Comfort in a Bowl

I made this soup the other day to take to my friends house. She had a baby about a month ago (her fourth) so I wanted to bring her a dinner. I made her a big pot of this chili one evening and put it in the fridge to chill overnight so the flavors could get to know each other and marry.
I tried a little bit of this soup to make sure it tasted okay, then ended up serving myself up a whole bowlful because it was so good.
Then, circumstances made it impossible for me to visit her on the day I had planned, so now I have a whole pot of soup to enjoy. Next week when I try to visit again, I will have to make it again - but that's okay, because it is pretty fast and easy-peasy. It is so delicious and oh - so- comforting!

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth

1 (18.75 ounce) can stewed tomatoes

1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chilis

1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 bag frozen corn

1 pound diced, cooked chicken meat

1 (15 ounce) can white beans

1 pinch salt and black pepper to taste

1. Heat oil, and cook onion and garlic until soft.
2. Stir in broth, tomatoes, and spices. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add corn, chicken, and beans; simmer 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

New Family Favorite Chili

I got this chili recipe from my MIL. Peter told me last night that it is the best chili he has ever had. It is currently my favorite chili, too! The ketchup gives it just the slightest sweet flavor. I've been enjoying this chili with macaroni noodles in it, but it's delicious as is, too. Also I didn't used any green pepper simply because we didn't have any.

Yankee Chili
(I don't know where the recipe originally came from...)
2 T oil
2 med onions, diced
1 sm green pepper, chopped
1 fat garlic clove, minced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 1/2 lbs ground beef (I only used 1 lb)
2 c canned tomatoes (I just used one can)
1/2 c ketchup
1 T (or more) chili powder (I used a heaping T)
1 t cumin
1 t dried marjoram
1 t dried oregano
Tabasco sauce (didn't have any)
salt
2 c canned kidney beans (any kind of bean will do)

Brown ground beef. Saute onions, pepper, garlic and celery in oil until softened. Add meat. Stir in tomatoes + juice. Add ketchup and spices. Sprinkle lightly with tabasco and salt. Simmer about an hour. Adjust chili powder and tabasco to suit your taste. *Set aside to let the flavors blend. Add drained beans about 20 minutes before serving. Heat and serve as is or over rice or macaroni.

*Um, I didn't do this part.
-Also note that like any chili recipe this can totally be suited to fit your needs. The first time I made it I used a can of condensed tomato soup because that was all we had!

Turkey Chili

I love the spice of chili, but I don't like beans. It's a texture thing for me. So, I finally have come up with a great recipe sans beans, and it's healthier than regular chili because it is made with ground turkey, not ground beef. Now, I'm sure you could substitute ground beef, but the ground turkey in this is delicious. Hope you all try it and like it!

Turkey Chili

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
2 1/2 pounds ground turkey (85 percent lean) or ground turkey breast (99 percent lean), 2 packages
4 tablespoons dark chili powder, 2 palm fulls
2 tablespoons grill seasoning blend, any brand, 1 palm full
1 tablespoon cumin, 1/2 palm full
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 to 3 tablespoons hot sauce, medium to extra-spicy
1 large onion, quartered
2 large peppers, any color combination, red, green, purple, yellow or orange, chopped
1/2 bottle beer (the alcohol cooks out), about 1 cup
1 (14-ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup smoky barbecue sauce
2 cups corn kernels, optional

Heat a pot over medium to medium high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil, 3 turns of the pan, and the turkey meat. Season the meat with: chili powder, grill seasoning, cumin, Worcestershire and hot sauce. Break up the meat with the back of a wooden spoon into small crumbles.
Chop the onion, reserving 1/4 of it for topping the chili. Brown meat 5 minutes, then add onions and chopped bell peppers and cook 10 minutes more. Add beer and deglaze the pan, scraping up the drippings and cooking off the alcohol. Add tomato sauce and barbecue sauce and bring to a bubble. If using corn kernels add them now. Let chili simmer 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings and heat level to your taste. Remove from heat and serve.

Here are some pictures along the way:

must be the season for soup...

I was going to post this yesterday, but I didn't want to snatch the spotlight from that yummy-looking soup of my sister's. So I waited a day.

Chili seems to be a hit around here, so I don't feel bad adding another chili recipe to this list. This wasn't your typical chili, though -- with the addition of pasta, most of the liquid was soaked up, at least in the leftovers. But it was still really good.

Italian-Style Chili

1 lb ground beef
1 jar (26 oz) spaghetti sauce
2 cups of water
2 cups of medium-sized pasta shapes, any kind (I used rotini)
1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium onion, chopped
1/3 c Parmesan cheese, divided
1 Tbsp chili powder

1. Brown meat in large saucepan; drain.

2. Add spaghetti sauce, water, pasta, beans, onion, 1/4 c of cheese, and chili powder. Stir.

3. Cover; cook on medium heat 10 to 12 minutes, or until pasta is tender, stirring occasionally.

4. Sprinkle with remaining cheese just before serving.



Okay, now it's time for Joannie to explain how she could make something so easy turn into a mess . . . it looks really easy, right? And it is . . . unless you only own one pot (I know, who just owns one pot?!) and it's too small for this... It was all okay until I added the sauce and the water, and then I thought, "uh oh..." and my pot was full. I stirred it for awhile, not really sure what I was going to do, but knowing I needed to do something... so I threw what I had mixed (beef, sauce, water) into the crockpot, turned the crockpot on high, then cooked my pasta in my one pot. While my pasta was cooking, I threw the beans, onion, and cheese in the crockpot, and then when the pasta was done, it all went into the crockpot for a good stir. Tada! Like Anne said, you can't mess up chili. I think I need to buy another pot, though...

Hoosier Chili

I posted a while ago about wanting to find a good chili recipe and I've found it! A friend let me borrow a really cool cookbook. It’s written by a woman who grew up on an Indiana farm in the 1950s, when horses still plowed the fields and soap and butter were homemade.

2 tbsp of butter
1 large white onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 lb of ground beef
1 28-ounce can of tomatoes
1 46-ounce can of tomato juice
1 lb can of kidney beans, drained
¼ tsp of sugar
½ tsp of ground cumin
To taste:
Ground red pepper
Chili powder
Salt & pepper

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet and sauté’ onion and garlic until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add 1 pound of ground beef and cook over a high heat, breaking up the meat into bite-size chunks, for 7 to 8 minutes. (This is where I transferred everything to a stock pot then I ->) Add the canned tomatoes, tomato juice, and kidney beans. Season the chili with sugar, ground cumin, and other spices from above. Cover and simmer, stir from time to time, for about an hour.

It seemed like I was using a lot of chili powder but this makes a very nice portion of chili. The seasoning will really just depend on what you want. Daniel loves hot food so this had just enough bite to it, not to much though. I also cubed two potatoes to toss in the chili and everyone seemed to really like it.

Recipe from Memories of a Midwestern Farm by Nancy Hutchens. I'm also going to try her recipe "Get you a husband Apple Pie". Since my soon-to-be husband’s favorite desert is apple pie I thought this sounded perfect.

Beer Cheddar Soup and Chili- not together of course..

Ok so i've been astray for a tad, so I'm playing catch up here..

To whomever was looking for a great chili recipe, I just made a white chicken chili last week and it was incredible. I enjoyed it better than beef chili. I made an enormous pot of it and me and four of my girlfriends ate almost all of it! It is a modified version of a chicken chili receipe from the Silver Palette cookbook. My mom had recommended searching for it (online) that way. I guess The Silver Palette is a well-known cookbook? Maybe not so much to us newbie cooks! since I am at work, I just googled the recipe and found it again, so we'll see how well it copies.

First some thoughts on the recipe:

1) It calls for the chicken to be cubed and sauted, but my mom took liberties and went a different route. (she cooked the chicken, I made the chili). She placed the breasts on a baking pan, sprinkled them with a little salt and pepper and drizzled them with olive oil and baked them . Then instead of cutting them into cubes, we shredded them and threw them in the pot.
This might help little ones with small teeth? ;)

2) the end of the recipe calls for adding chocolate. My mom who has been cooking for many years, does not recmmend this. It's your call. We did not use it.

3) I do not like peppers, so we skipped that step, I think I substituted a can of different beans instead, to make up for the food mass loss. I recommend chickepeas...yum yum

4) It calls for adding 1 bottle of beer. I am not a beer drinker, but the flavor was actually quite wonderful, not overpowering at all (due to the massive amount of food you're about ot make). We used LaBat Blue (I think tha'ts how you spell it. Nothing fancy.

Ok-enough already, here it is:

Modified from The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook

In a dutch oven heat 3 tablespoons of oil and brown:

3 pounds chicken breasts, skinned, boned, cut into 1" cubes
Set the chicken aside. In the same dutch oven heat 3 tablespoons of oil and sauté for 5 minutes:

5 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 large onion chopped coarsely
Add and sauté for additional 10 minutes:

2 sweet red peppers, diced
4 jalapeño peppers, diced
Stir in and cook for 5 minutes:

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Pinch ground cinnamon
In the dutch oven add the chicken and:

1 28-ounce cans of puréed tomatoes
2 15-ounce cans pinto or cannellini beans
1 bottle beer
Simmer for 30 minutes then add:

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
salt, to taste

Okay, also I am looking for agood Beer Cheddar Soup. I just tried making it on Tuesday night and failed miserably, I think because I didn't let the soup cool enough before adding teh milk and c heese and I think they curdled... :( :( This is the SECOND time this has happend when Itry to make this soup. Another problem, I perfer thick soup, and soups that have been pureed. This recipe called for potatoes , carrots, celery an onions nad beans. We didn't have potatoes, carrots or celery , so I just put in a TON of onions and beans, but it wasn't enough to get it really thick when pureed. I don't like cooked carrots and we don't eat the white potatoes much because it's too much white carbs. So i am looking for a recipe that calls for other added food items that I could try. any suggestions??


thanks ladies!!! Anne, I hope I did the post the label thing right..

Scrap Chili

It could also be called Red and White Chili - a little bit of ingredients for red chili, a little bit for white chili.

I'm to the point in the kitchen where there are very few food items left and really no money to go grocery shopping. So dinner today...interesting. I did brown 3 whole pounds of ground beef the other day, so that it would be ready to use. So I threw it in the slow cooker along with a can of whole tomatoes, a can of white navy beans, 1/2 an onion, some chili powder, cumin and oregano. Oh yeah, and I threw in the rest of some shredded cheese - a mix of mozzarella and Parmesan instead of the usual cheddar. The result is pretty good. I was going to be really creative and make a cornbread mix to cook on top of it, you know, like the dumplings on top of chicken and dumplings, but I'm not that brave. And I didn't want to ruin the chili if it didn't work. So if I do make some cornbread it will be in the oven like always.

Now for dinner the rest of the week...I'll have to get creative. That and make the meals that I had planned to make last week but didn't make because we went out to eat.