Mom's Corn Chowder

This is my mom's recipe, and has been a life-long favorite of mine. I've never found any need to alter the recipe, it's just so good the way it is!

1 lb bacon, sliced width-wise into 1/4" pieces
1 medium onion, diced
3-4 stalks celery, diced
4-5 large potatoes, peeled & chopped into 1" chunks
chicken stock (about 4 cups - enough to cover the potatoes in Step 5)
2 cans whole-kernel corn
1 can cream-style corn
3 tbsp milk
black pepper to taste

• In a large pot, saute the bacon over medium heat until it's completely cooked. Make it a little extra crispy to help keep its texture and not be mushy later.
• Drain the bacon on paper towels, and set aside
• Pour off all but 2 tbsp of the remaining bacon fat
• Add the onion and celery to the pot, and saute until translucent
• Add the potatoes and enough broth to cover them. Cover with a lid and simmer until potatoes are fork-tender, roughly 20-30 minutes.
• Add the corn, milk, and pepper, and simmer 5 more minutes
• Remove from heat and add the bacon

If freezing: Place the pot in the fridge or freezer to cool it quickly, then pour the contents into freezer bags (one-gallon bag for family-sized meal, 4 quart-sized bags for individual portions).

To prepare: Defrost completely. Pour soup into a pot, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5-10 minutes, until heated through.

Serve with cracked Oyster Crackers, preferably OTCs if you can find them!

Fix, Freeze, Feast

8 1/2 forks out of 10

Fix, Freeze, Feast is a fantastic resource for a chef who plans to make the most of warehouse grocery stores like Sam's Club and BJ's. The first chapter is dedicated to the basics of bulk cooking: from planning your meals and shopping lists, which ingredients will work best, to the semantics of storage and setting up your workspace. The authors even do some of your work for you by including cooking instructions in a separate section of the book. Copy these onto label paper, and you're all set.

One of the most interesting aspects of this cookbook is the inclusion of "generational meals". Several of the recipes include a second-generation, which helps turn one entree into two or three separate meals. Check out Dave's Swamp Blues Barbecued Chicken (page 30), which morphs into Dave's Skillet Hash or Dave's Barbecued Chicken Pizza (pages 32-33).

The variety of flavors and cultural influences found in these recipes is hard to match elsewhere, and I applaud the authors' sense of adventure. That said, don't be intimidated if you're a first-timer! Although there are occasionally more unusual ingredients than you might find elsewhere, the prep is incredibly easy and designed to take as little time as possile.

The only reason I'm not awarding a higher fork rating is that I haven't had the chance to try more of the recipes. If those that I have tried are any indication, this book will be in regular rotation for a very long time. Try the Very Vanilla Snickerdoodles (page 210), or the Cashew Chicken Stir-Fry (page 52).

Super Suppers Cookbook

6 forks out of 10


This book is an offshoot of the on-site cooking franchise popping up across the country (check them out at http://www.supersuppers.com/). I love the idea of the franchise because all of the prep work is done for you, but overall the cookbook misses the mark just a little.

There are a few really great recipes (Sam's Firestation Chicken, page 80, and Bread Pudding, page 134, will both be permanent fixtures in my cooking repertoire), but for the most part I found the recipes a little too... simple? Basic? Not sure of the exact right term here, but to sum it up, they need a little more "something". If you're a beginning cook or not too comfortable with your skills in the kitchen, this is the perfect book for you. The recipes are straightforward, easy to follow, and the side dish and dessert recommendations are spot-on. For the more advanced cook, you may find the recipes need a little tweaking to suit your personal tastes.

Side note: Each recipe makes one entree. Obviously you can increase the recipe as needed, but if you're really looking to stock the freezer, it might be a pain to multiply every recipe.

Stuffed Peppers

2 cups uncooked brown rice
8 large green bell peppers, roughly equal in size
olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 package ground turkey (about 1 lb)
1 large jar salsa (use something with lots of veggies, like a black-bean-and-corn version. Whatever level of heat you prefer)
shredded cheddar cheese

• Slice the tops off of the peppers (about 1/4 down from the bottom of the stem), straight across so that it makes a cup. Remove and discard the seeds. Set the peppers, cut side down, in a pot with about 1/2 an inch of boiling water and cover completely. Steam the peppers this way until you can just pierce them easily with a sharp knife. (They should be bright green, before the color starts to fade.)
• Cook the rice according to the package directions and set aside.
• Take the pepper tops you cut off, remove the stems, and dice the remaining pepper tops.
• Heat a tablespoon or two of oil in a large pot, and saute the onions and diced pepper tops until the onions are translucent.
• Add the turkey to the pot, and continue to saute until the turkey is no longer pink and is cooked all the way through. Break up any large chunks of meat while cooking. Remove from heat.
• Add the cooked rice and entire jar of salsa to the turkey-onion mixture and stir until fully combined.
• Flip the steamed peppers cut-side-up and sprinkle a little cheddar into the bottom of each. Fill pepper halfway with the turkey mixture, then a little sprinkle of cheese. Fill the rest of the way with turkey mixture, and top with a final sprinkle of cheese.
• Tuck the stuffed peppers into freezer bags and freeze.

TO COMPLETE:

• Defrost completely
• Place the pepper on a baking sheet or oven-safe dish and bake at 250°F until warm and bubbly, about 30 minutes

About the Recipes

Here's the deal. I don't measure; everything is approximate. Chances are, I don't even make a recipe using the exact same ingredients every time I make it, but they'll be pretty close. If it sounds good to you, try it out but do it YOUR way. If you don't like onions, leave them out. Add some shallots instead. Whatever. Add a little extra wine to your sauce. Or don't. That's the point. Cooking should be fun, not a chore, and there's never any need to follow a recipe exactly as you've found it (unless you're baking, and then there's some actual science involved!)

None of the recipes you find here will come from cookbooks. That would be copyright infringement and frankly, I'm not down with intellectual property theft or jailtime. Somehow I think that would lessen my quality time with the fam. That said, I know lots of people who cook really well, so if they choose to allow me to use their recipes here, they'll be given credit. If you don't see someone else's name attached, you can assume it's my own recipe.

What's a Prupetta?

I was a prupetta. My daughter is a prupetta. Chances are, you know one, too. "Prupetta" is Italian slang for "little meatball" (or at least it is in my grandmother's little village in Calabria!). When I was a round, fat little baby, that's what she called me, and now that Hannah's here, she adopted the nickname (along with many, many others, most of which are, oddly, also foody related).



So why, if I'm no longer a prupetta, is my blog called Prupetta's Kitchen? Because my grandmother and my mother inspired my love of all things food-related, and that's where the nickname originated. Hannah, the reigning Prupetta, is my current inspiration to make meals that take less time day-to-day so I can spend more time with my fledgling little family.



Here's a little inspiration for you -- little miss Hannah, toothless wonder that she is: