The Most Amazing Chili EVER

I love chili. Seriously, it is one of my favorite foods. I could eat it every week. We actually almost DO eat it every week. This is especially a common weekly-eaten item in the fall season. Is there anything better on a cool, crisp evening than a bowl of spicy chili with cornbread?!? Nope. Except maybe anything made with pumpkin. But I will not be sidetracked.

Anyway, a few years ago, I wanted to make chili and I looked at tons and tons of chili recipes. They all disappointed me in some way. Some were boring: simply ground beef and tomatoes. Some were missing something: spiciness and complexity. So I took tons of recipes and wrote down the parts I liked about each one and came up with my own unique chili recipe. It was a hit with the husband, so I knew it was here to stay. I LOVE my chili recipe. The problem is that I kept forgetting to write it down. I had little pieces of paper all over the kitchen with the recipe, and when we moved last year, I almost had a heart attack when I couldn't find any of the papers with the recipe on it. So I think it's time I restarted using this blog to write down my recipes, so that when we move again someday, I won't have a problem finding my favorite recipes.

I love eating this chili right now because this is the first time I have a small garden. I planted tons of pepper plants and they are producing so many peppers that I am overwhelmed with what to do with them. We are eating plenty of both homemade salsa and this chili recipe to use them up. Yep, life is good. :)


What I love about this chili: peppers, meat, beans, tomatoes, spices: they all meet together to make a spicy, hearty chili recipe that lasts for about 10-12 servings. It is lax enough that each batch is different while still having similar attributes.

Ingredients:

**1-2 pounds of ground beef or turkey (depending on what you like)
**1 pound of cooked bacon (optional!)
**1 onion, chopped
**1 green pepper, chopped (more if you prefer mild peppers to spicy ones)
**A variety of hot peppers, chopped (I use what is available in my garden, and I prefer a balance like: 6-8 jalapenos, 2 habaneros, 3 poblano/anchos, 3 serranos) (this produces a somewhat spicy chili, nothing intolerable because they are sauteed and lose a bit of their spice in that way, but be as brave as you can and use however many you want. You can always add more the next time!)
**4 (14.5 oz each) cans of stewed tomatoes, chopped up
**1 (14.5 oz) can of diced tomatoes (optional!)
**1 (15 oz) can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
**1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
**2 (15 oz each) cans chili beans (I use hot, you can use mild if you want), undrained
**1-2 tbsp. tomato paste
**spices: cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, salt, pepper, etc.
**hot sauce (optional!) to your taste preferences
**toppings (optional): shredded cheese, sour cream, cornbread

Directions:

(1): In a large soup pot, brown the meat. Add the onion, green pepper, and variety of hot peppers. Saute until the onion and peppers are tender (approx. 5 minutes). 

(2) Add the remaining ingredients. Add spices and hot sauce to your preference. Add enough tomato paste to help maintain a thicker sauce. Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, for at least 30  minutes. The longer you let it simmer, the more complex the taste.

(3) Before serving, sample and add more spices or hot sauce until it is perfect. Put in bowls, add toppings of your choice. I recommend cheese, sour cream, and cornbread on the side. Enjoy!

Comments:

**I only add bacon when it is on sale. I don't want my chili to cost a lot of money, and I enjoy the taste of this chili both with and without bacon.

**I LOVE tomatoes, so I always add one extra can of diced tomatoes to the stewed tomatoes in this recipe. Of course, I like to have fun and I get a can of roasted tomatoes, or tomatoes with chipotle chilies, etc. No need to get just simple boring diced tomatoes (unless you want to)!

**Always remember to wear gloves when handling hot peppers! Otherwise, be prepared for your hands to sting for days, no matter how much soap you use (been there, done that, trust me, it is NOT fun).

**I apologize for not including exact measurements of the spices, but chili is supposed to fun and creative! I always just add a bunch, taste, and then balance it out to my preferences. 

**Make sure to use a big enough pot! This makes plenty of chili, so don't skimp on the pot!

Oven Roasted Cauliflower

We are on a diet  that involves eating lots and lots of veggies. After a while, eating steamed veggies gets old and boring. So I looked for alternatives and  started reading about how popular roasted veggies are right now. Apparently, roasting veggies makes their tastes explode into amazingness (that's as scientific as I get about my food). :)  So I decided to make a roasted cauliflower recipe that I found at OnePerfectBite. I admit that I was sceptical. It just seemed too simple to be "that amazing". 

But then I tried it. And it was so good that I was sad about only using one cauliflower head. I wanted more and more and more. Paul felt the same way. The cauliflower dish was supposed to be a side for two dinners in a row, but we loved it so much we ate it all on the first day. I don't like garlic all that much, but apparently, when it is roasted, it becomes delicious. I was seriously licking out the remnants of garlic from the pan after dinner. I will be making this dish many, many times in my life from now on and I really urge you all to try it! Hopefully, you all become addicted to eating this healthy like we have...

Ingredients:

1 medium head cauliflower (about 2-1/4 pounds), trimmed and cut into florets

3 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions: 
Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Combine cauliflower and garlic in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Transfer, in a single layer, to a large rimmed baking sheet. Roast at 450 degrees F for about 25 minutes, stirring once. Sprinkle with cheese. Don't use cheap parmesan: use the real thing and I guarantee that you will go crazy for more of this delicious dish. Enjoy!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

                              

Asiago Herb Bread

This bread is the easiest bread I have ever made and by far the most delicious. Besides the ease of getting the ingredients (I always have everything at hand except a block of asiago cheese), I love that the recipe makes 2 loaves. Seriously, the herbs and asiago cheese mingle together to make my stomach and my heart happy for days at a time. :)

I found this recipe at FoodiewithFamily almost a year ago, and I have probably made it once every month (on average) since then. The hardest part of this recipe is keeping the bread in the oven until it is done. See this picture of the bread? It is not golden brown over the entire thing, so the center was a bit doughy, especially on the loaf in the front. The smell was so intoxicating and I was so hungry that I couldn't bear the idea of waiting any longer to eat a piece. Even with the doughy center, however, it was still amazingly delicious bread and it was a great side with all the soups that we have been eating lately.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1- 1/2 cups plus 2/3 cup (or more) grated Asiago cheese, divided
• 2 Tablespoons dry yeast
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon dried Italian Seasoning
• 1 teaspoon dried Rosemary
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (adjust up or down according to heat preference)
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic (optional)
• 2 cups hot tap water (around 120-130 degrees)
• 4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided, plus a little for the bowl

Directions:

1) In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, 1.5 cups of Asiago cheese, yeast, sugar, salt, and seasonings.

2) Pour in the hot water and stir approx. 100 times.

3) Knead the dough on a floured board for 8 minutes. Form the dough into a ball.

4) Drizzle some olive oil in the mixing bowl and spread it around the edges. Place the dough-ball into the bowl and turn over a few times to coat with olive oil. Cover with a damp paper towel.

5) Allow the dough to rise for 15-20 minutes (check at 15 minutes to see if the dough is fluffy/risen. If not, add another 5 minutes).

6) Punch down the dough.

7) Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Form them into rounds (basically what you want your bread to look like afterward).

8) Use a sharp knife to make an 'X' shape about 1/4 inch deep over the top of the loaves.

9) Put them on the pan and drizzle the tops with olive oil (putting them on the pan avoids mess on your counters). Spread the olive oil around and then top with additional Asiago. Put as much cheese as possible on it for a perfectly delicious taste. :)

10) Place the pan in a cold oven over a loaf/cake pan filled with hot tap water.

11) Set oven to 400 degrees F and immediately put the timer on for 40 minutes. Begin checking the bread when the timer goes off. If it is still light colored, add more time. I have never needed more than 10 minutes of additional time. Remove the bread when it is a beautiful golden brown color. Enjoy the best bread EVER! :)

Comments:

*The only comment I have is that if you wanted to use a food processor or a fancy blender, you can check her website for that information. I like to be old-fashioned and use my hands. :)

Slovenian Mushroom Soup

Okay, it's been a while, and I have all these recipes that I need to add to this blog. Time to get started!

Apologies for this poor-quality picture. This mushroom soup contains wine, and whenever I cook with wine, the smell is so fantastic that I can't help but eat it as soon as possible! After making the mistake on day one, I told myself that on day two of the soup, I would take pictures. I took this one and then forgot to take another picture of it displayed nicely in a bowl because once again, the smell of the wine made me stop thinking and just devour the soup in front of me!

This soup is amazingly delicious, very simple/easy to make, and very healthy. It is everything that I love about soup. :) I LOVED the clear broth, the texture of the mushrooms, the wine added to the broth. YUM YUM YUM! I will make this soup again and again in my future. I hope you enjoy it too!

I found the recipe at oneperfectbite, a blog that I discovered and enjoy. I changed some things about it, but the recipes at that blog are def. worth checking out! For this soup, use any combo of mushrooms that you desire. I used 10 oz. of normal grocery store mushrooms and 4 oz. of shittake mushrooms and it was really good. Someday, when we move, I will join a foraging mushroom club and use wild mushrooms in the soup. Or, if you are blessed with a good grocery store nearby, you could try new/foreign mushrooms to open up new possibilities for your palette. :) This soup made 4 hearty servings which lasted for two meals with a slice of bread on the side.

Ingredients:
*5 tbsp. butter
*1 onion, chopped
*14 oz. mushrooms, sliced
*1 tbsp. flour
*2-4 cloves minced garlic
*2 red potatoes, cubed (with skin on)
*4 cups of vegetable broth
*1/2 cup of water
*spices (I used marjoram and thyme from the garden)
*1/2 cup of white wine
*salt to taste
*Sour cream (optional topping)

Directions:
1) Melt the butter and saute the onion until it is tender. Stir in the flour and garlic, stir constantly for 1 minute.

2) Stir in the mushrooms, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Add the broth, water, and spices of your choice.

3) Bring to a boil and then simmer on low for 10 minutes. After this, add the potatoes. Simmer on low for 5-10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Add the wine and salt to taste. Pour into bowls and serve with a spoonful of sour cream and a slice of your fave bread if interested. Enjoy!

Comments:

*You can use dried mushrooms if you want. Simply pour warm milk over them in a separate bowl for a few minutes, drain the milk and add the mushrooms to your soup. I used fresh mushrooms in mine this time.

*The original recipe used white potatoes, so if you have a preference for them, you can use them instead of red potatoes. Also, if you don't like potato skins, you can peel them for the soup. I really enjoyed the taste of red potatoes and their skins in this soup, but everyone has different tastes, so I wanted you to know of other options.

*There isn't much to say, really. This soup is easy to make and has only a few ingredients and tasted fantastic. It's hard to go wrong with a soup like this!

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Hmm...I just noticed that my last post was for Chicken Enchiladas as well. It must be a Fall Seasonal dish for me! :)

Anyway, I was trying to come up with a simple meal to eat before Thanksgiving, since I knew we would be stuffed full of fantastic meals for the holiday weekend. This soup is really easy and not very time consuming, so it was perfect for us. As teachers, we are particularly busy right before Thanksgiving, so this was a nice, simple, and light meal to eat before gorging on Thursday.

I think the thing that makes this soup fantastic is the many options of toppings. The soup itself is so simple that you can add any amount of toppings, and as you can see from my picture, I did not hesitate to go "topping-crazy".

What I loved: the creamy, simple soup combined with crunchy tortilla slices, avocados, a spicy jalapeno crunch, and sharp cheddar cheese. YUM!

Ingredients:
*2-4 cups chicken broth (depending on if you like a more broth-type soup...I used 4 cups)
*6 (6 inch) CORN tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch strips
*1 can (10 oz.) green enchilada sauce
*1 can (4 oz.) diced green chilies
*10-15 oz. red enchilada sauce (if you add 4 cups of chicken broth, add 15 oz. sauce)
*1-3 tsp. cumin (depending on your taste desires)
*1-3 tsp. cayenne pepper (depending on your taste desires)
*shredded chicken from rotisserie chicken OR 3 cooked, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
*1-1.5 cups half-in-half

Optional Topping Ideas:
*2-4 CORN tortillas, cut into strips, and fried in olive oil with a dash of salt until crispy (dry on paper towel)
*1 tomato, seeded and chopped
*1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
*1 avocado, seeded, peeled and chopped
*1 bunch of green onion, diced
*sharp cheddar shredded cheese
*spoonfuls of sour cream

Directions:
1) Combine the 2 cups of chicken broth and the 6 tortillas (cut up) to a large soup pot. Cook over medium heat until the strips soften (and almost dissolve) and the broth thickens. At this point, decide if the broth is too thick for your liking. If you like a thick soup, leave the way it is. If you like a more broth-based soup, add the other 2 cups of chicken broth.
2) Stir in the enchilada sauces, green chilies, and spices. Heat until combined on medium heat. Then add the chicken and half-in-half and heat through (be careful not to cook on high heat so you do not scald the half-in-half!) Taste and add more enchilada sauce or half-in-half to your preference.
3) When thoroughly heated, pour the soup into the bowls. Add your preferred toppings and enjoy! Serve with tortilla chips. Makes 4-6 servings.

Comments:
**The first day we ate this soup, I forgot to chop up the jalapeno. The soup tasted great without it, just a bit on the mild side. The next day, I remembered the jalapeno and it made the soup much spicier and also gave it a bit of a crunch that I really liked. Both ways were delicious, so it's up to you if you like spicy food or not.

**I used ALL of the toppings mentioned and I really think it's what makes this soup really delicious. So I highly recommend using all of the toppings. If you add different toppings and find it makes the soup taste good, please let me know what you use! I love trying new things.

*I used most of a rotisserie chicken for this soup. This really helped me save time. Seriously, I think by the time I chopped the toppings and warmed the soup, only 20 minutes went by, and I chop things VERY slowly. So this is really a quick meal that lasts a few days.

Chicken "Enchiladas"

I am surprised that I have not posted this recipe earlier. This is one of me and Paul's favorite meals, and yet, I have not made it for over a year.

That should not be much of a surprise since I LOVE trying out new recipes rather than getting 'stuck in a rut' with the same ole recipes all the time. We used to make this recipe all the time when we were first married and dirt poor. It was our "fancy meal" in order to get away from onion soup, potato soup, and whatever else was super cheap. We always knew this would be delicious, so it was hard to spend money on a new recipe when this one was SO GOOD.

Anyway, it was time to make this old favorite of ours, and once again it was a winner. I found this recipe in a cookbook called: Taste of Home's Favorite Brand Name Recipes, 2003. Technically, the recipe calls them "Chicken Enchiladas", but I don't see how the term 'Enchiladas' can be used for this particular recipe because it has little in common with ordinary 'enchiladas' meals. However, I can't think of another title for this recipe, so I am using the name of the original. For now. If you can think of a good name for this meal, I will use it and give you credit! :)

What I love about this recipe: creamy chicken and green pepper insides, with a creamier velveeta topping, with a salsa on top to make it even better. Yum...

Ingredients:
*2-3 cups of chopped cooked chicken
*1 green pepper, chopped and deseeded
*1 - 1.5 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, cubed
*1-2 cups of salsa, divided
*8 flour tortillas
*8 ounces velveeta, cut up
*1/4 cup milk
*4 oz. can of green chilies (optional)

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2) Mix the chicken, green pepper, cream cheese, and 1 cup-ish of the salsa in a large saucepan, stirring occasionally. Cook over low heat until the cream cheese is melted.
3) Spoon the chicken mixture into the tortillas and roll up. Place the tortillas seam-side down in a lightly greased 9x13 or 11x7 baking dish.
4) Mi the velveeta and milk and green chilies (optional) in a small saucepan, cook over low heat until the velveeta is completely melted. Stir frequently to prevent burning. Pour over the enchiladas and cover the dish with foil.
5) Bake for 20  minutes or until thoroughly heated. Top with remaining salsa. Enjoy!

Comments:
*I usually use one 8oz. package of cream cheese and then a few huge spoonfuls of veggie cream cheese that I always buy that week for bagels. This works great and I like the extra taste the veggie cream cheese adds to the dish. However, plain cream cheese works great too.

*I added green chilies to the velveeta topping last time and I really liked how it tasted. It gives the meal an extra spicy kick. I will be doing this from now on, though I also know from experience that it tastes fine plain as well.

*If I am concerned that there is not enough chicken mixture to fill all 8 tortillas, I simply add extra chicken and salsa to the mixture as I fill the tortillas up, and it tastes great. This is an easy mixture to add on to in order to make it last.

*This makes 8 tortillas, which feeds us for 2 days. If you add a sidedish, though, this meal could easily feed up to 8 people, because the chicken mixture is rather filling.

How to cook Chicken to Perfection

How to cook chicken? This might seem like basic knowledge, but I found a great recipe for how to cook chicken to perfection (i.e. not overcooked) and I figured that I should add the recipe information here to my blog. Even if you, the reader, think this is a "duh" type of recipe, I found it helpful, and this is really a blog for helping me collect my favorite recipes, so I am adding this anyway.

I found this recipe in a cookbook that I loaned from the library called: Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners. I do not recommend getting this cookbook. This was the only recipe from it that I found useful/delicious. This is only a cookbook of everyday recipes if you have tons and tons of money to spend on groceries. For example, there is a recipe for lamb burgers. I can't afford lamb for an everyday occasion, and if I buy it, I am certainly not going to make it in to ground meat for a burger! Yikes.

Anyway, this recipe is pretty much guaranteed not to overcook your chicken. I typically either buy a rotisserie chicken for my recipes or quickly cook the chicken on our George Foreman grill. However, since I am super careful, I always, ALWAYS overcook the chicken on the grill because I would rather it was overcooked than something that makes us sick. This recipe keeps the chicken nice and juicy and I will certainly be using this recipe over the grill for my chicken in the future. I plan on always buying a pack of chicken breasts, cooking them with this recipe, and using that chicken for all my necessary recipes for the week. Yum...

Ingredients:
*3-4 cups of chicken broth
*1-1.5 pounds of thawed boneless, skinless chicken breasts


Directions:
1) Bring the chicken broth to a boil over high heat in a large pan that is large enough to hold the chicken in one layer. Once the broth is boiling, add the chicken breasts and make sure they are completely covered by the broth (if they are not, simply turn the chicken every once and a while during this cooking process, that works fine). Simmer them, uncovered, for about 7 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, cover it, and let it stand for 10 minutes.
2) Remove 1 chicken breast to a plate and cut it in half to make sure it is cooked through. If it is, remove the remaining chicken breasts. If not, return to the pan, cover, and simmer it for 2 minutes more, than check again. Reserve the chicken broth for other recipes. Use the chicken as necessary for your recipe. Enjoy!

Comments:
*Make sure you plan ahead and have a recipe that uses chicken broth. This recipe makes plain chicken broth into Super Chicken Broth, and it would be a shame to waste it. (I did not think about it, and sadly, that beautiful broth was thrown away...how tragic).