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My daughter likes to find new recipes on line for us to try. And although they might look like new ideas to her, the ingredients tell me these recipes came from somebody’s cookbook from the 70’s.

Hey, maybe I’m the exception to the rule, but I haven’t opened a can of cream-of-anything soup in at least 30 years…and that includes cream of mushroom for the classic Thanksgiving bean casserole. (I’ve never made one.) Maybe it’s because I wasn’t raised on Betty-Crocker-midwest-American fare. My parents were from Lithuania, and we had our own list of favorites that would probably raise a few American eyebrows.

But my daughter had friends coming over this past weekend to hang out for a few hours, and I always like to cook something for them. (I learned from my mom and grandmother a long time ago that you don’t invite someone over without feeding them.)

This casserole recipe my daughter chose, originally called something like “Chicken Spaghetti,” had some good ideas, but wrong ingredients for a group of teenage girls who could be a bit finicky. For example, it called for 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup. I decided to ditch the mushrooms and I substituted one can each of cream of celery and cream of onion. The recipe called for green peppers. I chose to use peas and corn. And since it was all going into a casserole dish, spaghetti seemed like the wrong pasta. We went with smaller penne instead.

We made it a day ahead…keeping it wrapped in the fridge. But if we needed less than what this recipe made, we would’ve divided it into two smaller casseroles, freezing one of them (before cooking) for future use.

1 lb. pasta
1 can (10.5 oz.) cream of celery soup
1 can (10.5 oz.) cream of onion soup
1 cup chicken broth
2 to 3 cooked chicken breasts (about 3 cups shredded)
1/2 cup peas (frozen is fine)
1/2 cup corn (frozen is fine)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon seasoned salt (I use Lawry’s)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
2 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar, divided

Homemade chicken stock is the best. If you don’t have any that you’ve made from the leftovers of previous chicken dinners, and you don’t have any store-bought stock in your pantry, here’s any easy cheat…

Get a pot and fill it with about 6 cups cold, clean water. Put the pot over high heat. Chop up a carrot, a stalk or two of celery, and 1/2 an onion and toss them in the pot. Then add the raw chicken breasts you’re going to use in this dish.

Bring the pot to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium until the chicken breasts are thoroughly cooked and the liquid in the pot has reduced by at least half.

Strain the veggies out, and what you have left is basic chicken stock.

If you’re going to cook this dish the same day, pre-heat the oven to 350.

Grease a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. (Two smaller pans if you’re dividing the recipe.)

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, but stop the cooking even before the pasta reaches the al dente stage. (It will cook more in the oven, so you don’t want it mushy.) Drain the pasta and set it aside.

Sauté the onion in a bit of olive oil until it’s translucent.

Get out a large bowl and add the can of cream of celery, the can of cream of onion, the sautéed onions, the peas and corn, the shredded chicken, the chicken stock, the cooked and drained pasta, the seasoned salt, the cayenne, and 1 1/2 cups of the cheese. Season with the salt and pepper, to taste. Mix well.

Pour the contents of the bowl into the 9 x 13 pan (or between the 2 pans if dividing), and top it with the rest of the cheese. This is the point where you wrap and freeze or continue to the oven.

Bake for 40–45 minutes, until it’s nice and bubbly. (If it looks like the cheese might burn, cover it with foil.)

If you’re freezing this recipe for later, wrap it tightly in plastic and foil before placing it in the freezer. A day before you want to cook, take it out of the freezer and thaw it in the fridge for 24 hours. Then cook as usual.

Corned beef hash is actually a very simple thing to make. The most difficult part is the corned beef, especially if you’re curing it yourself. That process takes about three weeks…a long time to wait for a plate of hash!

If you have a package of already prepared corn beef that you bought at the supermarket, thaw it, and rinse it in clean, cold water.

If you follow my corned beef recipe (I posted it a couple of weeks ago…you can search for it on my home page), do the same after three weeks of curing: wash the slab of brisket well, removing any seeds and spices that have wedged themselves into the meat.

At this point, many people choose to boil the corned beef, but I don’t. Instead, I place the piece of brisket in a container large enough to hold it covered with more cold, clean water. I let it sit in this cold water for about 12 hours. I dump some ice into it to keep everything cold.  I change the water a couple of times over the 12 hours. Much of the salt will be washed away by this process. I pat the meat dry with paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 325°.

I lay a couple of sheets of foil down on a baking pan, and then add chopped carrots, celery and onions to it. I place the brisket on top of the veggies.

I wrap the brisket tightly in the foil, and place the pan on the center rack of the oven.

I let it cook for about 3 1/2 hours for a 8-pound piece of meat. Cook it less if yours is smaller.

I let the meat cool to room temperature in the foil, then unwrap it, and cut it into manageable sized pieces for future use. I wrap each piece tightly in plastic wrap once it has cooled, and I place the wrapped pieces in a sealed bag and into the freezer. 

Once the corned beef has cooked, it’s ready for sandwiches, and of course, hash! (Pastrami is another series of steps, discussed in another blog.)

A piece of cooked corned beef, about 1 lb., cubed
1 medium onion
2 lbs. sweet potatoes 
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350°. If the corned beef is frozen, remove it from the freezer, and let it come to room temperature.

Peel and cube the sweet potatoes. Make the cubes about a half-inch around. Placed them in a single layer on a large sheet pan, sprinkling them with olive oil, and seasoning them with salt and pepper. Toss the sweet potatoes to coat them with the seasonings and then place the sheet pan in the oven, baking for about 25 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are fork-tender and have tasty caramelized, slightly charred edges.

A few minutes before the sweet potatoes are done cooking, finely chop the onion and sauté it in a large pan with some olive oil.

Cut the corned beef into small cubes, about a quarter-inch in size.

Once the onions are translucent, add the cubed corned beef to the pan, and warm it through.

Now add the sweet potatoes to the pan and mix thoroughly to combine.

Your sweet potato corned beef hash is ready to serve! It also freezes well, so don’t be afraid to make extra!

A great dipping sauce for Chinese dumplings, known as Jao-Tze, needs to be more than just a bowl of soy sauce. Sure, if you’re having sushi-grade raw fish, you may want to keep it simple with a gentle dip of high-quality soy sauce to preserve the subtle flavors of the fish, but sometimes you want more.

If you’re having dumplings, chunks of pork, beef on a skewer, or grilled chicken, a dipping sauce with more flavor is essential.

Inspired by what I call my Bible of Chinese cooking, “The Chinese Cookbook,” by Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee (printed in 1972), I tweaked the recipe to fit my own tastes.

You don’t usually find maple syrup in Asian cooking, but I found that it added just the right amount of sweetness needed, and I prefer it over the more commonly used honey.

1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
3/4 teaspoon Chinese chili garlic sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 green onion, finely chopped

I combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

I store it in the fridge in a container with a lid, and give it a good shake right before using, to re-mix the ingredients.

I used this dipping sauce as part of a meal I made with beef skewers (posted recently), stir-fried veggies, dumplings, and lo mein with a peanut-chili sauce.

Inspired by a recipe from chef Martin Yan, these beef skewers are absolutely delicious when grilled over hardwood charcoal, but are mighty tasty when roasted in the oven as well.

Choose a piece of beef that has some marbled fat throughout…that will give it extra flavor. Ribeye is a good choice, although this time around, I used a beautiful hunka grass-fed beef flap. I trimmed as much fat and silver skin off the beef as I could, then I sliced it thinly on the bias–that is, against the grain of the meat.

Marinate the beef for at least 4 hours in the fridge…overnight is even better.

2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup white wine (I used an unoaked Chardonnay from Australia)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar
2 green onions, minced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons grated ginger

Place the sesame seeds in a small frying pan over medium heat. Cook the seeds, shaking the pan frequently, until the seeds have lightly browned, about 4 minutes. (If you’re using black sesame seeds, they won’t turn brown, but they’ll have a dry look to them.) Immediately remove the sesame seeds from the pan to cool, then place them in a spice grinder, and pulse until they’re ground up.

Place the crushed sesame seeds in a bowl with all the other marinade ingredients, mixing well.

Slice the beef on the bias into thin strips about 4″ long. Place all the beef in the bowl with the marinade, and squish it around to make sure all the meat makes contact with the marinade.

Place the bowl in the fridge for at least 4 hours…overnight is better. Squish the meat around every couple of hours if you can, to ensure it is coated well.

Once the meat is done marinating, remove the bowl from the fridge and let it come to room temperature.

Get out those bamboo barbecue skewers that have been sitting in the kitchen drawer for years. If you’re grilling outside, you’ll want to soak them in warm water for an hour so they don’t burn while you’re cooking. If you’re using the oven, you won’t have to.

Start skewering the beef…about 3 pieces of meat per skewer. Spread them out on the skewer a bit so they aren’t bunched up.

If you’re grilling outside, start a hardwood charcoal fire, and spread the coals out so that you have a medium fire. If it’s too hot, the beef will burn. When the fire is ready, place the skewers on the grill and watch them carefully, turning them so they cook evenly.

If you’ve got a convection oven (an “air fryer” for you youngsters), pre-heat the oven to 350. Place the skewers on a grate that is raised an inch or so above a sheet pan, so that the warm air in the oven can circulate all around the meat.

Place the sheet pan in the oven and cook the beef until it has browned nicely on the top. Then pull the pan out of the oven, and flip the skewers over, returning them to cook a little more on the other side.

Enjoy your beef skewers with whatever you like! I served mine with stir-fried vegetables, lo mein with a peanut-chili sauce, and dumplings with a homemade dipping sauce.