Some people like soups that are light, with lots of flavorful broth. Others like soups that are thick and hearty, with big chunks of meat and vegetables. Well, this episode from 1994 is all about the latter. Arlene is cooking up a big pot of two-rivers chili, which as all kinds of beans and meat to make it good and rich. Next, she makes an easy lentil and bean stew, which is a low-fat, vegetarian soup that is still bursting with flavor and is very filling. Finally, she makes a super-quick side to go with the soups, crunch-topped biscuits!
Note: In this episode, Arlene also makes a salad with a creamy dressing. We don’t have the exact recipe, so we included her recipe for creamed cucumbers, which is very similar. You could easily make the dressing she uses for cucumbers and put it on salad greens instead, and it would be delicious.
Two Rivers Chili
Pittsburgh is know for its Three Rivers, so we're not sure how this chili got its name. But it sure is good!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 2 cups chopped onions
- 2 cups chopped celery
- 1 Tbsp sugar (brown sugar is good)
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 5 to 6 tsp chili powder
- 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 cans tomato sauce (15 oz, not pasta sauce)
- 1 can tomato paste
- 10 cups water
- 2 cans light red kidney beans, drained (15 oz)
- 4 oz spaghetti noodles, broken in to 2" pieces, cooked and drained
Instructions
- In a large dutch oven or soup pot, brown ground beef with onions; drain grease. Add all remaining ingredients except kidney beans and spaghetti; mix well.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cover; simmer 30 minutes. Add kidney beans and cooked spaghetti. Simmer uncovered 10 minutes. Makes 12 servings. Enjoy!
Easy Lentil and Bean Stew
This vegetarian dish is hearty enough that everyone can enjoy it.
Ingredients
- 1 large can whole tomatoes, cut up or crushed tomatoes, do not drain (28 oz)
- 1 can garbanzo beans or chick peas, do not drain (15 oz)
- 2 cups diced potatoes, peeled and uncooked
- 1 cup dry lentils, sorted, rinsed, and drained
- 1 cup thinly sliced carrots
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
- 3-6 Tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- water, as needed
Instructions
- In a 4 quart Dutch oven or soup pot, combine all ingredients; mix well. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to just a simmer. Add more water if soup is too thick.
- Cover and simmer for 45-55 minutes, or until vegetables and lentils are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Makes 5 servings. Enjoy!
Crunchy Topped Biscuits
These are so easy, and transform ordinary biscuits into something special.
Ingredients
- 1 roll refrigerated biscuits (7.5 oz)
- 1 Tbsp melted butter
- 1/3 cup crushed corn chips OR crushed corn flakes cereal
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease 8-inch round cake pan or pie plate.
- Sparate dough into 10 biscuits. Arrange biscuits in greased pan. Brush with melted butter; sprinkle with corn chips, gently pressing into tops of biscuits.
- Bake in pre-heated oven for 8 to 11 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. (Don't let the crunchy tops burn!) Serve warm. Enjoy!
Arlene’s Classic Creamed Cucumbers
Through years and years of episodes, Arlene probably made this dish more often than anything else. Her family loved it, viewers loved it, and her husband Paul loved it. Creamed cucumbers were one of her favorite things to make.
Ingredients
- 2 long slender cucumbers, peeled and cut into 1/8 – 1/4 inch slices
- 1 medium sized onion, cut into thin slices
- cold water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 2 Tbsp vinegar (white, apple cider, or red wine)
- 3 Tbsp sugar (or more, taste)
- 1/4 cup milk
- salt and pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Place sliced cucumbers and sliced onion in a deep bowl. Cover with cold water and add 1 1/2 teaspoon salt. Let sit at least 10 minutes.
- In another bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and whisk thoroughly until blended and creamy.
- Drain water off cucumber/onion mixture and pour mayonnaise dressing over vegetables. Toss to coat. Refrigerator until ready to serve. Dressing will thin as they sit. Makes 4 to 6 servings. Enjoy!
Transcript
- Well, hello and welcome to “At Home” today. I hope you’re having a great day. I know this is the middle of winter and it can be cold and blustery. You just never know about the weather, what it’s gonna do from day to day. But one thing for sure, just as sure as we’re in the middle of winter, spring will come and summer will come. Come on, hang in there. I know you feel like oh, the holidays are over, and we’ve got a ways to wait, I know. But just be encouraged because it’s gonna get better. Maybe not right away, but eventually. It’s kind of like life in general, The things you think, “Oh, they’ll never change.” Horrible things that are happening in your life or horrible situation that you’re in. You think, will it ever be over? Take courage today. That thing that you’re worried about the most, it’s gonna change. It’s gonna change and it’s gonna get better. It’s not always gonna be the way it is today. All right. Be encouraged by that. I want to read a couple of letters to you. This is from a dear sweet little lady and her name is April. And she says, “Dear, D-E-R-R, dear Arlene, I like to watch your show all that I can. I am in third grade now. And I like to watch you cook. I liked your special shows. I thought the cookbook was a good idea.” This is from April Clark. And there she’s even, look, she’s got a little table there and she’s got a beverage with a straw. Looks like she’s got a plate there with some foods and a chair. Isn’t that neat? I love it. I love it. Thank you so much, April. I appreciate you thinking of us here “At Home”. And we have this letter. She says, “Dear Arlene, I’m over 70 and I enjoy every one of your programs. I love the ministry, Cornerstone Television ministry. Look forward to seeing you when you’re on. You look so good and you’ve lost so much weight.” And she signs her name. Then she said something that probably means more to me than any comment that anybody could say. She says, “When you speak, you show how much you love our Lord.” Hope that’s true. I hope that you can see that the person in me, who is most special and most precious is the Lord. And he can make every situation in your life change, like he’s changed my life and friends, a lot of people here at Cornerstone Television. And when a lady says that to me, and you know I don’t talk in depth very much about God or your relationship. And I, my desire is that when you see me, hopefully you don’t see me, you see Jesus in me, and how that he’s Lord of my life. And what you see is him reflected in me. I hope that’s true. Thank you, this dear sweet lady, Lydia, for her comment, I pray that that’s true. Well, today, we’re gonna, we’re gonna prepare some things. You’re gonna warm up your innards, as they say. You know, good hearty stews, that are gonna put some, my mom used to say it would stick to your ribs, you know. Not stuff that’s you’re hungry half hour after you eat. Something’s gonna stick to your ribs, good and hot and gonna warm you up if you’re cold, and just some crusty bread with them. There’ll be two different ones that we’re going to be preparing today. And I hope you’ll stick with us because we’ll be back right after this At Home Hint. Stay with us. Here’s today’s At Home Hint. “Decrease the amount of meat used in a recipe. This not only saves money, but also cuts down on the amount of fat and calories in a recipe.” If you’ve got a helpful hint that you’d like to share with us, we want to hear from you. Send your hint to At Home Hints, CTV, Wall, Pennsylvania, 15148-1499. Well, the first of the two hearty stews that we’re making today is called Two Rivers Chili. Now, if you folks from other parts of the country don’t know it, Pittsburgh is known as the City of Three Rivers, it’s called. We have Three Rivers Stadium. You know, the Point is a big part of our tourist attraction. And why this is called Two Rivers, I don’t know. But anyway, I found this recipe and I thought, this is interesting. So let’s just make this and see what our folks think. What I’ve got here is about two pounds of ground beef and two cups of chopped onions. And what I’m doing, we’ve already browned it, drained it, got all the grease off of it. And you need a big pot for this ’cause this makes a lot. I’m telling you, it makes a lot. To this now, we’re going to add two cups of celery. These are hearty stews, a lot of good vegetables and good flavorings in this. And of course, like I always say, you can customize it to however you like it. If you like it hot, or if you’d like it mild, or gonna add some other things, you can do that. All right, now, we’re gonna add, let’s see here. I’m gonna add two of the 15 ounce tomato sauce. Two cans, can make a lot now. Of course you can cut the portions down. You don’t have to keep them as large as this. But my mom used to say, “If you’re gonna go to the trouble of making it. make a lot.” And she was always of the opinion that when you make things and you, like you make a lot, and you let it sit overnight in the refrigerator. Somehow she say the next day, it just tastes so much better because she thought that that the flavors just kind of got together and it tasted so much better. And she probably has a point. I think so too. Now, this is gonna, this is potent. We have about, you can do four to six teaspoons of chili powder. It’s gonna make it hot. You can customize it. If you don’t want that much, don’t use it. We’ve got about a teaspoon and a half of oregano. Got some sugar, couple of tablespoons. This is some salt, garlic powder. And really, just combining everything here. It’s not any fantastic, hard, difficult procedure, just combining everything. That’s what a stew is about. That’s why stews are great. ‘Cause all you have to do is put everything together and let it rip. And is it cook, this is gonna cook for a while. It’s gonna be great. It smells wonderful. Then we’re gonna add two cans of paste. Now you can add 12 ounce. These are, I have two six ounce here. So we’re just gonna add the paste. This is gonna cook for about 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes, we’re gonna add, now this is a change because we’re gonna add, well, the kidney beans isn’t a change. But what else I’m gonna add is about four ounces of cooked spaghetti. And what’d you do with that spaghetti, you break it into two inch pieces. That’s the size it should be. And I think it’s gonna be chili with a little twist. It’s not so much the plain chili that we all are used to eating, least this part of the country is used to eating. Now you Texans down there, you folks know how to do chili from what I understand. I mean, I’m always hearing about the chili that the Texans, they have these big chili cook-offs and all that. Man, I’d like to get in on some of that. That, and the ribs, that’s always been fascinating to me how you folks kind of have those big barbecues. Someday, I’m gonna get to Texas, I’m gonna try some of that stuff. All right, we have our pot going here now. And I’m gonna add 10 cups of water. That’s what it says. 10 cups of water. Because right now, as you can see, this is real, real thick. Get the camera in there. See how thick that is. You can never let that cook for about an half hour because you know what happened? You got it. That baby would be so thick, it would be burning. So we’re gonna add about 10 cups. This is gonna cook down and it will get thick. There we are. Okay? Now, stir it up real good. That tomato paste is gonna make it thicken. It doesn’t make sense how you put something in to make it thicken, and then you put water in to make it thin, but it has to have that process to cook down. If it does that, it’ll be fine. We’re gonna go ahead and let this cook 30 minutes. And then we’re gonna add the can of red kidney beans and our cooked pasta, all right? That’s the first one. That’s called Two Rivers Chili, okay. Now the next one that I’m gonna do, set this aside here, is kind of the same principle, except it doesn’t have any meat in it at all. And I want to tell you, if you’re looking for something that’s hearty and you’re on a low-fat diet, this is what you’re gonna want to do. This, a portion of this, one serving has 310 calories and only three grams of fat. Now, that’s very low. Cholesterol is zero and sodium is only 910 milligrams. So this is something you’re gonna want to do if you’re on a really restricted diet. First of all, this has two cups of peeled, these are not cooked, these are just peeled potatoes. We’re gonna put, everything just is combined really. Then we have one cup, get this scraper here, one cup of lentils. Now it’s important. These are the dry lentil. And it’s important, when you get a bag of lentils and you measure them out that you go through, making sure there aren’t any little stones, what would be worse than have a mouthful of this wonderful stew, and then there would be a piece of stone, maybe break your tooth or something. You won’t want that to happen. So you have to sort and clean, and you want to rinse them off really, really well. And then we’re just gonna add them to our pot. Let me move this pot out here where you can see what we’re doing. This is just one cup of lentils. Lentils are something some people say, “Oh, who wants eat this, lentils? Oh, they don’t taste very good.” It’s an acquired taste sometime. And maybe you think you wouldn’t like it, but I’m gonna ask you, just try it. Just try it and see, okay? Here we have half a cup of chopped onion. We have some finely chopped carrots, about another half cup. Okay. Green pepper. You can adjust these to accommodate you. If you like more onion, more green pepper, help yourself. Then we’re gonna have a can of garbanzo beans or commonly known as chickpeas. Don’t drain it, put all, the whole can in there, juice and all. All right, you follow me so far? We’ve added garbanzo beans, potatoes, lentils, carrots, onion, green bell pepper. Now it’s a 28 ounce can of whole tomatoes. But what you do, you get them and you chop them up. They’re packed whole in their own puree like. But before you put them in, you want to chop them up because you want them to cook down. And if they’re whole, you’re gonna have a problem with that, okay? So, we just add that. Now we’re gonna season. Mix this around. Need a bigger, better spatula than this. How about a nice big spoon? There we are. Now what we’re gonna add to this is some chili powder. This is three to six teaspoons. This is what gives these stews, soups, this type of thing has to have something when you don’t have meat in it, has to have something to give it some kick or some flavor, and the vegetables will do that, but you’d need that little extra something to kick it in. Well, that’s what this chili powder will do. And we have, here’s some teaspoon of garlic salt. Okay? Now, we’re gonna put this on our stove back over here, and we’re going to turn the fire on, as they say, and this is gonna cook down. You’re gonna see, this will cook down. The potatoes will cook. This has to boil. I probably let this go about a good hour, so that what happens, your vegetables all get very tender, and the tomatoes will diminish and add more juice and more moisture into it. And we’re gonna cover it so that it comes up to a boil faster and begins to cook. If it gets a little dry, let’s add some water to it, okay? We’ll be right back with more of “At Home” in just a minute. Let’s pause for this break. Okay, we’re stirring our chili, taking another check on it. This one’s bubbling and going along beautifully. Now remember, this cooks for about 30 minutes, and then we’re going to add the can of red kidneys and also some cooked pasta, just spaghetti noodles, about four ounces, that’s all. Just to give it a little something different. You know, my mom, when she’d make chili, I hate to tell you what we used to eat it on. She used to make mashed potatoes, and we would dip chili on top of the mashed potatoes. Do we wonder why we have a weight problem or what? We know, they tasted so good, but those were hearty things. When I was a kid growing up, the staples were what you lived on because who could afford a lot of meats and a lot of the fancy things that we’ve grown accustomed to over the last few years. But that was something that was delicious. Okay, now we’re going to make with our chilis. And I always liked a salad, chili, and either some biscuits or bread or crusty bread, some crackers, whatever. And I thought this was unique and unusual. These are called Crunchy Topped Biscuits. And all it takes is a can of these refrigerated biscuits. And I hate these packages. I already told Dale, the floor director, said, “Now, look, I can’t get this open. I’m gonna hand them into you. And I’m gonna ask for you to help me.” And he said, “Okay.” So I’m handing them to him, and he… See, this guy’s so good, he just whacks them. I hate when they pop, you know, I just hate that. Anyway, these are just refrigerated. Thank you, Dale. You did a good job. Never fails me, except that one time though. We have buttered a pie pan and we’re gonna divide this into 10 biscuits. And we’ll put the biscuits. They’re laughing at me. When I go through with this crew, I’ll tell you, but they’re a great bunch of guys and girls. They work, they go beyond. Sometimes they don’t go beyond, no, but they do. And they’re just nice people. And if you were able to meet them, you’d say the same thing. You’d say, “Boy, this is a nice group of guys and girls.” Okay, we’re gonna force them into the, the baking dish. Put one there. I think we have some more down here. And what I’m gonna do is just kind of push them up a little bit. ‘Cause we want to use them all, and make sure that you have well-greased your pie pan. And you don’t want to use a deep dish one. You want to use just the regular one because it’s important that they all fit. I’ll get them here in a minute. I’ve got to, there we are. I think we got them. Just about there. Okay. Now, what we’re gonna do with this, and I think this is a nice touch. We have some melted butter and what I’m gonna do, just put some melted butter over top of each of the biscuits. Could do this with a brush or just a little spoon like this is fine. And butter, you know, always makes it taste good. You know, it’s not exactly low-fat. And I know you’ve probably been thinking I got to get back on a diet from all those holiday goodies and been putting it off, procrastinating, putting it off day after day. Here we are into February and what’s happening? Well, maybe this is the day we start thinking about it. Okay? Now we have corn chips. Okay. And we’ve just crushed them. Now I want you to do is sprinkle some corn chips on these biscuits, just like that. And you want to pat them in to be sure that they’re gonna stay there when they get baked. And these are called Crunchy Topped Biscuits. I like that corn flavor with our biscuits. I think that that’s gonna add a crispness to them. Sometimes the biscuits don’t get real crisp. Sometimes they get too crispy if you leave them in too long, right? But these have an extra added little taste to them with the corn chips. I think that we’ll be enjoying that. This is nice to go with the stews or chilis or whatever chili, bowls of chili, whatever, let’s just do that. And this is gonna go into a 450 degree. It’s a pretty hot, fast oven. Make sure it’s preheated, or these will not bake properly. And they’re only gonna bake for about eight to 11 minutes. So we’re gonna put them in our oven, set the timer. When it says eight to 11, you think, “Well, what am I supposed to do? Eight or 11?” You know what I do? I kind of go in between. I’ll say, “Oh, let’s do about nine or 10.” That way, if your oven is fast, and they cook faster, you’re gonna be okay. If it’s slow, you can always add an extra minute or so to it. All right, checking this chili out. You have to keep stirring ’cause you don’t want it to stick. Smell is incredible here. And think you’re gonna enjoy this one. Let me check over here, boy, this one’s cooking now. Smells wonderful. This has such a nice variety as a hearty, hearty stew, just a hearty stew, just loaded with good vegetables. And remember this one’s a low-fat. You want to remember that. Okay. With this now would be a wonderful, an addition to either one of these chilis or stews. Let’s prepare a nice salad. And here we have some greens. We have cucumbers, some radishes, some mushrooms, put some purple onion or some big sweet Bermuda onion and some tomatoes. If you’re gonna do any kind of like these small tomatoes, I kind of like to cut them in half because I like to release the flavor of the tomato into the salad so that it will flavor the dressing that you put on. Now, if you, don’t know if you like this kind of a dressing or not, everybody’s kind of stuck on the ranch dressing now. Every place you go it’s ranch, ranch, ranch. My mom made one that we always had at home, and she used to make it when she didn’t have tomatoes and things, she’d make it, but you could put it on any kind of a salad. And basically all it is is some mayonnaise that we’re gonna put into a bowl. And just a couple of spoonfuls of mayonnaise. Let’s see, I’ll make it kind of creamy. And to that, we’re gonna add some red wine vinegar. You say, “Arlene, doesn’t look like red wine vinegar bottle.” No, you know, one of the nicest ladies in the world, Mrs. Provenzano, who is Loretta Scott’s mom, crocheted this darling little dress for me to put on. Really, she said you could put it on your detergent, you know, your detergent, your dishwashing detergent. But I liked this a lot, I put it on my red wine vinegar bottle and I just think it’s cute. I don’t have the directions, so please don’t write and ask me, “Oh, could you get me the directions?” I don’t have it. I can’t help you with it. But we’re gonna add some red wine vinegar, and really you do this to taste. If you like it a little bit more, do a little bit more, okay? We’re gonna add some salt, little salt. We’ll add some pepper to it, some fresh ground pepper, which is already there, there we go. And after we mix this up, add a little bit of milk to it, and that’s gonna go over our salad, and you’re gonna see it’s delicious. Before we cut to tell you how you can get today’s recipes. I’m gonna go ahead and add, remember the red kidney beans? We’re gonna put them in now. And we’re also going to add our spaghetti, and this will only have to cook about another few minutes. And we’ll be right back in just a minute.
- [Narrator] To receive the recipes presented on today’s program, plus many more great recipe ideas, send your best donation and a stamped self-addressed business sized envelope to At Home, CTV, Wall, Pennsylvania, 15148-1499. You’ll receive Arlene’s heartwarming newsletter Enjoy! featuring an entire month of “At Home” recipes, including today’s mouthwatering dishes. Be sure to include the Enjoy! issue number with your request.
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