Nanny's Hamburger Stew

This soup has been a staple in our home because it is fast and easy, and I almost always have all the ingredients on hand. This was my Nanny Sibley's recipe, which my mom (own kids' "Nanny" as well) loved as a kid and served to us growing up—and it's now been passed down to a fourth generation of married cooks! There are few measurements... you just have to "feel" it and make it to your own liking!

For one Dutch oven-sized batch:

Boil 1-2 pounds hamburger in a few inches of water. (Choose leaner beef, as the fat will simply boil out and flavor the soup.)

Add diced potatoes and finely chopped onion, to taste.

Add 1-2 cans undrained tomatoes (either whole—pinched into pieces—or petite diced) AND 1 large can tomato sauce.

Season with SPG.

This is delicious served with a hearty, crusty bread and a side salad... or just crudités in a pinch.

Aunt Kim's Andouille & Beef Burgers

1/2 lb. andouille sausage, cut into tiny cubes
3/4 C. pecans, toasted, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 lb. ground beef (20% fat)
1 1/2 lb. onions, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
8 oz. crumbled blue cheese

For burgers:
Toss first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Add beef. Blend gently. Shape mixture into six 1/2-inch-thick patties. Grill as usual over medium-high heat.
NOTE: These can be made 1 day ahead. Transfer patties to small baking sheet. Cover and chill.

For carmelized onions:
Place skillet on medium-high heat, either grill on stovetop. Cook until onions are golden, stirring often, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper.

Aunt Kim's Blue Cheese Burgers

Ground hamburger, at least 1/4 pound per burger
Crumbled blue cheese (more than you would think)
Onion, sliced thin (again, more than you would think, as they cook way down)
Olive oil, for cooking onions
Pat of butter and pinch of sugar, for caramelizing

1) Begin onions cooking in a very large skillet, totally full, in olive oil. Stir frequently as it cooks.

2) Meanwhile, add blue cheese crumbles to hamburger and mix well. (You want a lot of cheese in there, so that it's speckled heavily throughout. Even if you don't like blue cheese, trust me!)

3) Stir your onions.

4) Shape hamburger/cheese mix into thick patties, one per person.

5) Stir your onions.

6) Grill the burgers as you normally would, but not too overly well-done.

7) Stir your onions. At some point, when they are soft and slightly browned (but not cooked down into mushy "worms," as OG calls them), add a small pat of butter and a sprinkle of sugar. Stir it in, to help aid in the caramelization. Again, not much. It isn't supposed to sweeten them, just aid in the formation of that great almost crispy-brown that comes from caramelization of sugar on something.

8) Serve the caramelized onions over top of the burger, which does not take a bun.

Any kind of side dish will do. We love fresh corn on the cob or some kind of potato and a nice salad.

NOTE: During our family's Elimination Diet, we were allowed goat cheese but not blue cheese. I replaced the crumbled goat cheese for the blue cheese and prepared these exactly the same way. It is a different flavor, milder, but still quite yummy. My family agreed that they like them both ways.

Cheri's Italian Meatloaf

1 lb. hamburger
1/2 lb. pork sausage
2 eggs
1 15 oz. can tomato (stewed, sauce, etc.)
garlic
dried minced onion
salt
pepper
Italian seasoned bread crumbs or crumbled crackers
oatmeal

Mix meats, eggs, tomato, and spices. Add just enough bread crumbs and oatmeal to keep it from being too soupy to shape. (Maybe 1/4-1/2 C. of each?) Shape into one huge—or two small—loaves. Top with a little bit of the Classico-style marina you will serve on the pasta before baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. (I use a cookie sheet or pampered chef bar pan or something without super tall sides. If it's sitting down in a 9x13 pan, it will cook, but it will be a little mushier.)

Serve with pasta and marinara and a side salad.

P.S. When I make this, I make six! I use 6 pounds of hamburger and 3 pounds of sausage and a dozen eggs and a couple of huge cans of crushed tomatoes and what feels like a lot of oatmeal and bread crumbs. It freezes beautifully, uncooked, and the leftovers are really delicious. It also makes delicious meatloaf sandwiches with bread, mayonnaise, lettuce, and salt and pepper. Yum!

Beach Week

Beef and Butternut Squash Chili

Again, I made a huge quantity. Feel free to cut it down:

2-3 lbs. ground beef
2 chopped peppers (I used all 4 colors, 1/2 pepper of each color)
2 chopped onions
5 minced garlic cloves
1 large can stewed tomatoes
1 can whole tomatoes
2 cans Rotel tomatoes
3 C. kidney beans (or cans - I used 1 each of light red, dark red, and white kidneys)
2 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2-4 C. beef broth (or more, depending on desired liquid level of finished soup)
1-2 Tbsp. ground cumin
1-2 Tbsp. chili powder
2-3 C. frozen corn
other seasonings - I added SPG and garlic salt

Brown hamburger; drain well. Saute onion and peppers in olive oil. Add all ingredients except frozen corn. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes or until squash is tender. Stir in corn and cook just until corn is tender (not even 5 minutes).

It was deliciously savory and offset nicely by slices of French baguette spread with Irish butter.

Thank you, Christine, for this delicious recipe!

Stuffed Pepper Casserole

This is perfect for when I find that I have too many peppers on hand, either from a bountiful garden harvest or from an overzealous, duplicate Costco purchase.

The original recipe is from my Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book under "Stuffed Green Peppers." When I search online, there are only different recipes from them for stuffed peppers, so I suppose they've updated it several times since my "new" cookbook was published in 1989! It's a classic, though, and so easy. We love it!

We make this version instead of stuffing the filling inside whole or half peppers, as is traditionally done. We like it better this way.

Of course, to feed my large family, we need a large quantity. The recipe appears below in two versions: the first is already doubled(ish), the second is already quadrupled(ish). The original is half of the first, and fits in one 11x7 pan. One of these years I suppose that size will be right again for just the two of us, but for now, it's large quantities around here.

Casserole for 4-6 (Makes one 9x13 pan.)
This is the original post from 2009.

3-4 sweet bell peppers, coarsely chopped into chunks
2 lbs. ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 15-oz can tomatoes, undrained
2/3 C. long-grain rice
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dried basil
salt and pepper (or SPG)
1-2 C. shredded cheese (calls for American; I use the 2 C. Kraft melting blend bag)

1. First, cook the meat and onion in a skillet and drain.
(Often, I cook large batches of meat ahead of time and freeze them in 2-lb. quantities. If I've done this, I'll thaw it out and just saute the onion in olive oil and combine them. I like this better because the onion retains its flavor better and I don't have to drain grease out of the meat on the cooking day.)

2. Stir in undrained tomatoes (smash them up in small pieces with your fingers), uncooked rice, Worcestershire, basil, 1 C. water, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper. (I use 1 tsp. SPG)

3. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until rice is tender (usually 20-30 mins.)

4. While that is cooking, I chop the peppers into chunks and generously line the bottom of a 9x13 pan with them. (You could easily half the recipe and use an 11x7 for a smaller family.) You want them on top of each other and almost halfway up the side of the pan. I always spray the pan first, but don't know if you'd really need to. By the time I finish getting the peppers ready, there are usually 5-10 minutes left on the timer for the meat mixture, so I put this pan of peppers in the preheated oven for a couple of minutes to soften them up just a bit.

5. When the meat/rice mix is ready, I stir in 1/2-1 C. of the cheese, then spoon the entire mixture on top of the peppers. I top with the remaining cheese from the package (usually about a cup) and put it back in the oven to melt the cheese. They originally suggest putting the meat mixture on it, baking it at 375 for 15-20 minutes, then topping it with cheese. I find that if I pre-soften the peppers just a tad the way I mentioned, this cooking time is overkill and I just go ahead and put the cheese on and stick it in the oven for a very few minutes until it is nicely melted. Everything else is hot and ready.

Casserole for a Crowd (Makes two 8x12 pans.)
This is a duplicate version I accidentally posted in 2015. It has morphed a bit over the years.

6-8 large sweet peppers of any color combination or variety
3 pounds ground hamburger (or combination of hamburger and Italian sausage)
1 large onion, diced
2 15-oz cans tomatoes, broken up (undrained)
1 1/2 C. long-grain white rice (uncooked)
1/4 C. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. dried basil, oregano, or Italian seasoning
2 C. water
2 tsp. SPG (homemade salt/pepper/garlic salt blend)
2 C. sharp cheese, shredded (I use a combination of sharp cheddar and parmesan, but any will do.)

1. Remove stems and guts from peppers, then cut into generously sized squares. Layer them in the bottom of 2 greased 8x12 pans. (If you're not going to pre-cook them a bit as indicated above, don't double them up too much or they won't cook well.)

2. Cook the meat(s) and onion until meat is done and onion is tender. Drain fat.

3. Stir in undrained tomatoes, uncooked rice, Worcestershire, basil, water, SPG.

4. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

5. Stir in 1 C. of the cheese. Spread this filling mixture on top of the uncooked peppers in your casserole dish(es).

6. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes or until heated through and peppers are crisp-tender.

7. Top with remaining cheese and let stand 1-2 minutes before serving.

Tracy's Sloppy Joes

This is the only Sloppy Joe recipe my family will let me make. Most others are "way too sweet," they say. The original recipe (see beneath) is compliments of Mike's mom.

Large Batch:
2-3 lb. ground beef (use 70% lean - drain off grease that cooks out)
1 large onion, chopped
16-24 oz. canned tomato sauce
3-4 Tbsp. yellow mustard
salt & pepper to taste

Brown onion in butter and remove to plate. Brown the ground beef and drain if needed. Mix in other ingredients and bring to a boil. (I tried not doing this, and just cooking the onion at the same time as the hamburger, but it isn't as good!)

Serve on hamburger buns or potato rolls.

Small Batch (Original Recipe):
1 lb. ground beef (use 70% lean then drain off the grease that cooks out)
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 Tbsp. yellow mustard (make a little pinwheel instead of measuring)
salt & pepper to taste