I made meat loaf yesterday, and was left with perhaps a third of a pound of ground beef. I know, most of you would have incorporated it into the meat loaf, right? But I'm a stickler for using the amounts stated in recipes.
I eyed the meat, wondering if it was enough for two hamburgers. But since I limit our meat portions, that didn't seem like a good idea.
After sleeping on it (not the hamburger, silly; the idea of what to do with it), I decided to make hamburger stew. Thankfully, I do make some things without a recipe.
Trouble is, I'm so used to making a huge pot of stew, and it's hard for me to judge amounts in a smaller batch.
At this point, I realized I should have used one more potato, but it was too late... until I remembered the microwave! I baked a potato in three minutes, peeled it, diced it, and tossed it in. No problem.
I wait until the last ten minutes or so to add the cabbage. Here again, I had to be careful to use the proper amount for such a small batch of stew.
As I added ingredients, it occurred to me how many spices I use that my mother never had in her cabinets, as far as I can remember. Here are just a few of them.
All the above except for lemon pepper and bay leaves are in my stew, which I just sampled. It's good!
When I was a kid growing up, sometimes I'd climb up on a kitchen counter, open the cupboard doors, and sniff all the spices in there, one by one. Mother had a lot of phony Watkins flavorings (coconut, lemon, etc.) that smelled divine. My favorite thing was vanilla; it was so heavenly that I decided one day to taste it.
Bad mistake.
yuck! vanilla is horrid hahahaha..
ReplyDeleteI used to make "chop meat soup".. that would be a chop meat base and can tomatoes and any and all veggies I could get my hands on! It was always delicious! your stew reminded me of it and now I find I want to make it lol...
Love that soup. I put a can of Veg-all when I don't have fresh veggies.
ReplyDeleteOh man! Hamburger stew! That was one of my mom's specialties. I might have to try making that this weekend.
ReplyDeleteThat stew looks so gooood
ReplyDeleteMmmmm your stew looks heavenly. When you made mention of sniffing the spices...it brought back a memory of me doing that as a kid also. Funny how we forget things like that. Kelly
ReplyDeleteI bet the bay leaf would have tasted very well in your stew too!
ReplyDeleteSounds yummy!
My oldest says hamburger soup/stew is one of her favorites. I don't know why I don't make it more often.....it's crazy easy, isn't it?!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was really young, I remember how good my grandma's ground coffee used to smell. So good that I ate it. Once. It's a shock that I love coffee as much as I do know considering that experience....LOL
I need the recipe! LOL! Looks yummy and I am always trying to find news way to cook hamburger. Pass my way if you have a chance.
ReplyDeleteThat looks soooooo good. You'll have to tell us how you make it. Mmmmmmmm
ReplyDeleteThat looks good!
ReplyDeleteTomorrow I'm making my families version of beef stew. Kind of similar, no potatos, and we put it over rice. It's a Cajun recipe.
Stew makes the Winter season better =]
Hi there. Hope all going well at your place...reading up on several entries and had to stop to tell you how wonderful that hamburger stew looked. yummo. Wish I had a bowl here in the middle of the night. lol
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