The Best Chili You'll Ever Make

... or eat for that matter!


Fall weather is approaching, so it's time to break out the bone-warming cuisine. I can't thing of a better place to start than with a bottle of beer and a bowl of chili!

Step One: Gather Your Ingredients


The great thing about chili is that the ingredients are so versatile. Follow the technique, but add any kind of veggies. If you're pressed for time and money, you could even sub the veggies and hot sauce for a jar of your favorite salsa.

A few notes about the ingredients:
- Most chili recipes call for ground beef or turkey. The stew meat (or any diced beef for that matter) makes all the difference here!
- I like beans. If you don't, you can omit the beans, but you may want to add more meat.
- I love the chili pepper sauce pictured above. So, I try and find reasons to put it in recipes. Trader Joe's sells it. But of course, you could use any hot sauce, chipotle in adobo, or your favorite heat source.
- The beer adds a richness to this recipe, so I highly recommend it! (if not, just add 1 cu of water instead) As you can see, I used Sam Adam's Old Fezziwig Ale - use what you've got, but if you're going to the store, pick up an ale! It not only works well in the chili, it's delicious on the side as well!


Enough chat, let's cook!


Step Two: Brown the Beef

Place a medium sauce pan (enough to hold the finished amount of chili) over medium-high heat. In a small mixing bowl, add your stew meat and 2 T of peanut oil. Toss to coat. Add to pan and brown all sides of meat (you may have to do this in stages). Return  meat to bowl.

Step Three: Veggies

Add your veggies to the now empty pot and sauté for 2 - 3 minutes. Season with S&P.

Step Four: Deglaze, simmer, enjoy!
After sautéing the veggies, deglaze the pan by pouring 2/3 of the bottle of beer into the pan. You'll have a little beer leftover, I'm sure you can figure out what to do with it!

Cheers!

Return beef to the pot. Add in tomato paste, tomatoes, beans, cumin, and hot sauce. Simmer for 20 - 30 minutes (if you can stand it!). Enjoy with your favorite chili toppings - cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips - what's your favorite?

Honey Wheat Bagels

Discouraged by a lack of whole wheat everything bagels in the market, I decided to venture out to make my own. Turns out they are not all that time consuming, expensive, or difficult. Give yourself an hour and you'll be wondering why you haven't been making these all along.

On a personal note: It's been awhile since I've posted. It's been a busy couple of weeks for me as we've renovated the kitchen.

I've also planted some fall veggies - red cabbage and white cauliflower. So, expect my favorite recipes for those two in about 55 days!

Now, let's get to the bagels!

Step One: Gather Your Ingredients

Oh and if you want to make everything bagels, like I did, you'll need:

You could also use onion and garlic powder, but I prefer the real thing. So, dice 1/2 an onion (Vidalias are still in season) and cook in 1 t of olive oil until they look like this:

 Drain on a paper towel. I tried to put this on my bagels after the seasonings but had trouble getting it to stick. So, next time, I am going to simply mix the sauteed onions into my cream cheese! Yum!

Now, to the bagels!



Step Two: Bagel Dough

Mix together 2 cu of the whole wheat flour, the salt, and the dry yeast. Slowly add in the warm water and 3 T of the honey and mix well. Gradually add in the remaining flour. Note: my dough only needed an additional 2 cu - it should have a sticky texture but form into a single ball of dough.

Flour your hands and the surface you plan to knead on. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Form it into a ball and return it to the bowl:

Cover with a towel and let it rest for 10 minutes.

When the 10 minute nap is up, divide your dough into 12 equal parts. Shape each part into a ball and stick your finger in the middle to create the bagel shape.

Assemble your formed bagels on 2 sheet pans doctored with your favorite method of nonstickery (butter, nonstick spray, parchment paper, silicon, etc). Let the bagels sit, uncovered for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, start a large pot of water to boil.



Step Three: Broil, Boil, & Bake

After the 20 minute rest is up, turn on your broiler. Broil your bagels for 2 minutes on each side. You will need to do this for each sheet, so that they sit on the uppermost rack. Keep an eye on these, the second round may not need a full 2 minutes as the oven is quite hot by then. If they start to turn in color, they are ready to come out!

Post Broiler

Stir the last 1 T of honey into your now boiling water.Add enough bagels to the pot to cover the surface. Turn the heat down and simmer for 3 minutes. Flip the bagels over and simmer for 4 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375˚ F.

Once done, return your bagels to the sheet pan. When they are just cool enough to touch, but still a little sticky, dip the tops of the bagels into the seasoning mixture:

I made 6 of my bagels everything and 6 plain honey whole wheat.

Bake at 375˚ F for 20 - 25 minutes until the tops are golden brown. You can put both sheet pans in the oven at once this time, but you may want to rotate and flip the pans 1/2 through.

While they don't have quite the chewiness of a lye-cooked bagel, they are still darn good. And you know what's in them! And while the initial investment of the ingredients (especially the seasonings if you don't have them) might be a bit more than the average bagel, per recipe they work out to about 23 cents a bagel!

The Everything Bagels were made for onion cream cheese and the honey whole wheat ones go great with Trader Joe's Valencia Peanut Butter with Roasted Flaxseeds.

Make these but be warned - if you share, everyone will be asking you to make more!

Enjoy!

Roasted Spiced Almonds

Nuts over nuts.
Frustrated with the amount of oil and salt in most roasted almonds out there (not to mention the price), I decided to venture out and make my own. Here are the results:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Step One: The Line-up

You will need:

Don't forget the almonds!

Step Two: Assembly
In a large bowl, add spices. Mix in olive oil until you have a nice, homogeneous paste. Add your raw almonds and mix. It's messy, but hands are really best for this.

Step Three: Roast

Spread your seasoned almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet like this:

Roast in a 350 degree F oven. Be sure to shake the pan or stir the almonds every 5 minutes of cooking. After 20 minutes they should be deliciously roasted and look like this:

I wish you could smell these! The cinnamon and coriander gives them almost a floral aroma, and the taste is heavenly. Be careful, but I encourage you to NOT wait until these are cool to taste them - they are delicious hot.

Once you've got the technique down, you can do just about any nut and any spice mix. Try these:
Keep the recipe above, but add 1/4 t cayenne powder for a spicy version!
2 T Chinese 5 spice powder = Asian Almonds
2 T curry powder = Indian Almonds
1/2 cu sugar and 1 T cinnamon = Candied Almonds (Pecans also work well with this!)
A packet of powdered ranch dip mix or onion soup mix would make interesting hors d'oeuvres!

Use your imagination! But definitely try the first recipe above!

Enjoy!

Sunday Saver - Japanese Curry Rice

Ok, it's not Sunday, but you could be reading this on Sunday. Or planning a meal for Sunday. Or... oh, you get the point. Plus, it doesn't need to be Sunday for you to enjoy this cheap and easy comfort meal.

I lived in Japan one semester of college, and my favorite meal was karerisu. Curry Rice. I must've eaten the stuff 3 or 4 times a week, so it was like going through withdrawls when I returned home. But I dreamed about it. Asked for it at every sushi joint I visited. And then. In the least likely of places, I found it.

Well, least likely would be like the top of the alps or something. But I found it in Disney World. And it was just as good as I remembered. Which inspired me to think I could recreate it. And this is my vegan attempt:

Ingredients:
1 red onion
2 lb potatoes (I prefer white or red new potatoes)
3 large carrots

2 T vegetable oil
2 T whole wheat flour
2 T curry powder (maharajah if you can find it)
8 oz tomato paste (1 small can)
1/2 cu apple sauce (the SECRET ingredient!)

1/2 cu peas
S&P

1 cu brown rice (I used Nishiki brand brown sushi rice)

Mise en place makes me happy.

1. Rinse your rice until the water runs clear. Add 1 cu rice and 2 cu water to a rice cooker and turn on. If you don't have one (why don't you, mine cost $10!) you can make this in a pot; be sure to stir occasionally until all water is absorbed.

2. Dice your carrots, onion, and potatoes into near equal sized chunks.


3. In a pan over medium high heat (make sure this one can hold at least 5 cups of stuff), add 1 T oil, onions and carrots. Cook for 5 minutes.






4. Add your diced potatoes and 3 cu of water. Simmer until potatoes are soft, about 15 minutes.

5. In another pan over medium heat, add the remaining 1 T of oil, 2 T curry powder, 2 T whole wheat flour, 2 T tomato paste, and the 1/2 cu applesauce (the SECRET to delicious curry). Whisk to form a roux. Add water from the potato pot to thin out roux. Once roux is thinned enough to mix with potato pot, add to potato pot. It will be thin at first, but your patience will be rewarded.












Thin.

Thick.

Add your peas and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Serve alongside the rice.

It tasted pretty darn close to the original.

And sure, if you have to invest in curry powder just for this recipe, it might not be budget friendly initially. But you'll thank me later (curry your couscous, your chickpeas, your ramen noodles).


Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Banana Applesauce Muffins

It may be a mouthful to say, but they are very easy to make!

It was a long and not always tasty (read: hockey pucks) journey to create a whole wheat muffin recipe that tastes this good!

Save yourself time and don't bother sifting or lugging out the stand mixer. You won't need to do either for this one!

Robert & I love to have these for breakfast - they take the guesswork out of getting the day started. Pop 'em in the microwave for 20 seconds and they are good to go!

Step One: Assemble Your Ingredients

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and gather the following:

A few notes on the ingredients:
- Applesauce: I keep the little applesauce containers in my fridge at all times. They are the perfect 1/2 cup portion and stay fresh a lot longer than a large open jar. Wholefoods sells unsweetened all natural applesauce in these containers.
- Yogurt: I prefer 2% plain greek yogurt in all things.
- Vanilla Extract: Make your own; it's inexpensive and easy! In a mason jar, add 3 vanilla beans sliced in half lengthwise. Top with vodka. Cap and give a good shake. Keep in a cool, dark place (a cupboard will do) and give a shake every day or so. In a few weeks once it's turned deep brown, you're extract is ready to go! The best part is that once it gets low, you can simply top with more vodka and shake! It's a neverending supply as long as you have vodka... and who doesn't? :)
- The nuts and spices are up to you. Add as little or as much as you'd like.

Let's bake!

Step two: Wet and Dry

In a large bowl, add your dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, add your wet ingredients, as pictured below.

Note that the sugar counts as a wet ingredients (this is almost always true in baking). I also added the spices into the wet ingredients. They go either way, really. Also note, I have not added the pecans yet.

Step Three: Wet into Dry

Add the wet intgredients into the dry bowl and stir until just mixed and consistency looks like this:

Scoop into your prelined muffin tins. You can fill 2/3 of the way up and make about 18 muffins, OR do what I did and make 12 mega muffins. Whole wheat flour does not rise as well as white flour, so you can fill your muffin tins to the top!

Top with chopped pecan pieces. Other nuts are acceptable, but I'm a good Georgia pecan girl. Bake for 20 - 35 minutes (depending on your oven and how big you made your muffins). Check on them after 15 minutes and rotate the pan.

Store these in a sealed container in the fridge and they will last for about a week. Or if you're like me, they'll last about 2 days.

Enjoy!

Cabernet Marinara

This versatile dish should be a staple in your repertoire.

I am pulling out all the stops here and showing you the whole shebang. That way you can make adjustments to any of the details you'd like. For example, you could omit the chicken and have a wonderful vegetarian version or use the breading technique for fish.  

Step One: Breadcrumbs and weeping eggplant

Here's what you'll need:

I used Japanese eggplant, but really any aubergine will work here. I also used whole wheat bread ends to make the breadcrumbs. It's cheaper than store bought and no one eats those ends anyway.

Let's make the breadcrumbs. Tear 2 - 3 slices of bread into pieces and add to blender with basil leaves and 1/4 cu Parmesan cheese.

Blend until it looks like this...

... and smells like Parmesan basil heaven. Trust me, you'll never buy store bought again.

Weeping eggplant pulls out the eggplant's excess moisture, allowing it to become crispy in the oven. It's simple to do. Just slice your eggplant (leave the skin on to reap it's many nutrition benefits), set on a drying rack (over a towel or cutting board to catch the moisture and excess salt), and sprinkle with salt. Allow to sit for 30 minutes until it goes from this...

to this:

 See the tears? It should also be softer and easy to bend. Lightly rinse the eggplant before breading.

Step Two: Breading Station

Once your eggplant has wept. It's time to bread and bake! Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil and place in oven to preheat. Starting with a hot sheet pan will allow your chicken and eggplant to get crispier!

Your assembly station should include a container with two lightly beaten eggs, another container with the breadcrumbs, and of course the chicken and eggplant. Notice that we did not season the breadcrumbs. The salt in the Parmesan will suffice, but if you simply must, season the chicken and eggplant itself, not the breadcrumbs. Seasonings on the inside add flavor; seasonings on the outside burn.  

Dip each piece in the egg mixture and then coat with breadcrumbs. 

Place into the oven and bake for 20 - 30 minutes until chicken is firm and reaches 165 degrees in the thickest point . Rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back halfway through cooking.

Step Three: Cabernet Marinara

Here's what you'll need:

In a hot skillet, add olive oil, garlic, and basil.

Heat just until garlic starts to turn golden brown. Caution here, if you get any black bits or burning you will have to start over. There's no resurrecting garlic.

Add red wine, sugar, and red pepper flakes and reduce for 5 minutes. All of these ingredients are optional, but then again, flavor is optional too.

Add tomato paste and diced tomatoes and stir to incorporate.

Cover and simmer about 20 minutes until it comes together like this:

 

While the marinara simmers, cook your noodles. I made whole wheat capellini, but again, do what you feel!

Step Four: Assembly

You could go all fancy and assemble your ingredients in a baking dish, top with mozzarella cheese, and bake for an additional 10 minutes to create a near classic Parmesian. But I was hungry. So I just assembled like this:



Enjoy!

Divine Salad with Herbal Dressing

Divine is a strong word. But the deliciousness of this salad may just have you shouting "hallelujah."

Step One: Make the Herbal Dressing
Here's what you'll need:

Blend ingredients together in blender.

Waitaminute. You wanted an exact recipe? Where's the fun in that? Oh alright, I'll do you one better. Let's learn to speak Vinaigrette.

Now, unless we're talking baking, measurements (and ingredients for that matter) are a question of taste. Here are some guidelines to help you not only perfect this dressing, but become a dressing master.

First, I would suggest equal parts citrus juice and champagne vinegar (feel free to substitute with any light colored vinegar you like - apple cider or white wine vinegar work very well). A good vinaigrette typically follows a three parts oil to one part acid rule. So, if you total the amount of vinegar and citrus juice together and multiply it by 3 you will have the amount of oil you should add. For example, if you add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 tablespoon each of lemon and lime juice, you have 4 tablespoons total acidity. Multiply it by 3 and you have 12 tablespoons oil (in other words 6 ounces or 3/4 cup).

Garlic, herbs, S&P, and sweetener amounts I leave to your liking. I like demerara sugar because it's regional and my brand claims to be carbon free; however, you can use any sweetener you like. Honey or agave nectar work nicely. Likewise, feel free to change up the herbs - you can even used dried in a pinch. (Get it?)

Then blend ingredients together in blender. This stuff is great on chicken, shrimp, or little toasted French bread rounds. But we're making salad.

Step Two: For efficiency's sake, start by toasting your pine nuts. It doesn't take long over medium heat in a cast iron (or any kind really) skillet, but you can chop the veggies while they toast. Just give the pan the occasional shake until they look like this:

Step Three: Build your bowl.

Chopped romaine lettuce.

Tomatoes. I used grape tomatoes cut in half. I have a strong conviction that slicing grape tomatoes in half is the best way to serve them in salads because the inner flavor is immediately delivered to the taste buds on arrival. But that's just me.

Hearts of Palm. This is where divinity comes in.

Finish the salad with the toasted pine nuts, creamy goat cheese crumbles, and the herbal dressing.

So good.

By the way, while collecting the parsley and basil from my garden, I also gathered these goodies:

The strawberry was dessert! But what to do with the Kentucky pole beans? But then that's another blog.