Monthly Archives: November 2021

Recipe

Broccoli Cheese Soup

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I always prefer homemade soup to anything I can get in a can or even a “Bread Place”. I just doubled this recipe just recently to make it for a small lunch crowd. I served it with a thick crusty bread and butter. Too bad it was a warm day, but everyone still seemed to enjoy it. I don’t know how well it reheats. There is usually nothing left.

The only thing I was missing at lunch was a half of a roast beef sandwich, or a Cuban panni! Next time!

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups fresh broccoli, cut into bite size pieces

1 1/2 quarts chicken broth or vegetable broth

2 cups milk

2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of celery soup

4 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup cold water (or Belgian wheat Beer)

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

In a large soup pot, cook broccoli in broth until tender, about 10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, mix together milk and condensed celery soup. Blend cornstarch with cold water, then stir into soup mixture. Pour into the pot with the broccoli. Cook over medium heat, stirring steadily until thick and bubbly. Stir in cheese, and simmer, stirring until hot. Do not boil.

NOTES: This is one of those once a year recipes I must make.

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Recipe

Mashed Potatoes

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Mashed Potatoes

This IS a recipe I have been eating since I was a child. These were always a favorite with my sister and brothers. God, I still remember vividly how my brother would make a lake using mashed potatoes (and so did I). Then we would have mom fill it with gravy. I can even still smell all the black pepper he used on his potatoes. This was all way before the movie Close Encounters of the Third kind too!

Here is my mom’s recipe. This is one I watched her make forty or fifty times at least.

SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS

One big ass pot

Electric mixer

Colander

INGREDIENTS

5 lbs. of Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes

1 stick of Butter

½ cup half and half

¼ cup whole milk

Salt

White pepper

5 Cloves of roasted garlic (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Peel and cut potatoes into 2 inch pieces. Cook potatoes in boiling water about 20 minutes. Test potatoes with fork or metal skewer for doneness. Drain potatoes (in colander) and then return to pot. Add butter in tablespoon size pieces; add cream, milk, roasted garlic, salt, and pepper. Using an electric mixer starting on low, beat the potatoes until there are no lumps. Add cream and milk slowly as not to cool off the potatoes to fast or slash out while mixing.

NOTES: My mother never used half and half just whole milk. She alos never used roasted garlic. I find the ½ & ½ gives it a nice extra richness. I don’t make mashed potatoes every month so I can splurge on the extra butter and cream. I only use roasted garlic when making Prime Rib or a Standing Rib roast or leg of lamb.

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Recipe

Beef Gravy aka Brown Sauce

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Beef Gravy aka Brown Sauce

You can make you own beef gravy of you so choose or you can “doctor up a jar of Heinz brand Anjou gravy simply by adding a can of sliced mushrooms to it and a tablespoon of butter for extra richness. You could buy McCormick’s powdered gravy mix and repeating the steps above.

If however, you are feeling adventurous or simply do not like the idea of serving anyone jarred gravy here is a traditional recipe for a basic brown sauce.

INGREDIENTS

2-1/2 to 3 cups of Beef Stock (see beef stock recipe upon its availability)

3 tablespoons of butter (or pan drippings)

3 tablespoon of flour

1 shallot minced

DIRECTIONS:

Heat butter and/or pan drippings to a medium size saucepan. Add 3 tablespoons flour and 1 shallot. Cook over medium heat until flour golden brown. Slowly add warm beef stock while whisking. After each ½ cup allow sauce to come to a bubble. Once bubbling this will be the sauces maximum thickness. Keep adding beef stock until desired thinness if reached. Strain to remove and lumps. Serve immediately, the sauce with thicken more as it cools.

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Recipe

Classic Meatloaf Recipe

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As a child growing up my mother never made meatloaf. When I asked why it was because she thought my older brothers and sister would not like it! How many delicious things did I miss-out-on because they were so dam picky? The answer to this question I will never know. She did finely make it for both my brother and myself. It was served with mashed potatoes, gravy and canned shoestring green beans from DelMonte that I added tabasco too try and spice it up. My brother liked his with just plain tomato sauce over the top.

I don’t know how old I was when I had my first ever meatloaf sandwich. I am not even sure it was at home or at a local deli.

I have now spent my entire adulthood making it at least once a year but the irony is that my own son dislikes it. He dislikes anything beef in general.

Since he is away at college, this is what we had for dinner Sunday.  

To me the best thing about meatloaf is the hot meatloaf sandwich the next day. It must include extra gravy on the sandwich, a large dill pickle on the side and a bag of plain old-fashioned potato chips.

I know this dish is not for everyone but I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Especially for lunch!

The Druncken Chef (Russ)

Meatloaf the food not the singer

Classic Meat Loaf

Serves 8

SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS

Metal Baking dish 9 x 13 or shallow roasting pan

Measuring cup

Vegetable Chopper (Zillus) or chef’s knife

Large bowl

INGREDIENTS

3 lbs. 80% lean beef chop meat – some people perfect meatloaf mix (equal parts ground beef, pork and veal)

3 large eggs

1 small onion diced

½ cup of milk or water

1 clove crushed garlic

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 ½ cups seasoned breadcrumbs

1 tbls Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

Ketchup (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, add: 3 lbs. ground beef, 3 eggs, 1 small onion that has been diced, 1 clove of crushed garlic, 1 ½ cups of seasoned breadcrumbs, ½ cup milk or water, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (optional), a dash of salt and pepper. Mix with your hands until all the ingredients are even distributed.   

Place in a baking dish. I prefer a metal pan to a glass Pyrex dish. I think the meatloaf just browns better. Shape ground beef mixture into a loaf. Cover with a layer of Heinz ketchup.

Spread sliced onions around the edges or just outside the loaf (not on top). Sprinkle onions with olive oil. Season onions with salt and pepper.  Bake in a preheated oven for about 1 hour or until the internal temperature reaches 150 – 160 degrees. Remove from oven and let rest for ten minutes.

NOTES: Serve with mashed potatoes, beef gravy and zesty shoestring string beans.  

The Drunken Chef (Russ)

Blog Post

Only 174 More Days

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While most people are counting the days until Christmas, I will be counting the days until April 30th. This will be the one-year anniversary of when I have started my cookbook-writing project here. I have posted 123 recipes so far but I still have 168 recipes to prepare, take pictures of and write about.

You see not only am I posting my recipes but also I am posting them as I cook them throughout the year. This way, I know it is a complete cookbook from all the entries from the past year. At least the ones that were worth of cooking. The hard part is that some of my recipes I cook more often than others. Like last night for example, I made the short rib recipe again as well as shrimp cocktail. This time the ribs were severed with a baked potato. It was all good but I have posted all those recipes earlier in this blog. I mean who cooks anything just once a year, except maybe a stuffed turkey (the traditional American Thanksgiving meal).

Having worked out in the yard all day yesterday, I was also way too tired to even make anything dessert. So, I had a half of a Pepperidge Farm chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookie they call Sausalito. Plus, an ice cold glass of milk. The milk I purchased at a place called Stew Leonard’s. There is only one of these huge supermarkets by me but I love this place. I also purchased the short ribs there because they were on sale this week. I really went in there for the lobster tails that were on sale but they were way too tiny at only 4 ounces to even bother cooking. Plus I don’t think that when they are that small they are very good tasting. I need a lobster tail that is at least 10 ounces for it to taste any good and it be worth going through the trouble of making for dinner. I have not made my favorite 16 once tail in so long just because the price of them is so prohibitively preventative.

What will be on tonight’s menu that I can write about? I didn’t even know yet but if you’re interested come back here and read all about it on Monday. I will need to post more than one recipe a day between now and the end of April if I plan to stay on track.

Friends of our due to come back from Florida soon and we will all need to all get together over dinner and drinks so I can hear all about their delightful culinary experiences. Unfortunately, the way Jennifer has been feeling we could not go with them; It may still be a long time before she can get on a plane or take a long trip anywhere at least until she is out of the excruciating back pain she is still in.

Today will be a day for more grocery shopping and chores around the house. The batteries in the smoke detectors need to be changed as we rolled the clocks back an hour. Hopefully, I can squeeze enough time for a bit of cooking. More importantly, I hope its new recipe. Well that’s all I have for now until I cook something. Like breakfast or maybe even lunch. You can also follow me on Instagram @drunckenchef82.

The Druncken Chef (Russ)

How to Cook "American Style", Recipe

Chili Recipe

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Let me begin by apologizing for being gone so long. Yes, I have been cooking. It just has not been anything new. I have not been sleeping well and have been rather tired. I even did take out once or three times. I will hopefully be cooking some new things this weekend. Let’s see how it goes.

I have been making my own chili for years. The recipe has only changed in instances where I am trying to accommodate other people’s tastes who are eating it with me. For example, I did not make hot and spicy chili for the cub scouts or my fellow coworkers. Those batches were milder. Now that a have made it this year it is finally time I can share it with you guys my loyal readers.

The recent batch that I made and heated up for lunch I could actually put green peppers in. When cooking at home I never use green peppers. Jennifer does not like them and more importantly she is allergic to raw peppers.

So now here is the recipe. I hope you enjoy it.

Chili

SPECIAL IMPLEMENTS

1 Big Ass Pot

INGREDIENTS

4 lbs. chop meat (option: substitute 2 lbs. chop meat for ground turkey)

2 medium onions diced

1 small green pepper – seeded & diced (optional)

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 16 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 16 oz. can tomato sauce

1 16 oz. can of water (option: Sam Adams Octoberfest Beer)

1 can red kidney beans (optional) this was not in the camping chili

1 can cannellini beans (optional) this was not in the camping chili

1 can black beans (optional) this was not in the camping chili

1 box Carroll Shelby’s Chili Mix

            If no chili mix is available double this:

2 tbsp. paprika

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

½ tsp. cumin 

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper and/or Frank’s Red Hot Sauce

DIRECTIONS:

Cook onions and green pepper in olive oil over medium low heat until translucent in a large heavy pot.  Add chop meat to pot and stir in onion. Cook chop meat until no longer pink and drain off most of the fat. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and add Carroll Shelby’s Large Spice Packet, ¼ of the Small Cayenne Pepper (hot) spice packet, and some salt. Save the Masa packet to throw away at the end.  Add garlic powder, onion powder, and fresh ground pepper. Cover and let simmer on low stirring occasionally to prevent sticking and burning. Cook 30 minutes. If the chili is not to thin and watery then throw away the Masa packet and your chili is done. If the chili is too “soupy” then add the Masa in thirds to thicken (I’ve never had to use it) and cook 10 more minutes.

Serving suggestions: Serve hot chili in crock pots and cover with grated cheddar cheese. Melt cheese under broiler and then top with diced red onion and serve HOT! Also an excellent hot dog topping!

NOTES

This is great as a hot dog topping (particularly without the green bell pepper) in winter or at a summer barbeque.

The Drunken Chef (Russ)