Tomato Soup Cake

Tomato Soup Cake
Source: Beth Cranny

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
1 can tomato soup
3/4 cup ground raisins
3/4 cup nuts
1 beaten egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp soda dissolved in little water
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla

Cream sugar and butter. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and one can tomato soup. Beat. well. Add raisins, nuts, egg, salt and soda. Mix well. Add baking powder to flour. Mix and add vanilla. Beat well. Bake at 350 degrees to 45 minutes in a 9x13 pan.

Icing
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cream
1 tsp vanilla
powdered sugar

Combine brown sugar and cream and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla and powdered sugar until it is stiff enough to spread well.

Carrot Chowder

This soup is hearty. The title is a little deceptive. The carrots sweeten the chowder.

Source: Dana Romney

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup green sweet pepper (red, yellow, or orange work too)
1 quart tomato juice
1 1/2 cup water
garlic to your delight (fresh or salt)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar (optional - white or brown)
2 1/2 cup grated carrots
2 cans cream of celery soup (or cream of mushroom)

Combine the tomato juice, water, garlic, black pepper, salt, sugar, carrots, and soup in a crock pot. Brown meat with salt, celery and green pepper. Drain off the excess fat. Add the meat mixture to crock pot. Let simmer all day. Serve over a piece of Swiss cheese or provolone cheese.

If in a hurry, cook the carrots with the meat.

Homemade Gumbo

We participate in a food co-op. After we get our basket, I make a menu for the week and go from there. We also have a garden. We had a hard freeze and had to pick our tomatoes. A few months ago, we ate gumbo after the baby blessing for some neighbors. I got brave and decided to read lots of different recipes to see what the recipe contained. Everyone's is a little different. So I made-up my own using the basic tenants of gumbo making.

My Sous Chef

I have a gumbo 3 times including last night. So in my first attempt to make gumbo, it turned out. My Sweetheart even had two bowls.We invited the Mama of the baby blessing to share with us. She said it was really good.

Our Gumbo

Chicken & Sausage Gumbo
Source: A Bunch of Recipes from Allrecipes

Ingredients:
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
4 stalks celery
1 yellow onion
1 pound chicken
1 Kielbasa sausage
4 cups water
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup flour
2 cups tomatoes, skinned, deseeded, & chopped
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 - 6 drops Tabasco sauce

Chop up the celery, onion, and pepper. Place in a bowl to be sauteed in the Roux. Place in a pot to boil the raw chicken and sausage. Boil until cooked. Remove meats and chop. Save the broth for it will be used in the gumbo. Now for the Roux: mix the oil and flour until there are no lumps. Place a pot and stir on a medium heat. The Roux should turn a copper penny color and then it is ready. If you are using whole wheat flour, you need to cook it until it is just about burnt. You'll need to use your nose for this one.


Place the chopped veggies in the Roux and saute until soft. In the broth, add garlic, thyme, Creole seasoning, cayenne pepper and Tabasco sauce. Add the Roux veggies, tomatoes, and meat to broth. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Make rice (about 5 cups cooked) to add to the gumbo. Serve the gumbo with rice and file. File is sassafras leaves dried and ground. It is added to the gumbo as a thickener.

Other things that can be added are shrimp, okra, corn, or whatever else you'd like in the gumbo.