The I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken Read Free Book Online

up and have a highball, or else you may dirty up a lot of little dishes with
chopped peanuts
 
sliced bananas
chopped green onions
 
grated orange rind
chopped almonds
 
crumbled bacon
toasted coconut
 
raisins
diced cucumber
 
chutney
    to serve as side boys with your curry. Take your choice.
         LAMB PEPPERS     
    6 servings
    (You can use leftover veal for this, too.)
    Cut the stem ends off six pretty green peppers and take the seeds out, then parboil the peppers five minutes, or till they’re barely tender. Now mix together
    ¾ cup finely chopped lamb
    ½ cup bread crumbs
    ½ cup chicken broth
    ½ cup finely chopped tomato
    ½ teaspoon salt
    ½ teaspoon garlic salt
    1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
    Stuff this into the peppers and bake them in a 350˚ oven for fifteen minutes, in a greased pan.
    Now let us assume you’re about to grapple with a HAM , or what’s left of one. Nothing looks bigger. On the other hand, there are many things you can do with it—ham loaf, ham croquettes, ham-and-egg pie, et cetera—recipes for which you can find in your big fat cookbook. Here are three you probably can’t.
         HAM-LIMA SUPPER     
    6 servings
    4 whole green onions, sliced
    ¼ cup olive oil
    ½ green pepper, chopped
    dash of cayenne
    ½ teaspoon sugar
    1 teaspoon salt
    2 cups canned lima beans
    2 cups diced ham
    3 good-sized tomatoes, sliced
    ¼ cup grated Parmesan
    First cook the onions in the oil till they’re light brown. Add the green pepper, cayenne, sugar, salt, and the drained beans (and throw the juice out). Toss all this for three or four minutes in the pan. Then spread all the diced ham in the bottom of an ungreased casserole, cover it with the bean mixture, spread the sliced tomatoes on top of
that
, and sprinkle the Parmesan on top of everything. Bake it, uncovered, for thirty minutes at 350˚.
         JUDY O’GRADY’S HAM     
    6 servings
    For last step, have ready
    1–2 tablespoons of bread crumbs
    butter
    First, cook 6 ounces of noodles till they’re tender. Next, grind up
    ½ pound leftover ham
    ½ pound sharp Cheddar
    1 green pepper, diced
    Then add to it
    1 teaspoon horse-radish
    ½ teaspoon salt
    1 can condensed cream of mushroom, chicken, or celery soup thinned with ¼ cup milk
    Whistling cheerily, you may now mix everything together, including the noodles but excluding the bread crumbs and butter, and bake it, covered, in a buttered casserole at 350˚ for forty minutes. Then remove the cover, sprinkle some crumbs on top, dot with butter, and brown it under the broiler.
         THE COLONEL’S LADY’S HAM     
    5–6 servings
    1¼ cups uncooked rice
    ½ pound ham, cut in strips
    2 tablespoons butter
    ½ cup chopped onion
    2 teaspoons flour
    1 cup sour cream
    6.5-ounce can mushrooms
    Start cooking the rice to serve it on. Then sauté the ham strips and onion in the butter till the onion is tender. Sprinkle the flour over it, stir it in, make sure the heat’s low, then gradually stir in the sour cream and the mushrooms. Stir this conscientiously for a few minutes while it all thickens, and that’s it.
    Then there is always LEFTOVER PORK .
    Remember, it’s very nice sliced cold, served with cold applesauce.
    You can also make
         GUNG HO     
    (This is so simple it’s embarrassing; but everyone likes it, including little children, which is a big point.)
    You cut the leftover pork into strips, removing as much fat as you can. If you saved some of the good brown pan drippings, add a little water—say a third of a cup—stir it up and heat, then add enough chicken broth to make a reasonable amount of sauce. (If you didn’t save any drippings, the broth alone is all right.) You now add the pork strips to this and heat them in it, then pour it all over cooked, hot, drained Chinese noodles. Top with chopped green onions and pass the soy sauce.
         SUB GUM YUK     
    3–4 servings
    First you take a can of chow mein noodles and put three