Being a snowy day I decided to cook the hamburger soup that won my hubby’s affection for me.  So while he was out using the snow blower and tractor to clear away the snow (we got a lot of snow!) I pulled a pound of lean burger from the refrigerator.  My hamburger soup is never the same twice; I rummage around the pantry and see what I have on hand to toss in the pot.

So I browned up the burger and drained it.  Then I transferred it to my dutch oven and added a can of sliced white potatoes, a can of mushroom stems and pieces, mixed vegetables, a can of tomato paste, tomato soup, stewed tomatoes,  and tomato sauce.  I tossed in a couple of handfuls of elbow macaroni and let it all simmer on the stovetop.  I put a diffuser under the dutch oven to keep the stew from burning.  I just let the soup simmer (barely and gently) for a few hours.  Sometimes I’ll throw in some oregano, but the stewed tomatoes were already spiced up with Italian spices.  My hubby likes his foods bland so I let folks at my house add their own seasonings at the table as much as possible. 

While the soup was simmering I put the ingredients for a good loaf of sourdough bread in the bread machine.  This soup and homemade fresh bread are major comfort foods on a day like this.  When we lived in Maine my hubby loved to eat this hamburger soup when he came home from a day of plowing and sanding.  When my hubby came in from his snow duties today, he was tickled to pieces that I had the soup on the stove and fresh hot bread waiting for him.  I know he considers this soup an expression of love from me to him, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

I don’t ever remember cooking a raw ham before.  I got a raw ham from Angel Food Ministries and decided to cook it today.  I wasn’t really sure how to cook it!  I really couldn’t find any information on the Internet about it, either.  So I decided to just toss it in the crock pot and let it cook for a few hours.  I had to let it defrost in the refrigerator for a few days before cooking it. 

I was glad to see that it had a pop-up timer in it.  But I was surprised that it was tied up with twine!  I placed it in the crock pot with the timer facing upwards so I could keep an eye on it through the clear lid.  I put the crock pot on low but didn’t add any spices or water.  The label on the ham said it had been rubbed with spices of some kind so I didn’t want to mess it up.  I didn’t bother to set the timer because I knew I’d be in and out of the kitchen all day long.

When the pop-up timer popped up I took the ham out of the pot.  I let it cool for a little while, removed the twine and then sliced it up.  I expected it to look and taste like ham.  Well, it looked and tasted like roast pork.  So what is up with that?

A couple of days ago I took a pork tenderloin out of the freezer, with the thought that I’d cook it tonight.  Well, I wanted to try a new recipe that I found on the allrecipes.com webiste.  The recipe is called “Apricot pork tenderloin.”  I was SURE that I had all of the ingredients!

So I start rummaging through the cabinets, looking for the listed ingredients…..  no thyme, no sherry.  I think no problem, I’ll just substitute a few things….  Let’s see substitute some parsley and oregano for the thyme, and apple cider for the sherry.

Well, my sister was helping me out and we accidentally mis-measured a few of the ingredients.  By the time we realized the mistake, we couldn’t fix it.  So we shrugged and said “oh well, we’ll just go with it, how bad can it be?”

Well, it came out delicious!  So moist and tender and perfect.  Sis claims it was the best thing she’s tasted in a long time!  We served it with rice and green beans.  Delicious! 

I will be cooking the REAL recipe for my clients next week.  I’m sure it’s wonderful too!

This morning I woke up at 2:30!  I could NOT go back to sleep!  I stayed in bed until about 4am and then finally decided to just get out of bed and face the day.  I left the house to do the grocery shopping for my new client at 6:30.  I headed to the Culpeper Wal-Mart.  The roads were slippery because we had recently had a snowstorm, so I drove slower than usual on the winding back roads that I drive on.

Once at Wal-Mart, I ran into a few issues – they didn’t carry some of the items that my client wanted.  I asked a few associates for help finding the product, and they couldn’t find it either.  Bad way to start a new relationship – not finding all the food they want!  But I did my best with substitutions and prayed that the clients would understand I was at least TRYING!

I got to the clients house later than originally planned – about 45 minutes late.  I blame that partially on the road conditions, and partially on the fact that I spent a lot of extra time at the store looking for those special items.  Oh well…..

Overall the cook day went pretty well…..  I”m sorry to say that a meatloaf that I cooked ended up overdone and too dry.  That’s hard to rescue!  I hope that the clients enjoyed most of the food and continue to use my service!  I sure was excited to be able to cook for them!

Hello to any and all of you who may stumble across my blog/website!  This is under construction at this time.  I am a Personal Chef in the Warrenton/Culpeper Virginia area.  I am accepting new clients at this time.  If you are interested in more information please email me at letlindacook@yahoo.com.  I hope to be adding more to this site in the near future.