Cook leeks and celery in butter for 3 minutes. Add water. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Add potatoes and extra water to cover, if necessary. Cook 10 minutes. Add milk and simmer until tender. Season.
This soup can be served chunky or can be run through a blender or food processor for a thick, creamier soup.
Who doesn’t like chocolate cake? Loretta’s rich, dark, moist version has always been very much in demand in our family.
Ingredients for Loretta’s Chocolate Cake
Preparing Loretta’s Chocolate Cake
For cake: Combine flour and sugar. Boil together the butter, shaved chocolate, and water. Pour over flour. Mix buttermilk, baking soda, cinnamon, vanilla, and eggs. Add to flour mixture and combine well. Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
For icing:
Boil together the chocolate, milk, margarine, and icing sugar. Spread over cooled cake.
I remember watching my oldest sister making fudge; I was always waiting for some chocolate-encrusted utensil or bowl to come my way for “cleanup”…
Mix the egg, cream, vanilla, salt, and powdered sugar together. Melt the chocolate with the butter. Add to the first mixture. Stir in the nuts and spread in a buttered pan. Cut into squares.
A simple recipe that was always a favorite. It takes easily to conversion to a vegan version and is also delicious with a few chopped walnuts and/or raisins added.
Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs and stir till smooth. Add flour and baking soda. Mash bananas and add, alternating with milk. Bake 1 hour at 350 F.
Vegan substitutions:
Use 1/3 cup coconut oil instead of the butter, almond milk instead of regular milk, and replace the eggs with 1 T finely ground flax seed and 3 T of water per egg (soak the flax seed in water for a few minutes until thickened before adding to the recipe).
Slovakian Goulash (Beef stew)
Cube the meat. Brown the meat in oil, add chopped onion, pressed garlic, salt, caraway seeds, paprika and salt. Add water and slowly simmer until the meat begins to get tender. Cube the potatoes and add them, continuing to simmer until both the potatoes and meat are tender.
One of the main differences between Spanish garlic soup and garlic soups of some other Eastern European countries is the addition of eggs. Many other garlic soups call for cubed potatoes, or cheese and cream, which also serve the thicken the soup.
Heat oil in large skillet. Add and lightly brown garlic cloves. Do not overcook.
Stir in paprika. Brown slices of bread in oil mixture.
Transfer to a large kettle. In a large pot, combine bouillon cubes, salt, pepper and water. Heat until cubes are dissolved. Pour over bread. Bring to a full boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.
Break eggs, one at a time, into kettle. Cover. Simmer until the whites are set. Servings: 6
A layered eggplant and noodle casserole one-dish meal. Make it vegan with a couple of simple tweaks.
Sprinkle eggplants with salt and let sit in colander for 30 minutes. Drain and dry to remove bitter juices before using in the recipe below.
Fry onion in 2 T oil until soft. Add tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper. Add a little water, if necessary, and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
Fry the drained and dried eggplant slices in a little oil until very tender, turning once. Drain on paper towels.
Cook the pasta until just tender. Drain and mix with tomato sauce and 1 T butter.
Butter a large oven dish. Spread a layer of pasta and sauce over the bottom; cover with a layer of eggplant and one of sliced eggs, and sprinkle with 1/4 of the Parmesan cheese. Repeat all layers twice more. Cover with a thick layer of pasta and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake at 375º F for about 30 minutes or till golden.
To convert this into a vegan dish, use oil instead of butter to grease your oven dish. Slice 1-4″ thick rounds of baby zucchini and steam or sauté them in oil for a couple of minutes to soften, then use those rounds to replace the sliced egg in each layer. Replace the Parmesan cheese in the recipe with a faux-Parmesan blend made of coarsely ground raw cashews mixed with a little sea salt and nutritional yeast.
This is Loretta’s Chicken Spaghetti recipe. I’d neither heard of nor eaten Chicken Spaghetti before knowing Loretta. She brought it into the family and it stayed. Chicken Spaghetti also brought Velveeta processed cheese into focus, as it seems Chicken Spaghetti is nigh on impossible to make without it.
I no longer eat chicken or cheese or any dairy products, much less “processed cheese.” By extension, Chicken Spaghetti no longer forms part of my diet. However, the recipe does remain!
Cook chicken. Skim fat, bone and chop the meat. Cook spaghetti in broth with extra water. Set aside. Saute green pepper, garlic, salt, pepper, paprika and onion in butter. Add to spaghetti. Add tomatoes, mushroom soup and Worcestershire. Add chicken and simmer for a few minutes.
Remove from fire and chill overnight. Place in a baking dish, layered with process cheese and olives. Top with almonds and Parmesan. Pour on extra broth and bake until hot and crusty on top
A type of sesame brittle similar to peanut brittle, but densely populated with seeds and with just enough honey binder to keep it all together.
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 T water
1 T lemon juice
1 cup toasted sesame seeds
Mix sugar, honey and water. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 25 to 35 minutes, to hard-ball stage.
Add lemon juice and sesame seeds.
Pour into greased metal pan, score and cool till firm
Drop noodles
Mix all ingredients. Cut into boiling water or broth with a knife and cook until they rise to the surface. Servings: 4