The Institute Cookbook - Economical Recipes Designed to Meet the Needs of the Modern Housekeeper.

   I suppose there was a time when I could have been considered a "housekeeper." Perhaps when I was a stay-at-home mom. That was a long, long time ago, but I don't think I'd mind packing up my profession into a neat box and passing it forward to some lucky beneficiary in order for me to be able to stay home and tend to those things that made a woman what she was in 1913. We'll have to see how the biggest most ginormous lottery pans out tomorrow night.

   Lately, I've had a hankerin' for some homemade soup, so I started going through my new-to-me "The Institute Cookbook" by Helen Cramp from 1913 and found a recipe for beef soup that sounded delicious.
   The problem was, however, that I didn't want to take the time to make my own beef stock. The recipe for beef stock included a trip to the butcher, crushing bones and extracting the gelatin (see below, click on the photo and it will enlarge).

   My favorite line in the above recipe for Meat Stock, "It's not necessary to remove the scum that rises." See that's the problem with that era, the scum bags weren't removed!

   But I digress.

   Since crushing bones wasn't in my order of the day and I was missing some of the ingredients, and the above recipe would take two days to complete (seriously) -- I decided to improvise and come up with my own recipe. I made it in the morning before going to work, then finished it when I got home.

Ingredients (all measurements are approximate):

2/3 cup of sliced carrots                 1/2 cup diced onion
2 garlic cloves, minced                  3 cups fat-free beef broth
1/2 cup cut, fresh green beans       1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 tsp. dried basil                          1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 cup diced zucchini                   3/4 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 to 3/4 cup of cooked ground beef
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

   In a large saucepan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, saute' the carrot, onion and garlic over medium heat, until softened, for about 10-15 minutes.
   Add the broth, green beans, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.
   Lower heat to simmer, cover and let cook for about 30-minutes.
   (Then, at this point, you can turn off the heat and go to work. When you come home, you can re-start.)
   Turn the heat on to medium, add the cooked ground beef and the diced zucchini.
   Cook for about 20-30 minutes. You don't want the zucchini to get too smooshie.
   Serve hot.

   The soup, served with a small salad, was perfect for this very chilly Florida night. My husband even went back for seconds.
   Day three of my 30-day commitment to ramp up my creative cooking juices is a success.

   It's not quite as easy as opening a can of Campbell's, but it's close.
   I hope you enjoy it. Let me know how it goes.


Love you, Mom.