This is my chili recipe.  I make it all year long, but it is especially great for Halloween.  It fills up little tummies so they don’t eat too much candy.  It stays warm in the pot or the bowl so you can answer the door for all the little hobgoblins.  It goes really well with the hot mulled wine I pass out in dixie cups to hobgoblin parents.  Oh, and I never seem to have any leftovers.

This year, I made two pots of chili, using a little over 6 lbs of ground beef.  I fed nine adults and an unholy number of princesses, ninjas, pirates, knights (historical and jedi), and assorted hobgoblins of all shapes and sizes.  I also served cornbread with it, and goldfish crackers for one picky daddy.

Okay, so the recipe.  Please remember, this is all according to taste.  Your chili powder may be spicier or weaker than mine, and your hobgoblins may like more or less flavor in their chili, so doctor it up to suit your needs.

Chili:

1 lb ground beef
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
1 or 2 cans of beans, drained and rinsed.  I like kidney or black beans – use whatever you like, and the amount depends on how “beany” you like your chili)
1 large sweet onion, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, diced
3+ Tbl chili powder (start with 3 and add more as needed)
1 Tbl adobo seasoning blend (a blend of oregano, cumin, garlic, black pepper, and a few other things)
1+ tsp cayenne pepper (again, as your family likes it)
1 Tbl cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 handful tortilla chips

In a big ol’ pot brown the ground beef along with the onions and garlic.  Drain off the excess fat and put it back in the pot.  Add the 2 cans of tomato stuffs.  Dump in the spices, stir it around, and give it a taste?  Does it taste like chili?  Great.  Too spicy?  Add another can of tomatoes.  Too weak?  Add more spices.  This is chili folks, not rocket science. 

Let it simmer for a good while.  At least 20 minutes, a few hours if you have the time.  Give it a stir periodically so it doesn’t burn.  Add the beans and the tortilla chips.  Stir again and let it cook a little longer, until you can’t see the chips anymore.

Serve with corn bread.  I like to offer shredded cheese and sour cream as accompaniments, but you do what makes you happy.

Chili is love.

• 4 russet potatoes, washed and diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 QT homemade smoked chicken stock
• 1 bottle good ale
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used sharp cheddar and swiss)
• dash Tabasco
• dash Worcester sauce

Saute the onion in some olive oil until soft and golden.  Add the garlic and potatoes and saute some more.  Pour in the stock to cover everything.  Add 1/2 the beer.  Drink the rest.  Add the dashes of sauces, and then salt and pepper to taste.  Let it simmer until the potatoes are nice and soft.  Add the cream, and then the cheese in handfuls making sure each is fully melted before you add the rest.

Serve with biscuits.  Oh, and a salad, which I forgot until 1/2 way through dinner.

We had the most wonderful Thanksgiving.  Everything was amazing.  People got along.  We discussed a lot of Charlie Sheen.  Oh, and we drank an amazing amount of eggnog.  We survived (with my cold, my survival was in question there for a bit), and wonder of wonders, as of 9:20 Friday morning, all of the dishes are done!  I even have turkey stock cooling already.

So, a rundown.

Soup we had a soup course for the first time this year, mom made a delicious lobster bisque.  I like this tradition!

Turkey I brined the bird overnight, stuffed a compound butter under the skin all over, and shoved an onion and an apple up the birds tush.  Then I baked it at 350F for 3.5 hours.  It was perfect.  Moist, flavorful, delicious.  I was wishing I made a bigger bird it was so good!

Mashed Potatoes Mom found a recipe for make ahead mashed potatoes, and I have to admit I was a bit wary, but they were delicious!  Creamy, soft, not heavy at all.  Very impressive.

Stuffing We had two stuffings, both made by my mom (is she amazing or what?)  Oyster stuffing, with the words biggest oysters ever yum! I didn’t get a chance to try the cornbread stuffing, but it looked and smelled delicious.

Sweet Potatoes Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes, inspired by The Pioneer Woman.  They weren’t pretty, but were mighty tasty.  Those leftovers will be served as tonight’s side dish.

Ratatouille My sister was in charge of veggies this year, and her ratatouille was delicious.  It was also beautiful until I scooped it out of the carefully layered pyrex pan to put it into a serving bowl.  My bad.  Ratatouille may be the perfect thanksgiving veggie.  It’s colorful, satisfying, and way lighter than a casserole.

Carrots Just to add some variety (and even more color to our rainbow table), my brother in law made creamy carrots from the Julie Child school of thought.  I know it’s hard to improve on simple carrots, but the addition of a ton of butter and heavy cream took these carrots from pedestrian to out of this world amazing.  Those left overs are all mine.  I packaged them up first and hid them in the back of my fridge.  My lunch today is just going to be creamy carrots.

Cranberry Sauce I kept it simple and just followed the recipe on the bag, adding a bit of orange juice, a cinnamon stick, and a pinch of aleppo pepper.  So good.  I wish I had some of the rolls left over to spread this on for breakfast!

Rolls Oh, cannot forget these!  My sister made crescent rolls, from scratch.  Sure beats the hell out of anything from Pillsbury!

I feel like I’m missing something from my rundown, because my table was groaning under the weight of all the food.  It was all so good.

Wish you were here!

Well, I’m off to start tonight’s pot roast and get my Challah going.  Shabbat waits for no-one this time of year!

I’m not sure what to call this.  The original idea was sort of Spanish inspired, but my ingredients were more Italian.  It turned out more like a French cassoulet, but there was no duck.  It could be a cholent, except for the non-kosher meat, and the fact that it cooked for a few hours, not 18.  So, let’s just call it really good.  Because that, it definitely was.

1 lb hot Italian sausage (the kind you put in spaghetti), uncooked, and cut into slices
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 red bell peppers, rough chopped
1 can cannelini beans
1 can red beans
1/2 carton chicken stock
2 medium bunches kale
3 Tbl raw white rice

In a medium size dutch oven, or other heavy stove and oven safe pot, brown the sausage.  Don’t cook it through, just get it started.  Add the onion and the garlic, stirring to get everything started.  Once the onions have softened, add the peppers.  Stir again.  Drain and rinse the canned beans, and add them to the pot.  Pour in the stock, to just barely cover everything.

Pop it all into the oven at 350F and bake (covered) for a few hours.  Seriously, this isn’t exact.  If you have 30 minutes, that will do.  If you have all day, it just gets better as it cooks.

20 minutes before you want to serve, chop the kale and add that to the pot.  It will look like it won’t all fit.  Just give it a good few stirs.  The kale will wilt and everything will be perfect.  Toss in the rice, give it one last stir, and put it back in the oven, covered for another 20 minutes.

It sounds simple, and plain.  It is anything but.  Please, if you are only going to try one recipe of mine, make it this one!

I know, two recipes in a row.  I’m working on a big give-away post though, so just hang in there!

• 2 acorn squashes
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1 beef polish style sausage (substitutes could include andouille, Italian sausage, or any other flavorful meat you like.  I suppose leftover ham or bacon could work too), diced.
• 2/3 cup cooked broccoli, chopped
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 5 (or so) dried tomatoes (sun dried are great, I just used dehydrated), diced
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Carefully slice the squash in half and clean out the seeds and stringy parts.  Sprinkle with salt.  Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute the onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil. Combine the rice, sausage, broccoli, tomatoes, and spices in a large bowl.  Get the onions nice and starting to brown around the edges.  Add them to the rice and stir everything together to combine.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Gently spoon the rice stuffing into the squash, being careful to not smush it down.  Return everything to the oven and bake for another 20 minutes until a fork slides easily into the squash.

Serves four adults, or two adults and two toddlers with one squash 1/2 left over for Mama’s lunch the next day.

A yummy, healthy version of homemade baked mac n’ cheese.  You can’t beat this one folks!

• 2 Tbl butter
• 2 Tbl flour
• 1 Tbl mustard
• 1 small onion, diced fine
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup shredded cheese (whatever your favorites are, mix em up, but please use real cheeses, not pasteurized processed cheese food)
• 1 box elbow macaroni (I use whole grain)
• 1 can pumpkin
• 1/4 crushed crackers, or bread crumbs

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the macaroni according to the package instructions, subtracting one minute of cooking time.  Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375F. When the pasta is done, drain it but do not rinse.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter.  Once it is all melted, stir in the flour.  Now you have to work fairly quickly here.  Stir constantly and get all the flour incorporated so that you have a paste.  Then add the mustard and onion.  Again, stir it up as fast as you can.  We don’t want to overcook our roux!  Once everything is combined, pour in the milk and turn the heat down to medium.  Stir constantly until the sauce thickens.  Do not let it boil.  Add the cheese in small portions, making sure each is fully melted before the next addition.  When all of the cheese is melted into the sauce, turn the heat down as low as it goes.

Put the drained pasta back into the big pot.  Add the canned pumpkin.  Pour the cheese sauce over the whole shebang and combine.  Once it is all mixed up, scoop it into a 9×13 pan (I like pyrex, but whatever you have will work). Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and bake for 30-45 minutes until everything is hot, bubbly, and the crumbs are slightly browned.

Serve with a green salad.

I didn’t meal plan for two weeks because we were on vacation for a good part of them, but now the world is back to normal, and so I meal plan again!

Monday: Homemade chicken pot pie (the chicken is leftover from Shabbat and the veggies are cleaning out the gleanings from my crisper drawer), and melon

Tuesday: Leftover smoked brisket from Sunday night, pasta salad, zucchini bread

Wednesday: Omelets with cheese, veggies, and possibly whatever other leftovers we have around the house

Thursday: DH and kids will either have pizza or Mac n Cheese as I will be having dinner out and a night at a hotel with my mom before she does the 3-Day 60 mile Komen Walk to raise money for Breast Cancer Research.

Shabbat: I haven’t decided what I’m serving this week as both my mom and sister will be gone at the walk.  We may have take-out actually.

Sunday: Pasta with leftover lemon-oregano chicken from Shabbat, kale, onions and cream sauce

Monday: Lasagna, garlic bread, salad

Tuesday: Hamburgers and a variety of salads (bean, potato, green, etc) depending on my mood

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Grilled steaks, corn on the cob, caprese salad

Shabbat: Not my week to cook, I just bake the challah!

Monday: Sushi! 

Tuesday: Leftover chicken from the 4th, sauteed kale with garlic and tomatoes, mashed potatoes

Wednesday: I somehow doubt I’ll get to SnB (even though I really miss it), so let’s plan Breakfast for Dinner!  Pancakes, scrambled eggs, fruit salad

Thursday: Leftover brisket from the 4th (if there is any left), spinach salad, biscuits.  If the brisket is all gone by Thursday we’ll have fish instead.

Shabbat: Fresh homemade challah, gazpacho, roasted chicken with lemon, roasted veggies, double baked potatoes, pie

Sunday: Smoked brisket and chicken, coleslaw, potato salad, corn on the cob

Monday: Mac n Cheese (I wasn’t feeling well)

Tuesday: Chicken tacos, salsa, guacamole, rice, beans

Wednesday: I’m supposed to go to SnB, but somehow I doubt I’ll be able to get a night off, so let’s plan a dinner this week! Salad with grilled salmon

Thursday: Indian curry with veggies, garbanzo beans, and shrimp over brown rice

Shabbat: Not my week to cook!  All I’m responsible for is the challah. 

Saturday: Leftovers!

Sunday: 4th of July Fiesta at our house!  Smoked brisket and chicken (now that we have good recipes), chips and dips, coleslaw, potato salad, bean salad, spinach dip with Hawaiian bread, lemonade, sun tea, hard lemonade, and whatever our guests bring too!