve this over steaming rice and you have your self a really good meal.  Good enough for Royalty or at least your friends.













Beef Royal

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs steak
dash of black pepper
flour
2 cups water
¼ tsp paprika
1 green pepper
1 package onion gravy mix
oil or shortening

Directions:
   Flour steak and brown in skillet in small amount of oil or shortening.  Remove steak and cut into small squares.  Return steak to skillet.  Mix gravy mix, water, black pepper and paprika.  Pour over steak in pan and simmer 1 ½ to 2 hours.
   Cut green pepper into strips and add to steak for the last 30 minutes of cooking time.

New England Boiled Dinner

   While we are thinking about fall, here is another good fall supper.  It also uses a lot of the vegetables that are in season now.  So head out to the garden or your nearest farmers market and cook a delicious fresh meal, with locally grown produce. 

New England Boiled Dinner

Ingredients:

3 or 4 lbs bone end cut ham
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic, can use garlic powder
½ large head cabbage, cut in 6 wedges
4 to 6 small potatoes
4 to 6 small carrots, peeled
4 to 6 small onions
¼ lb or less green beans, broken in half

Directions:
   Wash ham, cut of rind and most of fat.  Put in large pot and cover with water.  Add bay leaf and garlic.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.  If ham is precooked variety, simmer for ½ hour.
   Remove ham and cut from bone.  (Reserve bone for making split pea soup.)  Return meat to pot.  Add all vegetables except cabbage to ham and simmer ½ hour.  Add cabbage to pot the last 15 minutes of cooking time.

                                             A perfect fall day...

Chili

   Fall is just around the corner, with cooler days and even cooler nights.  I can't wait.  Friday night football games and fall festivals.  What goes really good with a little nip in the air?  Chili... Here is a quick chili you can make up in less than 30 minutes.  Serve with warm cornbread fresh from the oven.  Just the right meal for fall nights.

Chili

Ingredients:

1 lb hamburger meat
1 Tbsp shopped dry onion, or ½ fresh onion, chopped
1 can tomatoes
1 can pinto beans
2 Tbsp chili quick, rounded
dash of black pepper

Directions:


   Brown hamburger meat and onions (if using fresh onion) in skillet.  Drain excess fat from skillet.  Add remaining ingredients to skillet and simmer 15 to 20 minutes.  Keep adding enough water to keep from sticking, while cooking.

              What can I say...I'm from Texas...Part Aggie...Part Longhorn...

Franks 'n Beans Skillet Supper

   Here is a twist on Franks and Beans.  This on is made with green beans with the addition of bacon to help bring out the flavor.  This supper cooks up so easy and fast it may become your new favorite franks and beans recipe.  So bring out the skillet and lets get cooking.

Franks 'n Beans Skillet Supper

Ingredients:

2 slices bacon
6 frankfurters
½ cup onion, chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
½ cup water
1 or 2 cans potatoes
1 can green beans


Directions:
   In skillet cook bacon.  Remove bacon and crumble.  Cut each frankfurter into thirds, brown in skillet with onions.  Stir in soup and water.  Drain beans and potatoes.  Cut potatoes into slices.  Add beans and potatoes to skillet and heat thoroughly.  Garnish with crumbled bacon.

Top Hat Supper

   This is a quick easy to prepare meal.  Made with Spam, yeah I said spam.  The most misunderstood and humble canned meat around.  To me Top Hat congers up a vision of Fred Astaire looking dashing in white tie and tails.  That would make this a humble eloquent meal.  Try saying that 3 times fast.












Top Hat Supper

Ingredients:

1 can cream of celery soup
¼ cup onion, chopped
¼ cup green pepper, chopped
2 Tbsp butter
½ cup milk
4 servings instant potatoes
1 can lunch meat (spam) cut in 6 slices

Directions:
    Preheat oven to 370 degrees.
   In sauce pan, melt butter and cook onions and green peppers until tender.  Stir in soup and milk.  Heat thoroughly.
   Prepare potatoes using ½ cup soup mixture in place of milk.  Place meat in baking dish, top with potatoes.  Bake 15 minutes in preheated oven.  Serve topped with hot soup sauce.

                       Wow...If I knew you liked Spam I would have made it sooner....