• 2 pounds of lean stew beef or stir fry beef strips
• 2 white onions, medium to large
• Red wine or red wine vinegar
• Cloves
• Croutons
• Dumpling pasta
• Cornstarch

Cut the stew meat or stir fry strips in pieces, brown very well in butter.

Add the two onions, cut in small pieces, let them get clear in the browned stew meat.

Add water (or beef broth) to cover. Cook on simmer until meat is almost falling apart. (About an hour and a half - a little longer with stew meat).

While it's simmering, make croutons. Cut firm bread into cubes, drizzle lots of butter over them, a shake of garlic powder and bake slowly until thoroughly brown and crispy.

When the stew meat approaches being ready, add a dozen or so cloves, or better, half a teaspoon of powdered cloves (saves someone biting into a clove and damaging teeth) Add a half cup of red wine vinegar or red wine. Let it continue to stew until ready while you boil the dumpling pasta. Thicken a bit with cornstarch and cold water at the last moment.

Very good over pasta. You can't make too many croutons. When the stew and pasta is gone, I promise the guests always munch on the rest of the croutons. Good served with red cabbage cooked with onions and a peeled, cubed apple with a bit of feta cheese crumbled over it.

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of ground sirloin
• 1 egg
• Cracker crumbs
• An enormous amount of finely minced fresh basil
• 1 finely minced large onion
• Smallish bottle of spaghetti sauce (I used to make my own sweating like a pig every August and freezing in plastic bags -- until I discovered that I didn't have to)
• 1 soup-sized can of diced tomatoes and the juice
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Pasta shape of your choice

Mix ground sirloin with egg, put in half the minced fresh basil. About ten to fifteen large leaves total for meatballs and sauce. Add the egg. Add the minced onion. Stir thoroughly by hand and add enough cracker crumbs to make into meatballs about the size of small eggs. Bake in 350 degree oven until browned. About 15 minutes or less.

Put meatballs in deep pot, add canned spaghetti sauce and the other half of the basil to pot along with the can of diced tomatoes or a can and half if you get thick canned sauce. Simmer on low on stovetop for an hour, stirring gently a couple times.

Make your choice of pasta and boil with water, salt and a tablespoon of good extra virgin olive oil. Drain pasta and pour a little more olive oil over the pasta to keep it from sticking together

Serve with Caesar salad with sunflower seeds and a few canned mandarin oranges, drained.

And add a basket of sourdough rolls cut lengthwise, buttered fairly heavily on the cut side, put on a cookie sheet cut side up and covered with a layer of grated Romano cheese. Bake in slow oven until the cheese starts to brown very slightly. They'll be crunchy and great for mopping up every speck of the somewhat thin spaghetti sauce.

• A pound of skinned chicken white meat
• Small pasta, boiled
• Mayo
• Nutmeg
• Green seedless grapes
• Onion
• Leaves of butter lettuce

Cut the chicken in small pieces and gently simmer until cooked through. Drain and cool.

Cook small shell pasta in the skimmed chicken water (with a Knorr's chicken bullion cube if you want to ‘kick it up a notch' as Emeril says). I always do this. Cool slightly and add half an onion, finely minced and scant breath of nutmeg. Cut a couple dozen fresh, seedless green grapes in half and add.

Stir in mayo gently. Keep cool in fridge for several hours before serving over butter lettuce. Add a bit of lemon juice to keep grapes from going brown if not serving the same day.

• Two boxes of Betty Crocker Gingerbread mix (if you can find it. If not, any gingerbread mix)
• Two eggs
• 4 -5 snack sized boxes of raisins (eat the last box of the six pack yourself)
• 23 oz jar of chunky applesauce
• Icing (see below)

Mix the two boxes of the gingerbread with two eggs (NO WATER, NO OTHER LIQUID) with the applesauce. Add the applesauce slowly until the mixture is wet enough to pour in a 9 by 13 pan (ungreased) but a bit thicker than cake mixes these days usually are. Add the raisins by hand, not by mixer so they stay intact.

Put in a 340 degree oven. It's ready when you put your finger in the middle and it barely dents. You want this cake a bit gummy. It's not as good if it's dry.

While it cools slightly in the pan on a rack, make icing.

ICING
Two cups of powdered sugar half a small box of Philadelphia cream cheese cut in small pieces a small slug of vanilla orange or lemon flavoring, and the zest of either if you like and can cut it very, very fine

Spread icing liberally over cake. When the cake is completely cool and the crust of the icing starts to form, make lines for twelve pieces and put a well-drained maraschino cherry in the middle of each and a fresh mint leaf if you have one handy. Don't cut until ready to serve. Make sure everyone sees this pretty cake in all its glory first.

• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup margarine (I'd use butter, but...hey)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup SOUR milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup orange juice

Mix all ingredients together. Let stand for 15 minutes. Drop by tablespoon-full on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 - 15 minutes. Ice with powdered sugar icing recipe below.

Icing

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 teaspoon of dried orange peel or rind of one orange, shaved and finely minced

• 3/4 cups of margarine (I use butter)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced

Cream butter, sugar, egg and molasses together. Add dry ingredients. Roll and chill in plastic wrap roll for an hour.

Cut about 1 to 2 inch rounds and bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes.

Shake warm cookies carefully in bag of sugar: or (sister-in-law Betty's version): ice with powdered sugar thinned a bit with orange juice. Spread on cookies while still hot.