The Other Way To Quick 'n' Easy: Can-Opener Minestrone

Leftovers are one way to quick 'n' easy cooking; today's recipe goes another route. Good Housekeeping's Quick 'n' Easy Cook Book (subtitle: time-saver dishes for today's busy woman) puts the secret to quick 'n' easy right in the title of this next dish:

Can-Opener Ministrone *
(Pictured on pages 34 and 35)

1 can condensed vegetable soup, undiluted
1 can condensed chicken-noodle soup, undiluted
1 can water (measure in soup can)
2 1-lb. cans kidney beans (drain 1 can)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup snipped parsley
Lots of grated Parmesan cheese

Combine vegetable soup, chicken-noodle soup, water, kidney beans, garlic and parsley. Heat until very hot. Ladle into soup bowls; pass bowlful of Parmesan cheese.

Makes 4 servings

* Make 4 or 5 times recipe to fill electric fryer as shown in photo

The electric fryer in question is that Crock-Pot looking beastie in the lower left of the photo.

I'm hoping there's lots and lots of grated cheese. And that no one has high blood pressure issues -- there's a lot of sodium going on here, especially as we're keeping the liquid from one can of beans.

Really, making your own minestrone isn't a hard thing. This would certainly be quick... and easy... but you could use similar short cuts and end up with something that tasted a little less...canned. Try using drained and rinsed beans, frozen mixed veg, boxed stock, and dried noodles. And, you know, fresh herbs. And a tin of tomatoes.

I'll admit it -- I'm a bit of a soup snob. I love a good bowl of homemade soup. I love cooking up a big pot. I love the chopping. I love the simmering. I love how the whole house smells like someone gave a damn.

I will give you this, though: as long as there's a lot of cheese to be passed around, even the can-opener cookery soup will fill you up. The cheese shows someone gives a damn.

Good Housekeeping's Quick 'n' Easy Cook Book; Cranberry-Beef Patties

At my local grocery store, at every check out, there are small booklets of recipes, for small change, ready for the impulse shopper who is bored waiting in line. These booklets have been around for a long time, folks. The saddle stitch bindings might lack the gravitas of perfect bound tomes, but they can be fabulous little collections. This week, we'll look at Good Housekeeping's Quick 'n' Easy Cook Book, from 1958. It's not currently available from any Amazon sellers, but you can probably find it on eBay or the like; booklets might not look impressive, but they're small, so they aren't usually the first thing to go when someone purges a bookshelf to regain space.

Cranberry-Beef Patties

1 1/2 cups chopped, cooked pot roast
1 1/2 cups diced, cooked potatoes
1 1/2 cups diced, cooked beets
1 onion, chopped
1/3 cup packaged dried bread crumbs
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 teasp. Worcestershire
1 teasp. salt
1/8 teasp. pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablesp. butter or margarine
1/2 can whole-cranberry sauce

Mix together pot roast, potatoes, beets, onion, bread crumbs, milk, egg, Worcestershire, salt, pepper. Form into 8 patties. Dip lightly into flour. Sauté in hot butter in skillet until browned on both sides and heated through. Add cranberry sauce; heat until milted. To serve, spoon sauce on top of patties.

Makes 8 servings

This recipe has "leftovers" written all over it. And why not? Leftovers make dinners quick and easy. If you've cooked up a pot roast, with root veg, and you need a way to reformat it or you'll go crazy... this is a heck of a way to do it.

If you're not in the habit of having beets with your pot roast, either use canned beets, or substitute the carrots (or parsnips) you did cook with the roast.

I've never served cranberry sauce along side pot roast, but this recipe has me wondering whyever not; tangy berries would be nice along a nice bit of beef as easily as next to turkey. And flipping them into a pan sauce for the leftovers? Pretty snazzy. If you're an IKEA devotee, you could use the lingonberries you bought to go with your Swedish meatballs ... and add a splash of milk or cream at the last minute, too.