Roast Beef Sandwich

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Three Egg Omelet Perfection

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Lasagna

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Dutch Sunday Soup

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Okay, I don't know whether to call this Sunday Soup or Dutch Soup. Certainly either name makes plenty of sense in my family. You see, way back in the 1970's when I was a young boy, my family belonged to a relatively strict Dutch-Calvinist church (lol, they still do!), and back in those days, in the small town I lived in, everything was closed on Sundays except for one or two gas stations and a couple of restaurants/hotels (80% were closed). Policemen, doctors and nurses worked Sundays, and for everyone else, nope. It was a day of rest. Period.  

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However, you still had to eat on Sunday, and heh, back in the days of Patriarchal Oppression (TM), cookin' was Mom's job! Since she needed a day of rest too, we had a weekend eating schedule that most Dutch-Calvinist families followed. It started Saturday night with myself and my older siblings being tasked with making the meatballs for the soup and a big plate of half-cut dinner rolls with cheese and luncheon meat on them. Afterwards Mom would boil up the soup, making it ready and then into the fridge it went overnight. Sunday morning would be a regular breakfast (cereal, toast, etc.) and then before we left the house for the 10:00am church service, she would take the big pot of soup out of the fridge and put it on the stove, set to simmer. (Ummm... no microwaves back then, that was the 80's). By the time we returned home at 11:30am to 12:00pm, the soup would be nicely hot and there was a big plate of prepared buns in the fridge. Mmmmmm.

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Okay, enough nostalgia! Onto the very simple Dutch Sunday Soup, to which my older sister gave these directions: 

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Ingredients:

1 x Package Knor or Honig Vegetable Soup Mix

2 x Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup Mix

+/- 3litres Water (1 x per package) 

+/- 200-300g of Hamburger (Yeah, I add 500g per pot. No need for the kids to fight over meatballs!) 

1 x Whole Egg

Bread Crumbs

Nutmeg Spice

Salt & Pepper

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Directions: 

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Mix uncooked hamburger with slightly whisked egg, bread-crumbs and nutmeg spice, plus any other spices you might like. Nutmeg is the real spice that adds the "Dutch Flavour" - is what the Dutch Gehacht has mainly in it, with salt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make small meatballs with the mix. The egg will make the meatballs soft when they get cooked in the soup. Be prepared, because your hands will get very greasy and messy by the end of this process. (This was always my job as the youngest, not being allowed to man the knives. My sisters wouldn't let me touch anything but meatballs until they ran the hot water at the sink to clean my hands with soap, because of course, they had to clean up my smudges!)  

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Throw the meatballs into the soup and, if you prefer, add veggies you like such as celery, carrots, dehydrated tomatoes, chopped green onions, or any other left over veggies in the fridge you might fancy - although no extra veggies are required. I found this nice little soup mix veggie bag at FreshCo.

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Bring it all to a rolling boil and let it cool down. It will be done.  

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For dinner, lol, we ate toasted raisin bread at 5:30pm while The Beachcombers were on our only TV channel, the CBC.

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At 6:00pm, when Walt Disney would come on, we'd get buttered Dutch Styled Cinammon Bread. Sometimes, as a treat, one of my sisters would make grilled cheese sandwiches or pizza buns instead, but that was a day of eatin' on Sunday back in the 70's. Disney didn't try to groom us for minor attracted pedophiles back in those days either. Our parents woulda pitch-forked them on the spot.   

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No Boil Lasagna

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Ingredients: 

- 1 lb hamburger                                             - 15 uncooked lasagne noodles
- celery & onion                                             - shredded mozzarella cheese
- 900 ml - 1 litre jar spaghetti sauce
(for a smaller spaghetti jar you can                For spinach layer:
add some tomato sauce but                            - 1 cup cottage cheese
increase italian spices then)                           - 280 g. fzn spinach (thawed)
- 1 can mushrooms with juices                      - 1 egg slightly beaten
- 2/3 cup water                                               - 2 tsp vegetable Oil
- 1-2 tbsp Italian spice (or some                    - 1 tsp salt
oregano, basil, rosemary)                              - 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese









 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fry onion, celery, hamburger - season with salt, pepper. Drain fat.

Stir in spaghetti sauce, water, mushrooms with its juices and Italian
spices. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Sauce will be sloppy.

To make the spinach layer: squeeze excess moisture and chop
spinach. Combine all spinach layer ingredients in a bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 9x13 dish layer: sauce, noodles, sauce, noodles, spinach layer, noodles, top with sauce and sprinkle cheese. Cover with foil, bake 350E F for 45 min. Then uncover and bake an additional 15 min until cheese browns. Remove and let stand at least 10-15 min.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Shepherd's Pie

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Ingredients

 

- 5 medium potatoes                                                - 1 package onion soup mix 

- 1/4 cup milk (scalded)                                           - 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables 

- 1 tbsp margarine                                                    - 1 & 1/4 cups milk 

- 1 lb hamburger                                                      - Spices: salt, pepper, oregano, garlic  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Boil potatoes until tender, drain. Mash with scalded milk and margarine and season to taste with salt & pepper. 

 

- Fry hamburger in a large frying pan, (season with a bit of salt)

 

- Add to hamburger in pan: Onion soup mix, Frozen vegetables

                                           Remaining milk, Oregano & pepper

 

Bring this mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes

 

Place mixture in a a lightly greased casserole dish & spread potatoes over top

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything worked well with this recipe except, ovbiously, I used too big of a pan for the final 30 minute run in the oven. I had a pan half the size, which I should have used. This pan would have been good for a double-sized recipe. Tasted good, but zero points for presentation, lol! 

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