made some remnant stew:
one bottle of v8 (32 oz)
2 lipton soup packets (french onion)
some bits from all the bags of left over frozen veggies, and unused frozen meats in my freezer, half a dozen small red potatoes. cooked on high in the crock for three hours.

very tasty.

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The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin

Can we request recipes here? Well, let's find out, shall we?

My garden is doing well (so far) and it seems that shortly I will have an abundance of the following:

turnips
beets
onions
greens of all sorts - turnip, beet, kale, chard, spinach, etc. (except between the turtle and weird weather my bok choy didn't survive. It's always something...)

I am interested in simple - that is, under an hour, not a lot of ingredients - things to do with the above. Both main dishes and side dishes welcomed. Vegetarian through omnivore welcome. Hot, cold (my Other Half eats sliced raw turnips as a snack), whatever... I have lots of lettuce for salads, too.

The only caveat: no tomatoes. I'm allergic, so if tomatoes are a vital part of the recipe it's a no-go - but there are lots of things without them.

I'm thinking side dishes would be especially nice - I could grill up some meat and serve a good vegee side dish with past/rice/coucous/quinoa/whatever.

Any ideas?

ok, do you have a mandaline or a cheese grater?

if so you can use the thin slicer to turn the beets into nice thin slices which combined with a bit of salt, and chopped veggies, you can make a good veggie stock, that can than be frozen in bags. The veggie stock can be used in cooking and soups very easily.

basically the beets, onions, turnips, kale, lettuce/green end scraps from salad, tomatoes (including the parts that people don't eat) and cellary, along with bay seasoning, and oregono is what the 4 star hotel that I work at uses to make vegitarian stock for the following week's cooking.

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The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin

Ah, like "garbage soup", which is basically bits and pieces and leftovers I find in the fridge chopped up and put in the slow cooker for six hours.

I usually use my beets in beet soup, which is basically beets, onions, and cabbage in beef stock as I make it. I've got about 3-4 recipes for the above, I'm just looking for more variety as I suspect we'll be eating a LOT of beets, turnips, and greens in the next couple months.

actually Stock is stew/cook flavoring starter, your making a veggie broth by tossing all the left overs into a big pot and using a bit of salt and a lot of water to reduce the water down to concentrated flavour for other cooking...

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The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin

For turnips we usually make soup out of them. We usually have a bunch of chicken or turkey bones laying around so we use that for the soup stock, then toss in the sliced turnips, let it cook for a bit and add some cilantro just before removing the pot from the stove.

Kale & chard usually gets stirfried. Take the stems off the leaves since they're too tough (use them to make soup), cut the leaves into thin strips then give it a go in the wok till it's done. Sometimes we'll cook it with a bit of garlic, sometimes we have it plain or with just a tiny pinch of salt.

For spinach you can make a salad out of it. Get some olive oil and add a bit of soy sauce and mustard to it (it should be mostly olive oil), stir it all together and mix it with the spinach.

Spinach with rice is an excellent dish. One of my favourites. Here's a pretty good recipe. It has tomatoes in it, but they shouldn't be critical.

edit: Actually, I can't remember my mother's spinach and rice having tomatoes in it. So it's definitely optional. Neither pepper now that I think about it. But it did have lemon.

Greens make for great salads if boiled and served with oil and lemon. And so do beets, though I think they're better matched with vinegar.

Well, since ya'll shared with me, it's only fair I return the favor. This is the recipe I recently tried that seemed the most popular. I cooked it to serve it hot, but two other people subsequently tried it cold and said "don't bother to reheat it - gimme now".

1/2 kilo or 1 pound greens (I used half bok choy, half turnip, but whatever you have is fine)
1/4 kilo or 1/2 pound pasta
1/8 cup olive oil (I have no idea what the metric conversion on that is, basically, enough to sautee the other stuff with)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
squirt of anchovy paste (I'd use one filet, if doing it that way)
Pinch dried red pepper flakes
two small (baby) portabello mushrooms, sliced
4 ounces cubed extra-firm tofu (if tofu makes you go "Ewwww!" substitute beans or meat or just leave out)

Brought 1.5 liters of water to boil on the stove, with 1 tablespoon of salt, and boiled the greens for 5 minutes. I removed the greens with a slotted spoon to a colander, and used the remaining liquid to cook the pasta.

Meanwhile, I minced the garlic and heated it and the olive oil, anchovy paste, and red pepper flakes in a frying pan. Added the greens, mushrooms and tofu and sauteed. When the pasta was done I added it to the pan and tossed everything together until coated with oil and evenly heated.

Thanks to this morning's beet harvest this will probably appear on the menu again this week. Also, getting ready to make beet and cabbage soup (my very bastardized version of borscht) with homemade stock.

about to start working with esspresso, diabetic ice cream, low fat milk and a blender, trying to make a cold coffee drink...

any pointers?

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The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin

Soften the ice cream unless you have a really powerful blender.

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Hapan Battle Dragons Rule!
When you want peace prepare for war! --Confusious
That was disapointing ..Should we show this Federation how to build a ship so we may have worthy foes? Typhonis 1
The Prince of The Writer's Guild|HAB Spacewolf Tank General| God Bless America!

Ice, once the drink is almost made, chuck ice in and blend till the ice is quite fine.

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All people are equal but some people are more equal than others.

Currently, I have a lot of vegetables (yay, garden!) and rice/pasta. I am trying to vary what we eat, seeing as I'm doing the home cooking thing so much. To that end, I'd like to do some dishes that are basically vegees and rice/pasta, maybe some beans/tofu added maybe not. (yes, I'm leaning vegetarian here)

To that end, I was trying to find an easy sweet-and-sour sauce/seasoning of some sort, but all the recipes I'm finding on-line contain tomatoes! I can not eat tomatoes. I know there are sweet-and-sour sauce combos that don't include ketchup/tomatoes because I've had them... I just can't find a recipe. Does anyone have a recipe and/or guidelines I can use for making my own?

Second, I thought some Mediterranean flavor would be a nice change, but I'm at a bit of a loss as it's not my most expert style of cooking. Any guidelines/suggestions for a Mediterranean-style seasoning for that? I'm guessing I'd start with olive oil (I have that on hand) and can obtain one or two other spices.

Anyhow - help appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Can you eat Pineapple juice?

1 cup pineapple juice(I often use a small can of chunk pineapple and include the fruit)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp corn starch(or tapioca starch)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Black Pepper to taste
1 tbsp mustard
1/4 tsp sweet paprika
Spices to taste(I sometimes use cumin and a shot of tabasco)

mix together and gently bring to a boil, Simmer until thickened. Serve.

Ps you can thank my mom in advance

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Hapan Battle Dragons Rule!
When you want peace prepare for war! --Confusious
That was disapointing ..Should we show this Federation how to build a ship so we may have worthy foes? Typhonis 1
The Prince of The Writer's Guild|HAB Spacewolf Tank General| God Bless America!

Intriguing... also gives me something to do with leftover pineapple juice when eating the canned stuff. Would other juices from canned fruit work, do you think? Like, from fruit cocktail?

I've never tried it but I think they should. I know Mango juice works really good.

I usually add to the sauce little smokies when I make it and serve it over rice.

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Hapan Battle Dragons Rule!
When you want peace prepare for war! --Confusious
That was disapointing ..Should we show this Federation how to build a ship so we may have worthy foes? Typhonis 1
The Prince of The Writer's Guild|HAB Spacewolf Tank General| God Bless America!

I'm afraid I'm not very proficient in the cooking department, so the following are from the PoV of an eater, with little understanding:
Olive oil is indeed basic. Lemon or vinegar go with many dishes. Onions (either fresh stems, or the bulbs chopped in small pieces (and sauted, I think)) and Parsley are used almost everywhere. Basil, Garlic and Dill are pretty popular too. Oregano mostly for meats. Some people swear by carnation, cinnamon, black pepper, caper and others but I think they're usually too strong.

There are certainly many that I missed, and there's a huge amount of regional variations. But you only asked for one or two, so...

That's actually very helpful - I have olive oil and garlic, and there's fresh basil and onions in the garden. Dill and black pepper on the spice shelf. Unfortunately, my parsley didn't do well this year, but that's still a good start I think.

Also, too tired to throw anything together tonight (but hey! I worked for money today!) so maybe I'll try it tomorrow with the green beans and carrots from the garden and the last of the portabella mushrooms over brown rice. It's a toss up between chickpeas or chicken to go with it. Or maybe both.

Happy to help!

I should note that garlic is really hit-or-miss. Some people like it so much that they put it on everything, while others can't stand it at all. Except for the garlic in tzatziki. I've yet to meet a Greek who doesn't like tzatziki.

I've known people who like garlic so much they'll eat it raw by the handful. I don't know them well, it can be hard to approach them unless you're coming from upwind....

I picked up a good Mediterranean - ish salad a while back, just baby spinach leaves, 1 diced red onion, halved cherry tomatoes (its fine without them) fetta cheese, black olives and cucumber. You can dress it with balsamic dressing, but its best if you mix up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice, a teaspoon of chopped basil and a good big teaspoon of mustard (I use dijon if I can get it, but most should be fine, as long as its good and strong. And not seeded mustard, that is really weird) and mix it through.

Good news! While tidying up my garden, getting ready for fall/winter, I discovered a half dozen onions I'd missed earlier! White and red - now all I have to do is find a use for them. Which, I'm sure, won't be hard to do.

One classic Mediterranean spice is sun dried tomato. Properly made, it's got a nice bite to it.

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"Travelers with closed minds can tell us little except about themselves."
--Chinua Achebe

Turnips: Slice them thin, then fry them like potato chips. Good as a side or a snack.
Also works with squash and zucchini.

Can I offer the simplest possible* recipe?

you'll need:
- two cups of frozen peas
- 1/2 green chillies (slit)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- two teaspoons oil
optional:
- potato (1 medium sized one chopped into thin slivers)
- 1/4th tsp turmeric.

Method:
- switch on the exhaust fan
- heat the oil at middling heat with the chilly/chillies in it in a saucepan that takes a lid
- when they start sizzling pop in the mustard seeds and cover till the seeds are done
- (optional) add the turmeric, and stir in the potatoes for a minute or two
- throw in the peas. stir a bit and cover. If your lid can hold water on the top, pour a little water on it
- when half the water has evaporated, put in some salt, stir again (5 mins)
- five more minutes or till the potatoes have gone soft.

That's it. It takes 15-20 minutes to make, goes well with leftover rice or just tortillas or straight out of a bowl. There's a unique taste to the dish.

And now I'm hungry.

*edit: okay, that was slightly exaggerated!

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Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies,
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I

2 cans Chicken Broth
1 can golden mushroom
1/2 a package of egg noodles
1 cup frozen or canned corn
1 cup frozen or canned green beans
4 stalks of celery choped
1 portobello top cubed
1 cup carrots chopped
1 pound cooked chicken breast chopped or shredded
water to fill, water to refill after adding noodles

cook in crockpot all day add the egg noodles 1/2 hour before serving (it's 12 hours later and DOG this is still good.)

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The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin