Sound the Alarm...

...  My family was spared from the flooding in South Carolina praise be to God!  My sister said that she went to the store to get all the fixin's for a pot of chili to hunker down with during the "deluge"; and the store was void of Kidney Beans! Everyone must have been making chili! Chili is one of my favorite comfort foods, and as I go through my handwritten cookbooks I find more recipes for chili than anything else.  I'm straining my brain to remember if I had a chili I didn't like...hum...nope!

Chili is a personal food don't you think?  Once Hubby & I went to a dinner party toting a pot of my chili, as did everyone else! A Chili Cook Off. We all ate a small bowl each others chili, a blind tasting, only the hostess knew who's was who's.  Our own being obvious to us, we still ate it like it was anonymous. We had planned to pick a winner, but no one could pick the best chili, I know I honestly couldn't. Each was a winner in it's own way!  It was so fun to see & taste how different each pot was and how personal it was.

 We have no rain (please pray) but now I have a hankerin' for chili.

All this hunkering & hankering Cowboy talk is making me want chili!...

5 Alarm Chili!

 

 

 

 

 

Yes those are tortilla chips! About an oz of chips. I have also used 2 corn tortillas. They add great flavor & also thicken up the chili.  I blended them with spices, (chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, 1 tbsp. ketchup & sugar) with large can of tomatoes. My favorite is whole tomatoes but I used a can of diced, so it made the chili thicker. I got lazy and didn't fire roast the peppers but it's so much better if you take the time to do that. The dark chilies are dried, which I soaked in 2 cups of hot water before adding those to the tomatoes in the blender as well.  I use the water from this soak in the chili. (brown liquid in measuring cup) Again I was lazy and just left the skins on to get every bit of pepper.  Normally I make with ground beef but I had this marbled piece of meat that I knew was going to be tasty and tender.  I always get my pot beyond hot before adding my room temperature meat. It should stick where it lands and I don't touch it until I can see that it's good & browned. This adds so much flavor. It's surprisingly not as hot as it would seem but I can eat fire so....

With chili I love warm tortillas or cornbread but for this one...

Pass the thick & chewy & crunchy San Francisco Sourdough Garlic Bread please!

Grab that spoon! Dare to Have A Bite ?

I Like it Hot!...

......

 (I think those are 2 knitting needles. hahaha)

For the past few months I have been making a big pot of veggie soup every week.  I don't care if it's getting hot either! Today I plopped a big yellow hot pepper & special garbanzo beans into the pool. The broth was so good as you can see I already need to add water to this and I made it this morning.  The beans & the pepper really pumped up what may have turned out to be ordinary.  I love how every pot of veggie soup has it's own personality and I think each pot gets better and better until it's gone. I have been reheating the soup on the stove instead of the microwave. Just like Mom used to do. :) I now season each pot with extra virgin olive oil. 

The garbanzo beans (chickpeas) in today's pot were cooked from dried beans. I used a Punjabi recipe whereby you cook them with some olive oil, a big pinch of baking soda (amuses me to watch it foam), a tea bag, 1" piece of cinnamon stick & 2 cardamon pods. I added 2 cloves of garlic & salt.  I think it makes them taste a little like boiled peanuts and I love boiled peanuts, no one else thinks so, but I can dream a bit, nonetheless it makes them good! Try it!  I may try it with some other beans as well just to see what happens. 

Why all the soup? The past few months I have been eating vegetarian mostly. I have eaten a few bites of meat- very few and I do eat eggs and cheese.  I haven't really missed meat - except for chicken. I love chicken like Forrest Gump liked shrimp, however, even that is getting less appealing.  It's an attempt to get a little healthier,  learn how to cook more creatively, and a little bit for my BFF too, who is suffering so much that she can't eat meat. I can share some of the things I cook or can cook for her when I go down.  Sometimes it's easy to get stuck eating the same things all the time when you change your diet. Especially when you are on a diet. Eating vegetarian is way more tasty than I thought it would be.  I saw this show the other night on tv and they said salad is not the healthiest thing to eat when given a choice between a salad and Ham & Cheese Sandwich. People are getting sick from eating unclean salads (bacteria & such) more than any other food. So they compared the risk and for that fact alone the ham & cheese won.  I'll take a cheese & hold the ham :) Grilled cheese :)  I am feeling better and have lost a little weight as well. So yea!  

***

When the waitress in a New York City restaurant brought him the soup du jour, the Englishman was a bit dismayed. 

"Good heavens," he said, "what is this?" 

"Why, it's bean soup," she replied. 

"I don't care what it has been," he sputtered. "What is it now?"

***

If I had some spare time... 

Free Kitchen Vegetable Cross Stitch Pattern 

To Print Click on the Picture to go to link & download.

Make it a great day!

I'm the Only Girl In the World...

... is what my mother said. "You are the only girl in the world that can be sweetened up with jalapeno peppers!" She might be right. They do make me happy! I was grumpy this morning & don't mind admitting it, so Hubby went shopping and returned with this big beautiful bag of peppers. A rose, no thanks, just give me a stinking rose (garlic) and some peppers! ♥♥♥

I made these peppers last week and they were devoured in abouth 48 hours. Not exaggerating. (I'm not the only pepperhead around here ) I will admit I probably ate 1/2 of them. I hope you make some. They aren't as hot as you might think! After slicing I put them in a big bowl of cold water, which rinsed them and removed a lot of the seeds but I did not try to remove the seeds when packing them.

20 large Jalapenos
6 large cloves of Garlic

Thinly sliced not chopped

3 TBS sugar & 5 TBS of White Vinegar

5 Cups of boiling salty water ( 5 C water + 3 TBS salt)

And the clock starts ticking...

Sweet Sunny Spicy Spanish Guitar kind of Day

Yes it's 100 outside but you know I like it hot! Red Pork Chili Colorado, Fry Bread & Yellow Lemon Buttercreams. Yum.

I had some beautiful chops but was craving something spicy & saucy even though it is hot. This is great though because it's simple and you don't have to stand in a hot kitchen fussing over it. This is just 4 large chops cut in big chunks, browned, 2 chicken boullion, just enough water to cover and 1/2c spaghetti sauce (I didn't have 1/2 can of tomato paste but this came out great), 1/2 large yellow onion slices really thinly, 4 cloves of grated garlic, 2 tbsp of chili powder, 1 tbsp of cumin. Stewed for about 2 hours or until pork is tender. Simple and so so good.

I'm experimenting with a fry bread recipe. I'm really trying to work that one out for my son who is thinking about getting a gourmet food truck. I started with a "biga" as though I were making a foccacia bread. I hope it turns out. It looks bubblalicious right now. I will repost a picture to this post if it comes out good so stay tuned. Is there "bad" bread? ...I don't think so!

Don't these lemon buttercreams look so sunny and summery? They will give you a sunny disposition for sure! I scored a bunch of great Mr. Candy molds for only $.50 each and they were unopened and brand new. (Thrift store, I donate then buy stuff. hahaha) I got this sunflower, a frog, pineapple, seashell, rose w/ leaf, turtle, leaf, and shamrock. When I got them I thought I would use them for clay but the recipe looked so easy, and my guys have sweet teeth, so I tried it. The guys loved them and I'm all for easy. If you come to visit you will get these on your pillow and I am now planning to make some for Christmas packages. Peppermint extract is now on my shopping list. Don't worry you don't need a mold to make these buttercreams! You can roll the dough into thin logs and cut into equal pieces or roll them into balls. This would be great for kids to do too! I hope you give this yummy recipe a try.

Buttercream Candies

1 box of powdered sugar

1/4 cup of melted butter

10 drops of food color

1/4 tsp of extract or flavoring - I used lemon extract

Work with hands to dough that sticks together, then roll into log or press into a candy mold. Place on wax paper or parchment paper. Dry for 1 hour then turn over and dry on other side.
Store in cool place. These can be frozen up to 3 months.

Thank You beautiful Charo for helping me have fun while cleaning my kitchen! So Caliente!

A Real Hottie

If you are a regular visitor, family or friend, you know how much I love hot food & salsa! I love Chipotle, a chain of gourmet burrito shops. When I was working, in the corporate cubicle, if I would to able to get out for lunch, my likely destination was usually Chipotle. I can't finish an entire burrito bowl, which is what I normally order, that's because I'm too busy scarfing up the chips & salsa. Now that I work from home, almost a recluse, I hardly ever get to go. Recently my Hubby took me there and boy was it soooo good. This time I paid attention and deconstructed the salsa best I could. I decided I'd give it a try at home. OMgosh. I think I've got it or I've got it just as good or better! I literally made a bucket of it! I'm so addicted. I'll be putting it on everything now! I started by putting a bag of dried Arbol peppers into 3 cups of water. I boiled them for about 15 minutes. I put 20 El Mexicano Tomatillos in the blender with 3 cloves of garlic & 1 C - very loosely packed of Arbol peppers , 1/2 cup of tomatillo liquid and approx 1 tsp salt. I pureed until smooth. It's so easy & so delicious! I'm pretty jazzed that it tastes almost identical to Chipotle's hot salsa. Again, the simplest recipes seem to be the best! Now if only I could figure out Panda Express Gourmet Chinese Food's recipe for eggplant & tofu! ....

It's Chilly

Cold & grey. Hot & red. I'm loving it.

Big shout out goes to Irina's Photos for including my painting in her Etsy Treasury of favorites!

Strung Out on Sriracha

If there was a meeting I'd have to sign up. I love all things hot & spicy but Sriracha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha )is my new drug of choice. It makes everything all right. Tonight I didn't feel like cooking so I pulled out a MichaelAngelo's "Gourmet" (right!) Pizza Snack & popped the carton in the microwave. It was dreadful, like fried cardboard with a microscopic bit of filling. I was about to throw it out, about to try to figure out a quick alternative, then it came to me...just put Sriracha on it and eat it! Not a very nutritious I know but I just couldn't talk myself into preparing anything else. It's one of those days when nothing sounds good. Well the Sriracha did make it edible, however, I could just as well put some sauce in a bowl and eaten that for dinner.
I started eating jalapenos when I was 12 and living in Tucson, AZ. My family & friends were in shock & awe that I could eat them like I did - a large pickled can at a time, carrots and all- and I must admit I liked shocking people but I truly like the peppers too. By the time I was 16 I was encouraged by many to go to the Rosamond, CA Chili Cookoff and participate in the jalapeno eating contest. I never did, I was too shy to do something like that, and why would I want people watching me stuff them in my mouth as fast as possible? Gross! But I know had I gone I would have given someone a run for the championship! Hot peppers don't effect me, if you know what I mean, like they do other people. I couldn't imagine life without hot sauce or hot peppers. I pretty much eat some kind of pepper or hot sauce everyday. They say they are suppose to raise your metabolism, let me tell you that's not true! There is only 1 sauce I have come across that I can't handle and that's Dave's Insanity Sauce. I use it in a spray bottle with water to spray on plants and decks to keep the bugs off! hahaha It works too! Last year I finished a collage cookbook entitled "One Hot Mama's Hot & Spicy Cookbook And Mama Don't Like Crybabies". I gave it to people for Christmas. It's a collection of my own hot sauce recipes, salsa recipes & hot & spicy dishes. My favorite being my "Don't be a Wienie" sauce. One day maybe I'll get up enough nerve to have it printed to sell.

I finished the mermaid commission I was working on and will be getting all my paintings mailed out tomorrow. Then it's off to Michael's! I'll walk off those pizza snacks! I still have some money left on my birthday gift card so while I'm out I'm gonna go see what I can get into & what I can't live without!