I love Mexican food, all of it from bad, greasy Tex-Mex to interesting Veracruz and coastal seafood.  One of my great finds this year was this low-fat soup recipe.  You can eat bowls and bowls of it and still have room – and calories left over – for some yummy queso dip.

Mexican Vegetable Soup

INGREDIENTS:

- 2 c  green beans

- 3 garlic clove, minced

- 2 zucchini, cubed

- 14 oz. can diced mexican style tomatoes

- 1  onion, chopped

- 1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced, no seeds

- 1 green pepper, chopped

- 1 c  chopped tomatoes

- 1/2 poblano chile, diced

- 1 teaspoon oregano

- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

- 6 c  vegetable broth

- 1/2 c  roasted red peppers

- 1 T canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

- 1/2 c  chopped cilantro

- 2 T lime juice

METHOD:

1. Place green beans, garlic, zucchini, tomatoes, onion, green pepper, tomatillos, jalapeno, poblano, oregano, cumin and broth into large soup pot.

2. puree roasted peppers with chipotle in adobo sauce and stir into soup.

3. cover and bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

4. stir in lime juice and cilantro.

Crock-Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage

View at Picasa

Corned beef is one of my father’s signature dishes. Like a chemist, he mixes the spices and brine for the meat. While that cooks, he mixes a variety of mustards, horseradish and secret ingredients  to create a tasty series of dipping sauces to complement his fork-tender meat. Dad’s corned beef is something of a legend in our family – and he eagerly offers to make it when we get together. He’s a terrific cook – and in my mind, like the retired engineer that he is, he engineers this dish to perfection.

With St. Patrick’s Day approaching, I wanted to make corned beef, without the engineering degree (sorry Dad), so I was pleased to find Elizabeth Kelly’s Crock-Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage recipe. It simmers all day while you work to reveal a stunning and tender meal. Check out her post for a short history of corned beef.

Crock-Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage

serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb. corned eye of round beef, fat trimmed
• 6 1/2 cups water
• 3 bay leaves
• Fresh ground black peppercorns
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 6 cups green or red cabbage, coarsely chopped

Directions

Combine corned beef, water, bay leaves, pepper and vinegar in the crock of your slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, until the beef is tender and a meat thermometer reads at least 160 degrees F. Add the cabbage, cover and cook an additional 15-20 minutes.

Suggestions from Liz:

If you really insist on soft (some would say “overcooked”) cabbage, place it in the slow cooker with the corned beef from the start, though you will lose nutritional value as well as the crisp, fresh texture that lightly-steaming allows.

Serve your slow cooker corned beef and cabbage with pan-caramelized turnips (or “neeps”, as they’re called across the pond) or oven-roasted balsamic-glazed carrots . If you’re lucky enough to have two slow cookers, then slow-simmer some herbed potatoes and carrots while your corned beef and cabbage is cooking.

View at Picasa

We thank Elizabeth Kelly for sharing her recipe. She is a freelance writer with bylines in several national newsstand magazines. You can find more of her recipes published in the Knoxville Healthy Food Examiner.

Photo credit: Veronica Rusnak/Creative Commons License

From the Mama Says recipe archives, check out our rustic (deconstructed) Stuffed Cabbage recipe!

What do you do with a 5 lb bag of unshelled pecans, direct from the farmer’s wife?

I’ve never had the pleasure of cracking fresh pecans.  It’s actually quite easy, and pretty quick, once you get the hang of it.   You crack them lengthwise, and gently – the shells are much thinner than I thought.

OK, so now what?  I’m having a party next week, and so I thought it would be fun to have sweet and salty almonds on the bar and with the desserts.  Here’s a recipe for Sugared Pecans that I think I’ll try:

Sugared Pecans Recipe

Every year at Chanuka, I make a big pot of beef barley soup.  It is the perfect winter meal – hearty, tasty, good for you, and a perfect soup to go with potato latkes.  Here’s my family’s favorite recipe:

3 lb. beef short ribs, beef shanks, or chuck (you need both bones and meat)
2 large yellow onions, diced
8 carrots, scraped and diced
5 pieces celery, cleaned and diced

1 lb green beans, cut into bite sized pieces

28 oz. can diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup pearl barley
16 oz. button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 oz dried mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes and chopped
salt and pepper to taste
6 qt. cold water

DIRECTIONS:

1. Broil meat until well browned on rimmed cookie sheet, put meat and juices in large 8 qt. soup pot.

2. Add all vegetables and 6 qts of water.

3. Simmer on low heat for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

4. Add pearl barley, stir well every 20 minutes so barley doesn’t stick for total of 60 minutes, until barley is cooked.