From Debbie Gift

• 1 gallon of water
• 1 ¼ pounds chicken
• 1 Tablespoon parsley
• ⅛ teaspoon garlic
• ⅓ teaspoon dried onion
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 carrots
• Black pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

Put it all in a pot and cook until the chicken is done and the celery is soft. If you have enough energy, chop everything into bite size pieces first.

This recipe would be just as effective in a slow cooker. Try 4 hours on high, or better 8+ on low, but make sure the chicken is cooked through.

I have a theory that everyone loves their own mom’s chicken soup recipe when feeling ill. This is true whether your mom opened a can of Campbell’s, or boiled up bone broth overnight and spiced it according to her own mom’s mom’s mom’s tradition.

The greatest thing about this one, is that you can make it by just tossing all the ingredients in a pot if you’re the sick one. No chopping needed.

From Selma Marie Schiefer Schury

• 1 lb cranberries
• 2 oranges
• 1 lemon
• 3 apples
• 1 ½ cups sugar

Directions:

Put all fruit in the food processor until finely ground. Add sugar. Mix. Let stand in the fridge overnight. Stir and serve.

This is an old family recipe, and an alternative to sweet cooked cranberry sauce.

From Jessica Branom-Zwick

• 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 8 cloves garlic (3 for sauce, others for cooking with chicken)
• Olive oil
• Juice of 3 lemons
• Salt (preferably Kosher or other large grain)
• Pepper
• Basil Sauce
• 3 lbs interesting-shaped pasta
• 1 ½ cup sun dried tomatoes

Directions:

Panfry or roast chicken with garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and some of the lemon juice. Serve or cook a little longer with basil sauce (see basil sauce recipe).

Cook pasta, toss with olive oil, some of the lemon juice, and sun dried tomatoes. Serve.

From Alice

• 3 cloves garlic
• ½ inch piece ginger
• 1 tsp canola oil
• 2 Walla Walla onions, dice them
• 2-3 tomatoes, slice into wedges
• 1 cinnamon stick, break by wedging a knife into the curl and “peeling”
• 6 cardamom pods
• 7 whole cloves
• ½ tsp cumin seeds, grind them up
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 2 rounded teaspoons curry powder
• 2 lbs chicken
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• (optional: 4-5 small dried red chilies)

Directions:

Buzz garlic and ginger into a paste with a little water.

Heat 1 tsp oil, adding the paste, onion, tomatoes, and all the spices except the mustard and the chilies. Cook until fragrant and softening — about 10 minutes.

Add chicken, coat with spices. Cook uncovered for 15 minutes, then cover and cook another 5 minutes.

Head the rest of the oil as hot as possible, add the mustard and chilies for about 3 minutes. Add to the chicken and cook until chicken is done through.

From Corinne Cooley

• 1 cup water
• ½ cup carob powder
• 2 Tbsp honey
• ½ tsp vanilla

Directions:

Add a small amount of water to carob powder, stir into a paste. Add more water and and the honey. Bring to a boil while stirring in the rest of the water until it is the consistency you want. Simmer for a few minutes and then add the vanilla.

From Jessica Branom-Zwick

• 6 cups fresh basil
• 2 cups fresh flat parsley (Italian)
• up to 2 cups olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic

Directions:

Cook together, serve over chicken (or wherever you’d like pesto)

I don’t eat pesto, because no matter how many times I read the ingredients, and no matter how often the cook insists it doesn’t include walnuts … it always does (in addition to those pesky not-quite-nut pine nuts). So I refuse to eat pesto. Jessie kindly refers to hers as “basil sauce” and cooked it from scratch in my own house so it was entirely safe and 100% nut free. I will never trust pesto.

From Alice

• 1.5 lbs diced red potato
• 1 package frozen corn
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• a couple shakes garlic powder
• a couple shakes onion powder

For adding at the end

• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon fake butter, margarine, or other solid fat
• ⅓ cup soy cream cheese
• ¼ cup milk substitute of your choice, I used enriched soymilk
• tiny pinch xanthan gum

Toppings

• a few pinches crumbled bacon
• a sprinkle of alder-smoked salt
• scallions/chives

Directions:

Mix potatoes and corn with flour in the slow cooker. Add spices and broth. Cook 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low.

Optional final steps, but recommended:

Take cooked chowder (potatoes should be soft) off the slow cooker 30 minutes early, and put on stovetop. Once you have a good boil going, sprinkle in last 3 tablespoons flour and stir to combine. Allow to cook bubbling for at least 2 minutes.

In a separate pan over medium-high heat melt margarine and soy cream cheese, stirring constantly. Add xanthan gum and then slowly add the soymilk a little at a time. Once you have a thick cream about as thick as heavy whipping cream, pour that into the soup and stir to combine.

Dump Meal Version:

If you’re looking for the true “dump meal” version of this, skip all these last steps after the heading “Optional.” Consider adding ¼-⅓ cups of your heaviest milk substitute — an enriched soymilk or soy creamer at the very end. If it looks like it curdles a little with this, add a pinch of xanthan gum at the same time.

Eat:

Serve topped with bacon, chives, green onions, and/or alder smoked salt.

From Alice Enevoldsen

• Plums (I used home-grown Gage plums, filled my stock pot about 2/3 full of frozen-and-then-thawed quarters from my tree this summer)
• Sugar (2.75 cups)
• Cinnamon — a few good shakes
• Clove – a sprinkle
• Coriander – about a teaspoon whole, then crush it.

• (This recipe filled 30 4-oz jars)

Directions:

Wash, core, and quarter your plums. Then freeze until you have time to jam.

Thaw the plums in the refrigerator, dump all that into the pot till it is 2/3 full.

Cook/simmer until the plums are soft. Run it all through the blender, return to the saucepan.

Add the spices, simmer for a short time. Skim off any foam that develops.

Add up to ¾ cup sugar per cup of juice, or, like me, as much sugar as you have on hand or feel like..

Simmer until the pectin has developed and the plum butter “sheets” off a cool metal spoon. Skim off foam as it develops. Stir often enough to keep it from burning on the bottom.

Pour your jam into sterilized jelly jars and process according to your directions for fruit butters.

Be careful canning, follow sterile procedure to protect yourself and your food from bacteria.

Alice Enevoldsen

Tools:

• Yogurt Maker (~$25)
• Candy Thermometer

Ingredients:

• 3 Capsules Probiotic* or safe yogurt starter — this is the hardest one with dietary restrictions
• 3.5 Cups Soymilk — must be plain, unsweetened, unenriched. The ingredients should be soy and water.
• 1/4 Cup Sweetener — try honey first.
• 2/3 Tsp (or 1/4 Packet) Gelatin
• A little vanilla if you want vanilla flavor

Soy yogurt in process

How:

Mix soymilk, sweetener, and 3/4 tsp gelatin.

Bring the soymilk/sweetener/gelatin to 180F (not 212!). Stir it so as not to burn it on the bottom. Set it aside.

While the soymilk is cooling, consider sterilizing your yogurt jars.

When the soymilk is 110F (measure!) take out 1 cup and dissolve 3 caplets of probiotic in that 1 cup, OR 1 tablespoon of your last batch of yogurt. Mix that cup gently back into the rest of the milk.

You can cool the soymilk to 110 faster by floating the pot in a sink of cold water. Cooler than 110 is okay, hotter is not.

If you’re adding vanilla, add a little to each jar you want vanilla flavored. Leave one jar unflavored (so you have starter next time). For beginners like me fruit should be added at eating time.

Fill each jar 3/4 full and place in the yogurt maker. DO NOT put lids on the jars, but DO put the lid on the yogurt maker. Turn it on.

Return in 6-8 hours (I do this overnight). Gently tip one jar. The yogurt should jiggle and bulge like set jello. When it slips, it should pull away from the side of the jar making a space there.

Put the lids on the finished jars, label them with the date, and put them in the fridge. They’ll be ready to eat in 3 hours and good for 7 days.

Tweaks:

If this is too sweet for you, or not as solid as you’d like, it should process longer. Try 7-8 hours if it is just a little off or 12 hours if you want it tarter. (If you want it sweeter AND more solid, add sweetener and/or more gelatin in stage 1).

Tips and Product Links:

No one gave me any products to try. I discovered and purchased these on my own.

1. Epica Yogurt Maker:  Also works with seven 4-oz mason jars, or four wide-mouth 8-oz mason jars. I might recommend a larger brand name, or one that has the option of a taller lid. Not sure. Yogurt Maker Automatic with Glass Jars by Euro Cuisine YM100 or Tribest Yolife YL-210 Yogurt Maker.
2. *Starter. If you’re as allergic to milk as we are, don’t use a yogurt starter, INCLUDING the one that comes with the Epica yogurt maker. They’re usually milk-contaminated. We like Klaire Labs Ther-Biotic Complete, it’s a probiotic capsule. We have also used Jarro-Dophilus Allergen Free Jarrow Formulas, but the flavor it made wasn’t as good. We might eventually try the Yolife Yogurt Starter that is vegan. (You want a starter or probiotic that contains these three microorganisms: lactobacillus rhamnosus, bifidobacterium bifidum, lactobacillus acidophilus. If you can have more rhamnosus than the others, my research says you’re on the road to thicker, sweeter yogurt.)
   It is YOUR job to check all ingredients and cross-contamination to see if it is safe FOR YOU.
3. Soy milk. Non-sweetened, non-enriched (this part is important, you want to avoid the other ingredients they’ll mess up the “set” of the yogurt). We use Pacific Organic Soy Original Unsweetened. It is YOUR job to check all ingredients and cross-contamination to see if it is safe FOR YOU.
4. Sweetener. I’ve only used honey so far, but anything sugary that the bacteria can eat.
5. Gelatin. Many people use other thickeners. I chose gelatin because I’m familiar with how it works in cooked recipes.
6. Date Labels. You can label any way you want. I use removable date labels.
7. Don’t eat your first batch all at once, testing various ways of making it. There’s going to be more good bacteria in there than your body is used to. Ramp up slowly. You wouldn’t swallow a ton of probiotic pills all at once: eat your yogurt in moderation until your body is used to it.

FAQs:

I found these links useful–

http://nourishedkitchen.com/troubleshooting-homemade-yogurt-questions/

http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/five-things-you-should-not-do-when-making-homemade-yogurt

http://www.yolifeyogurt.com/faq.asp

The only company making soy yogurt safe for us closed its doors in March of this year. Luckily, their product was so great, it gave me assurance that good soy yogurt was possible. Thanks to David for all the tips, and the boost in morale about the possibility of making soy yogurt at home.

Susana Conde

• 1 Gallon Vegetable Stock
• 3 Cups Fresh corn kernels
• 2 Cups Carrots, chopped
• 2 Cups Whole-kernel hominy
• 1/2 Lb Smoke bacon, sliced
• 1 1/2 Lbs Stew beef, chopped
• 1/2 Lb ground pork prepared as chorizo
• 4 Small leeks, chopped
• 4 Green onions, chopped
• 2 Lbs Butternut squash, chopped
• 1 Lb Sweet potato, chopped
• 2 Tbsp Sweet paprika (careful for now, watch out for ground paprika until the peanut contamination situation is resolved)
• 2 Tbsp Cumin seeds (careful for now, don’t buy ground cumin until the peanut contamination situation is resolved)

Directions:

Pour the stock into a big stockpot.  Add the meat, bacon, and chorizos. Cook for 45 minutes. Chop everything into bite-size pieces. Add vegetables and cook on low heat for 30 minutes until squash and sweet potato are soft. Meanwhile fry the cumin in a little oil. Add condiments last.