Peetoulee (Crepes)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

¼ tsp. salt

1 ¼ cup milk

2 eggs 

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

Oil to grease pan or Crisco (Crisco works best). 

Combine flour, salt and milk.  Beat until smooth. Add eggs and beat. Stir in melted butter. Refrigerate batter for at least one hour.  Prepare pan: Brush 6-8 inch skillet lightly with oil or Crisco.  Heat on medium heat until just hot, not smoking. 

Pour 2 Tablespoons batter into pan. Quickly tilt pan in all directions so batter covers pan with a thin film. Cook about one minute. Flip crepe and cook about 30 seconds on the other side.

Place crepe on serving dish and spread with cream cheese and roll up. Can add jelly if sweeter crepe is desired. If you are making a batch to be served later,  stack crepes between layers of waxed paper to prevent 

sticking.

STUFFED PEPPERS

Ingredients:

6-8 green peppers (small ones work best for more pepper flavor)

4 lbs ground meat mixture (a mixture of ground beef and ground pork)

¾ cup long grain rice (do not use instant)

1 onion

1 Teaspoon minced garlic from jar or 3-4 cloves chopped fine.

2 cans of diced tomatoes -14.5 oz size. Can use plain or seasoned. If you like your food spicy you can use the fire-roasted diced tomatoes. 

Salt, pepper to taste

1 Tablespoon paprika

small can of diced green chilies (optional)

Small amount of oil 

Large roasting pan (I prefer to use the blue speckled with lid-it gives the peppers a darker color when roasted)

In a  sauce pan large enough to brown all the meat, first dice and sauté onion and garlic in small amount of oil until translucent.  Add rice to onion mixture and mix well so rice gets coated with the oil and onion flavor.  Add 1 and 1/5 cans of the diced tomatoes to this mixture.  Continue sautéing for a few minutes and then remove to a side dish.

In same pan brown the beef and pork.  You want it to be ground loosely in small pieces. Can use a potato masher as it browns to achieve this.  Spoon out meat to side dish and drain excess grease.  Return meat, onion mixture, salt, pepper and paprika to pan. Continue to break up meat if there are still large chunks. If everyone in the family likes spicy food, a few tablespoons or small can of green chilies can be added to the meat mixture.

While the meat is browning prepare the green peppers. Wash, slice off tops and scoop out seeds and membranes.  Dice the tops into small pieces which you can add to the meat mixture for more flavor and color. Put a thin layer of meat mixture in bottom of roasting pan. Stuff each pepper with meat mixture and lay each pepper on it’s side in pan.  Put excess meat in-between peppers or on top.  Add the other ½ can of diced tomatoes on top.  Add water to pan, about ¼ of the way up.  

Bake covered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then turn peppers carefully so as not to spill filling  but  so other side of pepper is facing up. If all the water has been absorbed, you might want to add a little more.  

Bake another 30 minutes with lid.

Remove lid and continue baking for about 20 minutes to darken the skin of the pepper. Peppers can be rotated once again during this time.  (Some people par-boil the peppers to remove the skin but I have never done this. For those who prefer not to eat the skin, it can be easily peeled off when it is charred from the roasting. 

Serving at table.  Spoon out a pepper and add some of the loose meat beside it. A nice garnish is crumbled 

Feta cheese sprinkled over it or red pepper flakes for extra seasoning.

PHYLLO DOUGH CHEESE TRIANGLES

2 boxes Frozen puff pastry, thawed

8 oz. small curd cottage cheese

8 oz. Feta cheese crumbled

2 large eggs

½ lb unsalted butter

3 Tablespoons oil

Small amount of flour to roll out puff pastry

Spray a 11/x 14 jelly roll pan with cooking spray.

Keep puff pasty in refrigerator until ready to use. Keep covered with towel to keep cool as using.  

Melt butter with 2 Tablespoons oil and allow to cool.

In a bowl combine both cheeses and eggs until well blended.  

Using a little flour and rolling pin, roll out both sheets of puff pasty from the first box.  Roll out enough to cover the 11/ x 14 pan with an overlap to fold the crust down to seal in the filling.  (They may overlap in the middle—that’s okay)Spread the filling evenly.

Roll out the second box of puff pastry a little smaller than the first. It may overlap in the center also but only needs to go to edge of the pan.  Go around the pan and fold the bottom crust over the top crust sealing in the filling.

Prick top layer of pasty. Drizzle remainder of butter-oil mixture over entire pan. Be sure to get the corners and rolled crust.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes to brown the top.

Variation: Frozen chopped spinach can be added to the cheese mixture. Thaw and drain spinach before adding.

STUFFED CABBAGE

This is a three  step process: Preparing the cabbage leaves, preparing the meat mixture and stuffing the leaves.  It can be done on stove-top or in oven.  

Ingredients: 

1 large head of cabbage or two smaller ones. 

4 lbs of ground meat.  A mixture of ground beef and ground pork

¾ cup  long grain white rice (not instant) 1 onion

1 large can diced tomatoes 

1 can or jar of plain sauerkraut (not sweetened and not with caraway seeds) Drain the liquid from the can or jar.

Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare cabbage:  

You will need a very large pot to boil the cabbage.  Pot can be ½ to ¾  full of water.

Before placing the cabbage in the boiling water, make deep cuts with a sharp knife around the core so you can remove the cabbage leaves easily one at a time as they boil. This is best done with a fork stuck in the core and tongs to gently pull away the leaves without tearing them.

After you remove the first few leaves, you might have to score the core again. This is best done if you remove the entire cabbage to a plate as the boiling water can scald you. Score and return to boiling water. Repeat as often as necessary.

As you remove them, place on a platter to cool. When they are cooled, with a paring knife, carefully slice off the thick membrane on the outer side of the leave so it will fold easily. 

Filling:

Dice the onion and stir fry in a little bit of the oil.  Place in a large bowl and add the raw ground meat.

Add the raw rice

Pour some of the diced tomatoes in the mixture for moisture.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

When the cabbage leaves are cored, place a few of the outer leaves in the bottom of a large dutch oven to cook on top of stove or you can use the blue-speckled roasting pan to bake in oven.  

Put the filling in the cabbage leaves and roll up tucking in the sides. Place a row in the bottom of the pan. 

Layer a little bit of the sauerkraut and some of the meat loosely an the prepare another row of cabbage leaves. Top this row with sauerkraut and a little loose meat. Continue this process until all the meat is used up.  It’s often hard to get the meat and cabbage leaves to come out exactly the same—you might have some leaves left over.  You can chop these finely and add to the pan if desired.

Add remaining diced tomatoes on top of the entire mixture and add some water to the pan.  The liquid of tomatoes and water should come almost to the top of the pan.

Cook on stovetop in covered dutch oven at medium heat or roast in oven with lid on at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

CITY CHICKEN

I’ve been told that this recipe originated in the Midwest in the ‘50s when pork and veal were easier to obtain and less expensive than chicken. Hard to believe. Because veal today is very expensive, this recipe can be made with just the pork and it is just as delicious. Serving size portions discussed below.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Ingredients: 3 pounds cubed meat (either 2 Pounds  cubed pork tenderloin or  1 pound cubed veal or 3 pounds cubed pork only)                                                                        

2 eggs (can add a tablespoon of water) to egg wash of prepared seasoning coating mix (such as Safeway Pork Seasoning Mix)

A few tablespoons of oil to brown the meat.

Salt to taste About 3⁄4 cup flour seasoned with 

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 foil packets of beef boullion cubes

Wooden skewers -ideally 6 to 8 inches (can find at Sur La Table or specialty stores) often these are hard to find. Most of the wooden skewers available in the stores today are much longer. You can cut them in half but be careful that they don’t splinter. Shorter is better because they need to be browned and the longer ones often don’t fit lengthwise in a frying pan. Check with a butcher to see if they have the shorter wooden skewers.

Salt meat lightly and spear meat cubes onto skewers. If using both meats, alternate pork and veal. You will fit about 6 pieces of meat per stick. Three pounds of meat should make about 10 to 12 sticks or you can put 8 pieces of meat on the longer sticks and have fewer sticks.

Dip meat skewers in egg wash. Dip meat in seasoned flour. Put breaded skewers in refrigerator for about 30 minutes to secure coating.

Place skewers in frying pan of hot oil, but do not crowd the pan. Brown on all sides. 

Remove to roasting pan. It’s nice to have a large enough pan to make just one layer but you can put them on top of each other. I prefer the blue speckled pan but any pan you can seal tightly will work.

Heat 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup and add 1 cup water to thin it out a bit. Pour soup mixture over the meat in the roasting pan.

Crumble and place the bullion cubes over the meat and soup. They will dissolve in the baking. Cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil to create a tight seal. Then cover with the pan lid over the foil. If using a pan with no lid, seal aluminum foil very tightly.

Bake at 300 degrees for 2 or 2.5 hours depending on how much gravy you want remaining. This dish is usually served with mashed potatoes and the extra gravy.