Taco Chili, My New Recipe

The other day I decided chili season was upon us so it was time that I started the season with a new chili recipe.

My original recipe:

1 large can diced tomato
10 oz ground turkey
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
4 fresh tomatoes
2 Serrano peppers
2 banana peppers
3 cloves garlic
1/2 packet any kind of taco seasoning (I used chipotle)

Optional: Serve with tortilla chips

I started by cooking the ground turkey with the taco seasoning and the peppers (chopped with my food chopper) and the garlic (pressed with my garlic press). I peeled the tomatoes (not as bad as it sounds with large tomatoes that you run under hot water for a little minute) and cut them into smaller pieces with my super awesome tomato knife, I don't know why I ever tried cutting tomatoes with a non-serrated knife before, but just don't do it. Always use a serrated knife when you want to cut tomatoes! It's just so much easier.

I put the tomatoes into my new Manual Food Processor and wow do I love that thing! It's lightweight and has no cords (that's the manual part) so it's no hassle to get out and use and then clean up and put away. To use it I just push down on the handle pump thingy and it spins the blade, so to finely chop and nearly liquify the tomatoes just takes a few pumps.

Add the tomatoes and the beans and corn, and simmer for about ten minutes. Voila! Chili!

Smoky Mac 'N Cheese

I wanted to make mac 'n cheese, but I didn't feel like baking (baked mac 'n cheese is super yummy!) and I didn't want a regular alfredo sauce. So I thought I'd come up with something new. I started with boiling 2 cups of shells and dicing a chicken breast to saute. I seasoned the chicken with ground mustard and plenty of paprika (this is the main source of the smoky flavor).

For the cheese sauce I started with a basic kitchen glue recipe (2 T ea flour and butter + 1 cup milk + 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese) then I added 1 cup of chicken broth and 1 T of hickory bbq sauce. Then of course I mixed the chicken, shells and sauce.

I dished up a couple bowls for Shane and I and we sat down to eat. Shane proclaimed it delicious and then added cayenne hot sauce, and I did the same. The hot sauce really set off the smoky flavor.

This recipe was super fast and easy, especially if you've already mastered a basic Alfredo sauce. And you all know I love my whisk, so that's another reason I like this type of recipe, I get to whisk!

Turkey Meatballs, Fruity Style

So I have this new cookbook which has I think five or six recipes for tapenade, which is like a topping/sauce of chopped veggies or fruit and olive oil, similar to pesto but more chunky and less oily.

I found this recipe called "Tapenade Turkey Meatballs" and it sounded amazingly delicious! And I had all the ingredients! Or so I thought... The recipe called for 1 cup tapenade. I then consulted the tapenade recipes to find that I had only about half the ingredients for any given recipe of tapenade. As you can imagine this disrupted my culinary plans for the evening. Never one to let a little kitchen adversity bring me down I figured I would just wing it and put in something else.

The original recipe called for 1 slice of bread, processed into crumbs. I didn't feel like dirtying my BRAND NEW Manual Food Processor (I FINALLY got that thing! I've been waiting since March! Oh how I love Pampered Chef <3). So I used 1/3 cup Italian style breadcrumbs. At this point I already had 3/4 lb of ground turkey in my mixing bowl with one egg, so it was time to find the flavor that would have been provided by the elusive tapenade. To my fridge I did go to look for that special secret ingredient.

What I found was a variety of dressings, condiments and other unsuitable things that had no place in meatballs. I was perusing our large variety of hot sauces when I saw Spicy Pineapple Rum Sauce (from the Pampered Pantry). It looked to have a similar consistency as the tapenades in the picture so I decided that 1/3 cup of Spicy Pineapple Rum Sauce would be just the thing for these wayward meatballs.

Everything became mixed and then I used my Small Scoop (good for cookies too :D I made those earlier in the day) to make 30 little meatballs and put them into my new Small Ridged Baker (which is the newest piece of stoneware offered by my favorite company, so I have to test it out, right?) The recipe called for me to microwave them for 6-7 minutes and I thought that was a bad idea. I do not like cooking in a microwave, though I am learning how, especially after the never-ending heatwave this summer.

So I instead baked them for 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven. They came out moist, not crumbly and best of all not greasy/fatty because all the drippings collected in the ridges of my stoneware. (Which was surprisingly easy to clean, a huge relief after seeing all those ridges for the first time!) And not to forget the most important part of any dish - the flavor! They tasted phenomenal, I had amazed my own taste-buds this time. And my husband has (another) new favorite meal! :D

I paired them with a side dish of sauteed zucchini and squash from our garden, with some chopped vidalia onion, sea salt, coarsely ground black pepper and butter for flavor.

How Hard Cider Leads to Jambalaya

For what seemed like hours Shane and I debated what I should cook for dinner. I offered him two choices: leftover vegetable soup OR rice and chicken. And he responded with, "How about just chicken?" I said, "What will we have with it?" He said, "I don't know, just chicken?"

So we finally ended up settling on rice and chicken. I sent him to the man cave to play Little Big Planet while I created dinner out of 1.5 cups of leftover rice and a chicken breast.

I started by dicing the chicken and putting it in to fry with a little olive oil, lightly seasoned with coarsely ground black pepper and sea salt. I added marjoram for good measure, you can never over-marjoram chicken. (Use basil if you don't have marjoram, they are similar but not quite the same.)

I cooked the chicken for a few minutes, then stirred/flipped it to fully cook all sides. I was a little frustrated by the chicken flipping itself back over so I covered it in chicken broth and covered the pan to promote more even cooking. After a few more minutes I added the rice and pressed 2 cloves of garlic into it and stirred again.

About this time a nice Woodchuck Hard Cider sounded delicious, and I also thought about the recipe I had been meaning to make that I found on my Nintendo DS game Personal Trainer Cooking. You see, I was making rice and chicken which just happen to be a couple main ingredients in jambalaya. To the DS I did go, I found the recipe and decided I was not going to put squid or prawns into my rice and chicken, mostly because I didn't have them. I did add chopped bell pepper, vidalia onion and canned diced tomato, as the recipe called for. The recipe called for celery but I hate celery so I added celery seed, I know they are nothing alike and taste nothing alike, but I still add celery seed to recipes calling for celery. It makes me feel like I'm at least trying to follow along. I also threw in a bay leaf, it seemed like a good idea.

I added 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup hard cider (no wine, plenty of cider) and then since Shane has a cough and sore throat I omitted the chili peppers in favor of a few dashes of chili powder, 1 tsp of paprika and a healthy sprinkle of parsley. I tasted the rice and chicken turned jambalaya and added more black pepper and more hard cider, simmered about 10 minutes to reduce the liquid by more than half.

I tasted again, pronounced it delicious and called Shane for dinner. He burned his tongue, but loved it anyway! Even though I severely deviated from the recipe, what was in our bowls looked exactly like the picture, it was amazing.

By the way, I had an epic battle reattaching the v key in order to post this blog. I valiantly persevered to bring you this tale. Darn dirt under the keys, anyway!

Not Baked Beans

This is easy, but sort of involved. I use dry beans, so I have to soak them overnight (I don't like the "quick soak" method), which is why I say involved. It usually takes me three or four days to make beans because I forget to put them in water for the first few days. I suggest reading your cookbook, the package instructions and watching Alton Brown's episode on beans to decide which way you think you aught to soak your beans. You can also use canned beans that you have drained and thoroughly rinsed, but I think using dry gives you more control of the flavor of the final product. And you get some bragging rights for cooking old school. I make a 1/2 pound when I do this, and it makes enough to feed hungry company. (I've never measured exactly how many cups this makes.)

After my beans have finished their long soak I treat them like rice and cook them in broth for an hour (do not cook your rice for an hour please). What I mean is that I cover the pot, bring them to a boil, then reduce to a simmer so they can slowly cook. This will cook the flavor of the broth into the beans and bring them to a properly squishy state, nobody likes crunchy baked beans.

After the hour is up, drain the beans but reserve about 1/2 cup of the broth. In your non-stick pan or pot (I use a pot, it just seems like a good idea), add 1/4 of one vidalia onion, chopped along with 1 T of Worcestershire sauce, 1 T of dry ground mustard and 1 T of your favorite vinaigrette (I am loving Pomegranate Blood Orange lately, I don't even remember where I bought it but it is amazing!) Cook that until your onions have taken on the color of the liquid, I cover the pot during this portion of cooking as well.

Measure up 1/4 cup of each of the following: ketchup, brown sugar, and barbeque sauce. Add all this to the pot and stir until well combined. Allow it to cook for a while longer and it will thicken and bubble. Add the beans and reserved broth and stir well. Cover and boil on medium heat for 10 minutes more.

Do be careful of the steam and mind that these beans are boiling, give them a minute or five to cool before serving. Nothing ruins dinner like 2nd degree tongue burns.

Serve at a barbeque, potluck or any old dinner! This is a great side dish with plenty of protein, if you don't mind the salt from the processed condiments. I try not to think about it, and it tastes so good that you may not care!

We've had this with burgers, meatloaf, chicken and also rice. It is an every-meal kind of food (meaning it can fit in with any sort of meal).

This Sounds Good Rice

Sometimes when I cook I just add whatever sounds good and is at hand. I made rice this way a couple days ago.

I cooked the rice regularly and while it was steaming I got out some frozen chicken. I used my Micro-Cooker to thaw the chicken, I love that thing! I diced the chicken and then cooked it in a non-stick pan with pressed garlic - when it was fully cooked I added a splash of Pomegranate and Blood Orange Vinaigrette. It's light and fruity and goes wonderfully with many things, even if it does turn your chicken sort of purple.

When the rice was finished I mixed in the chicken. I melted a little butter in the pan that the chicken was in and then added back half the rice and chicken. I added soy sauce, Buffalo Rub (spicy!) and parmesan cheese and gave it a good frying. In the pot where I had steamed the rice I added more Pom Vin (I appreciate a nice abbreviation every now and then). When both were cooked to my satisfaction I mixed them together. It was amazing!

To this add any vegetables that sound especially delicious - onion, broccoli, carrots, green beans, I'm sure many others as well!

The lesson we learn here is that if it sounds good, most of the time it also tastes good. So experiment and make your own version of "This Sounds Good" rice :D

Peanut Chicken with Firecracker Green Beans

I'm wandering around the kitchen, trying to decide what to make. I ask Shane, "What do you want to eat?" And he says, "Oooh make that spicy peanut-y chicken!" So I did.

This is VERY easy to make. You need a non-stick pan and a spatula (NOT a turner) that will not melt. And tongs that won't damage your non-stick pan. And measuring spoons. Yeah, that's it for hardware.

So we start by heating less than 1 T of sesame oil with more than 1 tsp of crushed red pepper in the non-stick pan. Add the chicken and cook on low-med for about 5 minutes before flipping, don't fiddle with it and don't poke it and don't flip it early, it ruins the process. (By the way don't use frozen chicken, that's just silly.)

After your chicken has cooked on the second side for another 5 minutes, remove it from the pan and put in as many green beans as you feel like eating and cook them for about 5-6 minutes. They will absorb the flavor of the sesame oil and the crushed red pepper. Very yummy!

Now remove them from the pan and we shall make the peanut sauce! This is a basic sauce, so you won't have to do anything special. In the pan add 2 T each of sugar, peanut butter, water, and soy sauce. 1 T of your choice of oil (I use olive) and 1 clove of garlic crushed. Stir all this as you cook it over medium heat. The peanut butter will melt and then you need to let it cook unstirred until it starts to bubble (NOT boil) the sauce will look dark brown and thick like molasses. Give it another stir and then remove from heat. Add the chicken back to the pan and use the sauce to coat both sides. This is when you use that spatula by the way.

I serve this chicken on toasted buns with lettuce. That's it. It is so flavorful and delicious that any extras would be a distraction rather than a lovely addition. Of course, I have my green beans on the side :D

I have also diced the chicken and stirred it into white rice with this sauce, but for some reason that really brings out more of the peanut flavor. If you love that, it's amazing, if you do not, then just don't do it.

Turkey Apple Meatloaf

I can't believe I didn't blog at all in June! It's been so hot that I haven't been cooking much, we've been grilling and sandwiching.

So yesterday I put my central air to the test by baking a meatloaf. When we were at the store I was amazed by this new touch screen recipe printing kiosk - I LOVE it! (Family Fare in Midland if you want to play with it) And came across this interesting recipe for Turkey Apple Meatloaf.

When I told Shane I was making it he said, "I don't know about that, don't put in very much apple, if you have to use it." I sent him to play Fall Out New Vegas while I played with the food.

The recipe called for stuffing which I left out and did not call for banana pepper, which I added. The recipe was intended to feed a family but since I'm cooking for a couple I made it smaller. I used 1/2 pound ground turkey, 1 egg, 1/2 an apple diced (the other half became an appetizer), 1/4 cup rolled oats, 1/4 of an onion chopped, 1 banana pepper finely chopped, 1 1/2 T cherry mustard, and sea salt and coarse black pepper.

As I was chopping this variety of produce I said to Shane, maybe I'm not clumsy after all, maybe I've just always had terrible dull knives - which are the leading cause of kitchen cuts. Now that I have a set of quality knives, I never cut my fingers. I'm so happy that my finger tips no longer garnish our meals :D

I stirred and then rolled it into a giant ball, since I never seem to make meatloaf in a loaf pan, and put it into a round casserole to bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees F.

When it was done we topped it with Raspberry Habanero sauce (so sweet and so spicy) from the Pampered Pantry. We ate it with my homemade "baked" beans (which I did not bake, I'll have to blog them as well).

Short but sweet, I've been on a long break after all, can't go right into novel blogging. :D

An Asian Essential: Egg Drop Soup

This is my recipe for egg drop soup, distilled from about five or six sources. Everyone has their own way of making things, and of course this recipe is no different. Some people call for a pile of chopped vegetables for egg drop soup, others insist upon noodles, and still others say it's not egg drop if there are more than eggs in it. This recipe is simple, flavorful, fast and easy. I have received only raving compliments (no exaggeration) whenever I've made it. So here I'm sharing with you my special recipe for egg drop soup.

2 cups chicken broth
2 cups beef broth
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 T soy sauce
1/2 T sugar (or less)
ginger and white pepper to taste, I use a few dashes of each
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil (optional, but add it before the eggs if you use it)
4 green onions, sliced
1/4 cup water (optional)

Combine everything except the eggs and the onions in a medium to large sized sauce pan, bring the broth to a bowl and then reduce it to a simmer. In a bowl mix the eggs, you can use a fork or a whisk, I use a fork since a fork is required for the next part.

Stir the broth and remove the stirring-spoon so the broth continues to swirl, then slowly pour the eggs over the tines of a fork. When the broth stops moving, stop pouring and gently stir again - repeat until you run out of egg. (This will make the long thin strands of egg, if you like big clumps, slowly add all the egg into a still pot of broth, but not all in one spot, move the bowl as you pour so it isn't one giant piece of egg.) Immediately add the onion and simmer for about 2 minutes.

Do not boil the soup after you've added the eggs unless you like your egg pieces to be smaller than grains of rice.

Some people add noodles to egg drop soup, and you can if you like, I would use egg noodles or ramen if you think noodles are a good idea. I've also heard that white rice is good in egg drop soup, cooked first of course!

I say the last 1/4 cup of water is optional because of salt preference. Without it I think it is a little too salty, but then I don't care for salt, so your soup may not need it. The optional sesame oil adds a slight smoky flavor, it is good, but I only add it about half of the time. It is pretty strong, so you only need a small amount. (It's also good for making peanut chicken - I'll blog it eventually because it is so good and so spicy!)

Now you can prepare a simple but crowd pleasing soup. It is easy to make half the amount or double the amount. The measurements above serve 4-6 depending on bowl size. This is a great (light) meal on its own, or a great precursor to your main dish. Try pairing it with Chinese cabbage salad, fried rice, teriyaki chicken, or even sushi. Or you can do like I did on Wednesday and pair it with penne Alfredo and asparagus. It tastes so good, it can go with any type of food! :D

So let me know if you like it! And when you prepare it, give me a little credit, since I took the time to experiment for the last four years to make it perfect!

Just Go With It

Sometimes when you are cooking things don't go the way you imagined. That's when it's most important to improvise, and be courageous enough to eat the results.

Today I made tostadas, kind of. I made refried beans, spicy rice and fried corn tortillas. I forgot to cook meat and we were out of peppers and onions. I had diced tomato in the refrigerator but forgot to add them. Sometimes new recipes are born of forgetfulness.

On the bottom was, of course, the corn tortilla. Then a layer of refried beans and then a layer of spicy rice, topped with another fried tortilla. We cut them with the pizza cutter and ate them sort of quesadilla style. They were delicious!

Here's the real recipe: Spicy Rice

Cook the desired amount of rice in chicken broth instead of water. When it's done add a small spoonful of chili sauce, or more if you like it really spicy. Add 1/4 cup tomato sauce and 2 T cream cheese. Stir until cheese melts and everything is combined. Eat it now or serve it as a side or in your favorite Mexican style dish!

Alfredo Sauce or Kitchen Glue

I'm not saying that Alfredo sauce tastes like glue or has other unwanted glue properties, rather that Alfredo sauce can hold a dish together and you can stick anything in it. We LOVE Alfredo sauce, so I make it regularly. Right about now you are imagining either a jar of white sauce or a sauce pan full of scratch sauce. If you are thinking of jar sauce, stop it! That stuff is terrible! Read on and learn how to make the most basic sauce that you can easily customize. Wow your friends with this easiest of all recipes. Or if chicken noodle soup isn't working, this is a great comfort food when served with pasta.

Of course, like with many popular recipes, there are hundreds of variations. I have tried MANY of them, and I'm going to share the one that is successful every time. Some recipes are just not that good. This is a quick recipe, and with it you should be able to serve dinner in 30 minutes or less. (Provided you know how to cook more than one thing at a time. If you can't boil pasta, grill chicken and steam broccoli all at the same time you made need help with the sauce whisking.)

So to start, gather your ingredients! For a simple sauce (that will turn out and be tasty) you need only flour, butter, milk and Parmesan cheese. We can add many things to this, but that's for later. You will also need a medium sauce pan (I use a non-stick sauce pan), a silicone coated whisk (or regular for pans without coating) and a couple measuring cups and measuring spoons.

In your medium sauce pan melt butter over medium heat (med-low is better than med-high). When the butter foams, whisk in an equal amount of flour (2T butter and 2T flour works quite well). I use a non-stick medium sauce pan so I use a silicone coated whisk. I strongly recommend whisking, though it will turn out using spoon stirring, whisking is just easier, and shouldn't cooking be easy? Heat the butter and flour for at least 3 minutes, with an occasional whisk to prevent sticking or burning, or a continual whisk if you're nervous about scorching. The butter and flour (which is now a "roux") may darken a little in color, and this is fine. We cook the roux to prevent a starchy flavor from dominating the sauce.

To the roux you will add 2 cups of milk, in increments, whisking to combine completely. Again, you can use a spoon to stir, but it will take a little longer. Add 1/4-1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (depending on taste and desired thickness of the sauce) and whisk to combine. Simmer (not boil) for 4-6 minutes, and it will start to thicken (the longer it cooks the thicker it will be).

Serve with pasta, chicken, broccoli, bruschetta, pico de gallo, mushrooms, green onions, asparagus... the options are vast, because this is yummy! If you have leftover veggies or meat in your refrigerator, this is a good recipe to put them in. This may be technically a cream sauce more than an Alfredo sauce, but I always just call it creamy Alfredo sauce.

Now for variations! When you originally melt the butter you can add a clove or two of pressed garlic, chives and other herbs to taste or even diced onions.

Instead of 2 cups of milk you can add 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of chicken broth or 1 cup of white wine or even 1 cup of tomato juice (sauce is a little too thick). You can even skip the milk altogether and add any combination of those things! (I have never tried it with just tomato juice though, I've always used milk and tomato juice together.)

And in addition to the Parmesan cheese you can add whatever kind of cheese you like - mozzarella, provolone and cream cheese work very well. I have heard of blending cottage cheese in a food processor and adding it!

Champagne Cake (A Birthday Story)

This was another calendar recipe, and it looked so good I had to make it for Shane's birthday. It was May's picture, so it was like fate. So we procured a white cake mix, pink champagne, and heavy whipping cream. All the other ingredients we had on hand. (Milk, eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla, powdered sugar)

In the picture there are four pink layers with fluffy white frosting in between. My cake was a little different. I didn't use any food coloring to make it pink (even though Shane said he'd totally rock a pink cake) because I only have green food coloring left over from St. Patrick's Day's Green Eats. And my cake was only two layers. Not because it would be too hard to do four or I didn't have time or didn't feel like it, but because I dropped one of the cakes on the counter when I was taking them out of the oven. My cake pan manufacturers thought it would be just brilliant to make the outside with a non-stick coating as well. Not such a good idea after all. I put the cake back into the pan and later I was able to frost the cracked cake back together, but there was no way I'd be able to make layers with it like that.

But back to the beginning of this story! I separated my eggs into my batter bowl (I hate making cake without it now, since it has the measuring cup pouring shape) and so not to be wasteful I made a tiny egg yolk omelet, which I accidentally crisped a little while trying to figure out if you need to coat non-stick baking pans. I never did find the answer but coated them anyway.

To the egg whites I added milk, vegetable oil and double vanilla (vanilla is the best, and I say you can never use too much! You can, however, use way too much almond extract) Then, just like my recipe said, I took the whisk to it and added the cake mix. It was a horrible un-whiskable mess. Then I remembered I had forgotten to add the champagne. I poured in the champagne, and a little for me on the side, to test it. (I tested it again a little later, too.) And it was still a horrible un-whiskable mess. So I scraped out the cake "batter" from my whisk and used a spatula to gently stir in the champagne, it took a few minutes to fully incorporate and I thought I had ruined it! But finally it began to homogenize and I stopped freaking out. Batter into the coated pans, bake for 20 minutes.

I got out everything for the frosting except for the heavy whipping cream, which I waited to be the last thing I got out. The colder your whipping cream, the faster you'll get to soft peaks (my goal). So into my bowl went 1/2 cup powdered sugar and again double vanilla, with 1 pint of heavy whipping cream. I stirred slowly at first to avoid flinging powdered sugar and cream all over the kitchen. Then I turned the beater on medium until it just began to thicken. Earlier, I had quartered 3 marshmallows and put them in the microwave, when the cream began to thicken I turned them on for 15 seconds and immediately added them to the cream, beating on high. There was some splashing, but not too much. I beat the cream for the next 20 minutes, and was not quite to soft peaks when the cakes finished baking.

The cream (future frosting) went into the refrigerator for a much needed chill, so I could take the cakes out to cool. I let the cakes cool and the cream chill for about 20 minutes before turning out the cakes and beating the cream to soft peaks, which didn't take long since I had done most of the work earlier and it had had a chance to chill.

I put the broken cake on my cake pedestal, because I say, if you're going to bake you may as well be fancy about it. I don't bake often, so it's like a special occasion. The broken cake was the bottom layer, so I scooped a big pile of frosting (formerly cream) onto the cake and spread. It was so easy! I had never used a cream frosting like this before, and it was so smooth and not sticky at all (like jar frosting which is basically sugar paste). The other cake went on top and the rest of the frosting I scooped onto the top of that and spread and smoothed down the sides. This cake took about 45 seconds to frost, it was amazing! This is the only way I'm making frosting from now on. The cream may be more expensive than buying jar frosting, but it tastes so much better and is so easy to use that the added cost and effort are worth it. Especially considering I make cake like twice a year. And unlike other homemade frosting which call for more powdered sugar than anything else, this frosting doesn't harden. (Even refrigerated overnight, it was still soft and fluffy)

I refrigerated the cake until time to sing happy birthday, cut the cake and serve it! I used my new high heel cake server because it is fabulous and perfect for the job. We also finished the champagne with the cake, and it was a perfect pairing.

Curry Chicken Ramen

A friend emailed me a recipe, asked if I'd make it when he came over - it looked good and not too hard, and it called for curry (one of my favorite flavors) so I said sure! I then lost the recipe and half forgot about it. Yesterday we were facebook chatting and the recipe came up... had to find it, but luckily the email search feature came to my rescue, the recipe was found and the day was saved.

Of course, I didn't go shopping for any of the ingredients and I didn't even read the instructions until today, while I was writing down the recipe so I would know what to cook.

The recipe called for potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips and other similar vegetables. I had carrots only so I sliced a couple handfuls of baby carrots and put them on the boil for 4 minutes. The recipe didn't call for onions, but I put onions in almost everything, so I chopped half of one and set it aside. Then I diced the chicken and put it in my large skillet with olive oil, 1 clove garlic (pressed with my trusty garlic press! I use that thing almost every day, if there is one thing every kitchen needs it is a garlic press!), and 1 tsp each chili powder, crushed rosemary, curry (I used red), and "grainy" mustard (I used a stoneground which had a bunch of whole seeds still in it, very tart and very nice). After a minute or two when the chicken was no longer pink on the outside I added the onion and drained carrots, stirred and covered.

(On a side note I used dried rosemary leaves that I crushed using my marble mortar and pestle. A mortar and pestle is not a standard kitchen object, but I think it should be. I may not use it every week or even every month, but there are some things that just don't turn out right if you don't have a set! I could have tossed my leaves into my herb grinder [i.e. our 2nd coffee grinder] but they would have gone too powdery. I could have crushed them by hand, but then they would have been too hard. In the end it was my mortar and pestle which gave me the consistency I was looking for.)

Then I started to rummage through my cupboard looking for something fast that would go well with this chicken. Pasta didn't sound right and neither did egg noodles. Rice and barley would take too long and I didn't have minute rice or anything like that. Then I found in the back of the cupboard a food I didn't remember we even had - ramen noodles. And I thought, why not? I can make them on the side and if they're terrible when I taste them together, I can throw them out, they cost 25 cents so it's not a big deal.

I boiled the noodles for 5 minutes and before draining, I reserved 1 ladle of the water. Then I added the seasoning packet and the ladle of water to the noodles and stirred, tasted, and of course they tasted like bland but too salty ramen noodles. My chicken called for 1/4 cup creme fraiche, which I did not have, and I did not have any suitable substitute, so I decided I was going to use milk and this recipe was just going to have to turn out anyway!

I stirred the milk in with the ramen noodles and tasted them again... you would never believe it but adding milk to ramen noodles makes them taste edible, even good! It was amazing, so I stirred them in with the chicken let it sizzle a moment and tasted this culinary concoction, to my amazement and delight it tasted pretty good! Next time I will probably add more curry, because I LOVE curry, but most people would probably prefer it with the current amount of curry.

I seriously deviated from the recipe on this one, but I think it turned out better than what the recipe would have. And I didn't feel like baking, which is what the recipe wanted me to do with the chicken and potatoes.

Warm Lemon Pepper Chicken Salad

I finally made my calendar recipe from March! I admit, that I didn't follow the directions, but I did use the same ingredients, except that I omitted the artichoke hearts, because I couldn't find any marinated artichoke hearts. I think I should have checked Meijer, but I didn't, so I didn't get them.

I started by making a layer of pea pods on the bottom of my saute pan, and I added less than 1/4 cup water, just enough to cover the bottom and get them wet. I don't like boiling vegetables unless they are potatoes, which are tubers and don't count. So I turned that on to cook off the water and steam the pea pods. In the mean time I took some potatoes that Shane had crinkle cut for me with the Ultimate Mandoline (that's what it's called, and it is pretty cool, so don't knock its name :D) and put them in my large Micro Cooker with 4 cups of water for 15 minutes (which turned out to be too long).

While the peas and potatoes were cooking I chopped 1/3 of one large green bell pepper and 1/3 of one huge red onion. The onion I added right to the peas, along with 1 clove garlic pressed and 1 T olive oil and half of 1 lemon freshly juiced (the water had cooked off by this point). I gave that a nice stir and drained the potatoes and chopped the breast from a rotisserie chicken (so yum!)

In my small size Batter Bowl, which is a large measuring cup that is big enough to mix and make and bake in, I whisked together just under 1/4 olive oil and the other half of that lemon. When it was done it looked sort of like whisked egg yolk, so that was cool and odd. I added some cracked black pepper and added that along with the potatoes to the peas and other things.

When I stirred that all together, the potatoes crumbled and became a mashed potato coating for the other food. Upon tasting this dish, I remembered that I hate lemons and everything that tastes like lemons... I think picture was so pretty I convinced myself that it wouldn't be that lemon-y. I was wrong, it was VERY lemony. I added a pile of salt and that helped (and if you know me you know I don't like salt either). If I make this dish again it is not going to involve lemons. I am considering an orange. And I could use rice or perhaps cook the potatoes less.

Grillin' Easter Eggs

Today I walked out my front door to find my dad in his front yard (directly across from my own front yard). He saw me and instead of waiting to speak to each other face to face, like I assume civilized (boring) people do we shouted across our yards to each other while I walked over. Our conversation had lots to do with where my mom was currently located and what are we eating for Easter dinner?

The first question was easy, she was brushing her hair and easily found. The second question was also fairly simple, we'd be grillin'! Now, I don't know if you readers grill or barbecue (or barbeque) or how or if you prepare food out of doors in the great wilderness of your yard, front side or back. But when we grill, we ALWAYS have macaroni salad with our seared meats. See, I had you all tricked, thinking I'd be the grill master, but no, I am the kitchen wench in this story. It's not so bad though, I get to wear great outfits! (Okay no more Ren Fair references today, promise.)

So I volunteered/was drafted for macaroni salad making. Prep work took less time than usual today, since I only had to boil macaroni - the eggs were already boiled for this venture! My parents, nieces, siblings and I had dyed eggs on Friday. While it was nice to not have to boil eggs, I was sad, as I am every year, when it came time to peel those vibrant shells away from the milky colored egg whites.

Then I had a brilliant, colorful, rainbow-rific idea. I would dye the boiled eggs again... now that they had been peeled! I Googled first and Google found me eHow and eHow said it was an overnight project involving both food coloring and water (with eggs of course) and I said I don't have that kind of time eHow!

Then I remembered that Marna (my Pampered Chef Executive Director) had just sent me a recipe for tulip eggs, which were both artful and delicious. Her instructions were to dye the peeled boiled eggs in food coloring (no water) and then cut with a v-cutter and devil and garnish appropriately. So I compromised and mixed enough water to cover my eggs with my chosen colors of food coloring, which happened to be red, yellow, blue and green because those were the colors of food coloring we had. I sliced all my eggs in half and dumped the yolks into a bowl so I could make the "sauce" for the macaroni salad while the egg whites colored.

I'm sure everyone has their own special secret recipe for macaroni salad, passed down in secret from parent to child. In any case, I do have a special secret recipe, handed down to me from my mother. So I'll tell you SOME of what goes into this particular dish, but it is my special secret family recipe after all!

For the "sauce" I crush the yolks, then add whatever spices sound delicious, miracle whip (NEVER mayonnaise), mustard, ranch dressing and a few more things - I whip that up and pour it on the boiled, drained and cooled macaroni. To chop the now colorful eggs I put them in my egg slicer, slice, turn, and slice again. This gives me no hassles, barely any mess and chopped eggs in less than a minute. I love my egg slicer!

To finish this very easy, very tasty dish I stirred in the eggs, flatten/squish the salad in the bowl with my stir-er (a big serving spoon) and then used a paper towel to clean the edges (it saves on dishes when you mix in the serving bowl!)

Garnish with a light dusting of paprika, chill and serve! It was the most festive macaroni salad our Easter dinner has ever had!

Experimental Dessert: A Brilliant Creation or a Terrible Disaster?

In March I started offering My Pampered Chef Hosts and Hostesses free dessert when they host a party in the month that their birthday is in, and today (Saturday) I needed to provide a free dessert. I actually had this particular culinary adventure on Friday, but it's been a busy weekend (you know, homework, facebook, planning for the Pampered Chef party, facebook, housework, facebook...)

Originally I was going to bake a cake, but then I thought that was too boring. Then I was going to make a cookie dessert pizza thing, but decided that was too much work and too many ingredients. So I looked in my cupboard and I looked at my cookbook and I had a rare moment of total and utter recipe loss - I had no idea what I should make, and I had 12 hours until time to leave for the party (sleep took up a big part of the 12 hours). So I sat down and balanced my checkbook (math soothes me, don't ask because it probably won't make sense to you, I'm just that strange). While balancing the checkbook I came across the receipt from groceries earlier that day and on that reciept was two kinds of cheerios and an idea began to form.

I had both chocolate cheerios and cinnamon cheerios and at first I wanted to just cover and smother them all with a simple chocolate coating (2 cups chocolate chips, any kind, and 2T+2tsp shortening). It turned out I didn't have enough chocolate chips for that so I thought about the cheerio flavors - I'd already represented chocolate so more cinnamon would probably bring a nice balance to this thing I was making. I googled "cinnamon fillling" and found an amazing recipe for cinnamon rolls that I promptly stole the cinnamon filling from. I thought I would mix the cheerios in the cinnamon filling and then coat them in chocolate, like little coated candy treats. (Later I saw that cinnamon filling wasn't sticky enough to lend itself to this idea, so I came up with a new one.)

I mixed up a half batch of cinnamon filling in a mixing bowl and then a half batch of simple chocolate coating in the Double Boiler (then set to simmer so it wouldn't re-harden). I checked my cinnamon filling, and for cinnamon rolls, it would have been perfect, but I wasn't going to be making any sort of roll. So I doubled the butter (I know, I'm so bad, but it tastes so good!) and that gave it a smoother more "spreadable" consistency - but not at all sticky the way I had hoped it would be. I had another idea though, so all was not lost. But before I went and ruined two perfectly good things, I took a small bowl and mixed a spoonful of each sweet to give it a taste combined - the taste was good, the chocolate drowned the cinnamon a little in my sample, but overall there was more cinnamon filling than there was simple chocolate coating, so that wouldn't be a problem with the full size mixture.

I added the simple chocolate coating to the cinnamon filling and stirred until they were well combined, then I added 1 cup each of chocolate and cinnamon cheerios and stirred to coat. There was a lot of chocolate-cinnamon goo left so I added another 1 cup of each flavor of cheerios and stirred them in. This time they were all evenly coated without an excess amount of leftover chocolate-cinnamon sauce.

I spread out waxed paper onto two cookie sheets and cleared space in the refrigerator - chocolate sets best when chilled. I used my Small Scoop, which holds about 1 T, to scoop up about 65 of these little cheerio treats. I wanted them small because they had a lot of flavor, and if they ended up too big they'd be too sweet to eat. Once I had dished them all out I put them in the refrigerator overnight.

After packing up all my show supplies (cooking gadgets and toys, catalogs, order forms, netbook, first aid kit and aloe - I'm a little accident prone, and Pink Zebra demo products) I almost didn't remember to pack up my little creations! But luckily for me, since I had promised a free dessert, I did remember to pack them up (after sharing a few with my husband of course!) According to the guests, my brand new Chocolate Cinnamon Cheerio Treats are a brilliant creation, because there were only a handful leftover!

Next time I promise a dish, I think I'll plan ahead. (Even if these did turn out, you never know when a terrible disaster will land on your cookie sheet!)

The Invention of my Famous Quick Chicken Goulash

I say famous in the title, because I know that I'm going to be asked to make this one again and again! I was looking at the cupboard and I wasn't sure what I felt like making for dinner so I started setting things on the counter, to visualize the possibilities.

I started with tri-color rotini, because pasta is quick and Shane (husband creature) had to go to work in less than an hour. Also, they are pretty. Next to that box I placed a can of dark red kidney beans and a can of chicken. Ideas began to form in my head so I added a can of diced tomatoes and started the water to boil. I measured my pasta and went to the refrigerator to forage for produce. I found onions, garlic, green bell pepper and tomatoes, but decided it was quicker to use the canned diced tomatoes, so the fresh tomatoes had to stay behind.

The pasta water came to a boil so in the pot with the pasta. Set the timer and give it a stir and it can take care of itself in my non-stick pot, an invention handed straight from the gods to mankind. Nothing sticks to non-stick, not even ignored pasta!

On to my veggies! The onions and peppers I treated the same, almost. Of course, they are different creatures, you don't peel your pepper and you don't de-seed an onion, but I did mince them both with my food chopper. I had decided this dish would be soup-ish so I wanted them really little, I don't like big chunks of pepper or onion in my soup (unless it's French onion, and then peppers aren't invited at all). The onion went into the frying pan with a little sea salt and butter - to start them caramelizing faster. The pepper needed to wait a minute, as it wouldn't be added to the pan until the end. After peeling the garlic I pressed it right into the frying pan with the onions, which were about half way done at that time (I was going for a more light burn than a true caramelization). I added a little more butter and gave it a healthy stir before remembering I hadn't stirred the pasta since I had started it to boil.

So I stirred the pasta and then drained it, reserving 2 cups of my boiling water. To the same non-stick pot I emptied the can of diced tomatoes. I put the kidney beans back in the cupboard because I decided I didn't need competing proteins and I had already decided chicken sounded better. To the diced tomatoes I added the two cups boiling water and I hate to admit it, but 2 chicken bullion cubes (I'm out of canned low sodium stock!) I also added paprika, black pepper, basil and cilantro (I love cilantro, it goes all sorts of places it was probably never meant to go).

Back at the frying pan the onions were starting to get a nice crispy sort of brown, so I added the peppers and stirred them. Then stirred the soup, and then I opened the canned chicken, because yes it is edible, and rinsed it REALLY well. The onions were added to the soup and the chicken went into the pan to cook off the extra water. At this point I felt my soup was too thin, so I added about 1/2 can of tomato paste. I then decided it didn't have enough vegetables and it wasn't yet colorful enough so I added a can of corn, I normally use frozen, I really don't care for canned vegetables, BUT canned corn that is going to become part of soup is my one exception. I didn't even drain it, as I had added a bit much tomato paste and it would add a little bit of sweet and salty flavor.

By this time I had almost forgotten about the pasta again, but it was still hot when I added it to my soup, which I promptly decided was more like goulash than soup, so now it was a goulash (you see how recipe naming works now, don't you?) I also added the chicken, and debated adding black beans, decided against and stirred vigorously. This broke the rotini a bit, but that was fine with me. I let it simmer maybe 6-8 minutes before serving, allowing to cool for about 2 minutes and eating.

It was super yum, and Shane only poked it once to find out what all was in it before eating the whole bowl!

Waffle Brownies

This has got to be the easiest and fastest dessert ever, and it is also delicious! I found the recipe for waffle brownies when my friend Tanya shared a link to waffle cookies (you know I'll make them eventually):
Waffle Brownies

Anyway, here's how it went. I used a box of Jiffy chocolate muffin mix with mini chocolate chips (who doesn't love Jiffy mixes?) and per package instructions mixed it with 1 egg and 1/4 cup milk, then for added moistness and special flavor 1 T olive oil.

Using my Small Scoop, which holds about 1 T, I scooped the batter into the center of the waffle-cups (Is that what they're called?) of my waffle maker, which is the simple press kind. I would love the waffle maker that you flip, but mine is still cool because the waffles it makes are shaped like hearts.

I cooked these for a mere 30-40 seconds (using the timer on my microwave) and they came out fluffy and amazing. The ones I cooked for an entire minute were crisp, and darker but didn't have a burned flavor. We preferred them fluffy so I cooked the rest for 30-40 seconds each.

It made a decent amount, maybe a 20? I forgot to count, and they were going fast! I shared a few with my sister and my mom, who also loved them. I plan on making them again on Friday.

Here's a photo of the last one!

Green Pizza and Breadsticks

Part 2 of St. Patrick's Day's green eats was a green pizza and green breadsticks. I know I could have gone more green, and were I cooking for myself and my husband only, I would have, but you can't prepare a ton of food that your guests won't eat, that's just silly. These are extremely easy recipes, and if you love pizza and breadsticks, I'd say you need to give them a try!

For the pizza I started with a Pillsbury seamless dough sheet (like crescent rolls in a tube but without perforations) on a rectangular baking stone (Pampered Chef's Large Bar Pan, though I've never made "bars" on it) and baked it for 10 before adding fresh pressed garlic and tomato sauce, an easy and tasty (and fast) way to make some home made pizza sauce. On the sauce we add 4 cheese Italian blend, pepperonis, green olives and green peppers chopped with the Food Chopper and sliced green onions. Had this pizza not been meant for guests I would have also added spinach and artichokes, both chopped. However, this pizza was meant for guests so I stopped at the green onions. Then I topped those toppings with mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Bake for 10-15 and it is yum!

For the breadsticks I used a Jiffy pizza crust mix that I added pesto and green onion tops to, and once flattened on a round baking stone I topped it with 1/2 ounce of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Bake for 15 and top with another 1/2 ounce of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. They were a little crispy, and to avoid that I'd either double the Jiffy mix or reduce baking time. I enjoyed the crispiness, but not everyone loves a crunch.

As we all know, when you have an alcoholic celebration pizza is your go-to crowd food, and nothing else will do. I love cooking, but more than that, I love it when people enjoy the food I've cooked. For that purpose these two dishes were a major hit, as everyone was pleased.

Green Cookies

In preparation for a day filled with everything green, I spent yesterday evening making green cookies! I dug out my mom's recipe for chocolate chip cookies (the best and only recipe I will use) and decided to try a new recipe I found for spritz cookies.

Since I'm not really a huge fan of chocolate (other than dark) I always leave the chocolate chips out of my chocolate chip cookies, I think it makes them too sweet and I prefer to focus on the sweet brown sugar and vanilla flavor of the dough. When I cream the sugars and butter I added a healthy amount of green food coloring to make them festive. When time to bake came I used my new Small Scoop, that holds about 1 T, to make perfectly even and adorable little dough balls that baked into wonderfully round and evenly sized chocolate chip cookies sans chips. They are amazing, and very pleasing to the perfectionist in me.

For my spritz cookies I had to beat them a little extra since my butter wasn't quite softened enough, which turned out to be a good thing as it made the dough nice and fluffy/creamy. I deviated from the recipe just a bit by adding 1/4 tsp of almond extract and 1/2 T of orange zest. I used my cookie press, which I've only used once before with not the best results. It turns out that the first time I used it my dough was too soft, which is why all my cookies were only vaguely pumpkin shaped (although definitely pumpkin flavored!). I used the dragonfly/butterfly plate (not 100% which one it's supposed to be) and since these cookies are green they sort of ended up looking like clovers, which is cool because I made them for St. Patrick's Day.

At the end of my baking adventure I now know I have 2 tools I would never want to be without again (at least when it comes to cookies)! Next time, I'm going to try baking cookies on stoneware, and I'll be sure to share.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

I was feeling down today and after doing the dishes I realized it was high time there were some dirty dishes on my counter! Yesterday when my sister was trying to talk me into making her macaroni and cheese AND pizza I found a recipe on the Food Network website by Alton Brown (my most favorite chef ever! Good Eats :D) My sister got pizza only, but now I was equipped with a new and exciting recipe, that was burning a whole in the pocket of my mind, like a child with a quarter. (She said the pizza was amazing, mayhap I will blog about a repeat performance of the pizza recipe another time.)

So, obviously, you start with some al dente mac' when making a mac'n'cheese. So al dente I did, and then gave my pasta elbows a nice bath so they didn't stick together horribly. Now I had to multitask as I roux-ed and chicken-ed at the same time. (Chicken [cubed] + bruschetta flavored olive oil = yummy chicken!) To my roux I added green onions, ground mustard, paprika, one bay leaf and milk, simmer for 10 before removing the bay leaf and adding cheese (in that order, you don't want to try fishing a broken bay out of cheese). Alton wanted me to use cheddar, but I don't like cheddar and more importantly we didn't have any. I used Colby jack, mozzarella, Parmesan and provolone.

While that simmered (before the cheese was invited) I chopped broccoli and tended the chicken and procured an egg (different chicken). Again before the cheese, I tempered in one egg. I wasn't so sure about this at first, but Alton has never done me wrong before, so I trusted him on this. Finally the cheese! Now I combined all my ingredients: macaroni, chicken, broccoli and cheese sauce. Top with buttered breadcrumbs (I substituted half my breadcrumbs with chicken flavored stuffing, for funsies) and bake for 30 then rest for 5.

Taste test time! Beautiful, brilliant, amazing! Best macaroni and cheese I've ever made (<3 Alton). And right now, there are dirty dishes on my counter, mission complete.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/index.html

Taco Munchies - A Win/Lose Recipe

A couple of weeks ago I was sent a recipe called "Taco Munchies". It looked easy and yum and something I could do quickly, I thought, "This will be a great recipe for a cooking demonstration!" So I put it in with the recipes for my sister to pick for me to demonstrate at her Pampered Chef party (later this week). I admit I didn't read it closely, just a quick skim of the ingredients, and as many long-time chefs do, I can pretty much figure out the rest after reading the ingredients. There are only so many places you can go with it after that.

I purchased the ingredients, there weren't many, and got ready to practice this recipe. It may be a case of worrying too much, but I like to practice a new recipe before making it for a crowd, to make sure there won't be unforeseen side effects. In this case, I was very lucky to have wanted to make it early. All the measurements were wrong, the baking time was wrong and even the baking temperature was wrong. If anyone were to follow these directions, they'd have many small over-flowing taco soups that would be way beyond Cajun (a colloquial for "burned"). And what else is odd is the ingredients list has garlic on it, but the instructions never called for garlic. Poor garlic. :C

So I start out unaware of these foul wrongs this recipe has, but luckily for me, when I cook for my husband and myself I always use about 1/2 or less than half the amount of meat a recipe calls for (healthier that way). So instead of 1 pound of ground beef I decide to fry 8 ounces. As it's cooking I roll out my seamless dough sheet (tubed crescent rolls with no perforations, amazing!) and cut them into squares. Not having worked with this dough a lot, I pick up a square right away and try to put it in a mini muffin cup - doesn't work out so well. It was too little and didn't cover the sides. I did a couple more and became a little frustrated, so I set it aside and measured 1 cup of salsa, because I thought an entire jar (with no specific amount listed, just "1 jar" of salsa) would be too much.

Then I realize that I have garlic out and no part of this recipe calls for me to do anything to the garlic. *facepalm* So I press the garlic into the cooking beef (which has been flipped and chopped into bits) and give it a little stir. During all this the dough has had a chance to set out and come to room temperature. I tried putting another one into a muffin cup and - success! It fit nicely, covering the sides and making little leaves on the edges. The dough definitely needed a rest before any attempts of stretching and squishing it into muffin cups should have been attempted. Next I mixed the salsa and ground beef + garlic, and my "wrong" measurements turn out to be the right ones! I had a little leftover filling but I can't imagine what I would do with another 1/2 pound of ground beef with these things!

Next comes baking. Recipe says 350, dough sheet instructions say 375, and I learned a long time ago that the people who write on those packages give you a temperature for a reason, it tends to take a lot longer if you cook them at the wrong temperature. I picked 375, I didn't want to wait an extra 5-10 minutes because of faulty temperature settings. I set my timer for 15 minutes, and after 10 I could hear them sizzling and I peeked at them to see what they were up to. They were already done, had I let them go a few minutes longer they'd have been burned and terrible - the recipe wanted me to bake them for 20 minutes, maybe because it had a lower temperature, but since this is a recipe I plan to use for demonstration, the less baking time the better. There's only so much chatter and fill you can give to people before they get bored and stop listening to you. I know, because I tend to stop listening if people are talking too much or for too long. Maybe I have ADD, but whatever.

I topped them all with cheese, which melted without additional assistance from the oven, lying recipe. Time to serve! After figuring out that I have no idea how to get the little devils out from their cups, and my traditional method of dumping cupcakes upside down wouldn't work because all the filling would fall out, I decided a couple burned finger tips would have to get the job done.

After one bite though... it was all worth it, Taco Munchies win the flavor festival this week! Perhaps it was the peach pineapple salsa, or maybe it was just a perfect combination of these comfort food flavors, but these were very yum!

Now I know how to make the recipe for later this week, and I have devised a plan involving a citrus peeler to free the munchies from their cups.

In the words of Alton Brown, "Remember, play with your food!" :D

Turkey Chili - A Surprise Inside

When I read the title on this recipe card I was thinking, "What's so special about turkey chili?" I learned it's dirty little secret when I read the ingredients list, it calls for beer! At first I wrinkled my nose at the idea of putting something as foul tasting as beer into something as amazing as chili. Then I remembered the first time I tried broccoli and decided to give this recipe a chance.

(I had spent my entire life up to the moment I tried broccoli believing I hated broccoli, merely because it was a weird little green tree. When I finally tried it, I LOVED it, and decided that there was no way I was ever going to not eat a food because I thought I might not like it. Which is why I always try the beer my husband drinks. So far the only ones I have liked have been so dark you couldn't see light through them - Guinness Extra Stout and He'brew Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah. In addition to those wicked dark beers I now eat pretty much every fruit vegetable except cabbage, because I think it has a strange texture, but still tastes okay, and lemons because I do not enjoy sour things - though I still use lemon juice and lime juice to cook with.)

Anyway, back to that chili! Another ingredient that this chili called for is chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, something I've wanted to try for a long time, but had never known what to do with them. After (finally) finding the chipotle peppers in the Hispanic foreign foods section in Meijer, I brought these little devils home to make an epic chili.

I read my recipe and instructions carefully, and started with my aromatics - onions and garlic in bruschetta flavored olive oil with a pinch of sea salt. To this I added chili powder, oregano and three chopped chipotle peppers, though the recipe called for a measly one along with tomato paste. Then I added the ground turkey, and cooked until well browned. Now it was time for that special ingredient! BEER! I poured in the whole bottle, thinking, "Wow, I hope this tastes good!" because up to that point it smelled amazing. I simmered my spicy mix for a few minutes, to cook off the alcohol and make a reduction (by half). Then I added a large can of crushed tomatoes and a well rinsed can of red kidney beans. Simmer for ten, garnish with a bit of freshly grated Parmesan and a side of cornbread (with bits of actual corn in!) Time for the taste test!

First bite and I'm thinking, "How have I gone my entire life without this amazing beer-ific chili?" Second bite and I'm thinking, "OMG! Maybe one chipotle pepper would have been enough!" All in all, this recipe is awesome and amazingly delicious, easy to make (30 minutes or less!) and was a fun flavor adventure. I highly recommend this one to everyone!

(Thank you Food Network recipe calendar!)

My First Cooking Show

So maybe you're already wondering, "What's a Cooking Show?". You're lucky I'm such a nice lady, I'll tell you what it is! When I talk about a Cooking Show I'm referring to going to someone's house and preparing a meal in 30 minutes or less in front of a group of people, usually mostly women. During the show I explain how to use and why I use the tools I'm using. Why would I do this? I sell Pampered Chef products, the most amazing things that can happen to your kitchen! :D

In any case, my first Cooking Show was at my own home, just in case I chopped off a finger I would know where my first aid kit is! I invited all sorts of people, and practiced the recipe the day before by making it and feeding it to my husband, while he pretended to be a guest. He won two cookbooks and played with all the gadgets I used. Then he got to eat the little pizzas I made, so he had a good night!

So the day of the show comes, and at first I was really nervous, I'm wondering what was I thinking to sign up for this? I started cooking, and I started talking, and before I knew it the pizzas were baking and I was playing a game with my guests - I asked them their favorite fruit and vegetable and recommended Pampered Chef (PC) tools that could make preparing that food item easier or faster. I remembered how much I loved public speaking and how easy it is (I was a competitive public speaker in high school through an amazing program called Forensics) it was fun and natural to talk to this crowd, even if it was a small crowd of people I know.

Apparently my demonstration was a hit, and so was the fruit and vegetable game, because those were the top selling items! I was really pleased with how well I explained the Round Up From the Heart program (you round up your change and it is donated to Feeding America: http://feedingamerica.org/) because EVERYONE chose to round up!

When I started I didn't have high hopes for making money, and that hasn't really changed. What has changed is that I think I might really enjoy this. I've always loved cooking, I wanted to be a chef, open a restaurant or be a caterer. The thought that someone might not like my cooking, send me back a plate of food or special order something so it doesn't even resemble the original meal made me not want to do these things. Now, I get to do something I love for people, with none of those concerns. If I'm lucky, I'll more than break even, and if I'm not, I get to play with food and kitchen toys and meet new people.

Happy Cooking!