Ensayo Chili

I love New Years. It's one of my most favorite holidays. Probably my second favorite. Thanksgiving is my favorite,obviously. It is all about the food. None of this stressful decorating/present wrapping nonsense. If you couldn't have gotten that right on a quiz about me you haven't been paying attention. I love the promise that a new year brings, the potential for anything to happen. I love new lists and goals- I love new starts. This year one of my resolutions was to branch out in my cooking more from Italian, which is my go to. I could experiment with pasta sauces for the next fifteen years. On January 1st I made a stuffed pork loin. Not worth the effort at all. On January 2nd, I made this chili. It was super fun to concoct and delicious! Don't be freaked out by the number of ingredients, it's not overly difficult. If the adobo pepper process freaks you out, I'll give you an alternate because that's a silly thing to stop you from eating this deliciousness.

If you are kind of a rookie, maybe do this adobo prep the day before to avoid getting overwhelmed and giving up. It isn't hard but it is a little time consuming. I did the whole can at once so I don't have pictures, because in January I wasn't blogging. I know. Can all 5 of you imagine not being able to read this blog?? Your poor, sad lives. BUT it was soooo nice today to just pull the ziploc bag out of the freezer and do zero work. I should have put this paragraph below my explanation but I was afraid my less adventurous ones would just give up and stop reading. DON'T.

Buy one can of chipotle chiles in adobo. Wear gloves. Pull out the chiles, slice them open, and get the seeds out. If I remember correctly (keep in mind this was 10 months ago) I used a paper towel to kind of wipe the seeds out. Put all the sauce and seeded chiles in a food processor and puree. Done! Now just freeze in a ziploc bag and you can break off chunks of your icey chile peppers whenever you need it! If this absolutely freaks you out I GUESS just use some dried crushed red pepper but just don't freak out okay?? You can handle this. It's just not that big of a deal. And later you can just all casual to a friend be like, "yeah I just keep my chipotle chiles pureed in the freezer for when I need them" and sound like a total foodie. 

Now. Time for the ACTUAL recipe. This is a big big batch. You could half it for a small crowd. But why? Just freeze the leftovers for next time you're tired. 

Ingredients
2 tbsp chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1 jalepeno, pretty finely chopped
6 cups beef stock (I use bullion cubes. I made 6 cups like the instructions say, but then add one extra cube to make it richer)
2 tbsp oil (corn, vegetable, olive, it doesn't matter)
12 oz bacon, chopped
4 lb of ground beef
1/2 c Worcestershire

8 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 small onions, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tbsp cumin
3 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 dashes of cinnamon

24 oz Negra Modelo beer or some other dark beer

28-30oz diced tomatoes, not drained
6 tbsp cornmeal
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp lime juice

Chop EVERYTHING before you start. In a saucepot, heat the beef stock, jalepeno and chipotle puree until it starts to simmer. Turn down to low and let it do its thing while you work.

Simmering peppers in beef stock

Note: I am the world's biggest baby about spicy food and scary movies. If you love spicy, this is not the recipe for you. Increase your chipotle if you're one of those weirdos who likes their lips to feel like they've been pricked by a thousand tiny needles.

In your biggest soup pot, heat the oil over medium and once it's hot, add the chopped bacon. You don't need it to get crispy, just done, because it's kind of going to disappear in the chili anyway. Just get it cooked through. Next, add the ground beef, salt and pepper to taste, and Worcestershire at the same time. Cook it through. You may have to drain it, you may not. It just depends on how much grease is in it. Use your judgement.

Making meat look not gross is impossible.

I'm sorry.

Turn your heat down to medium low, add everything from garlic to cinnamon. See how I conveniently grouped the ingredients for you? I'm so thoughtful. Cook everything until the onions get soft.

Chopped onions and garlic.

I am absolutely immune to the smell of raw onions. But I promise you, this one blew my mind. Eyes burning as if I'd been sprayed with pepper spray. I was turning my head away and making faces as if I was being operated on with no anesthesia. And I know you love the embarrassing pictures. I mean who wouldn't want to see my hair like this? Sorry you can't see how much eyes are watering but this was my face of pure pain. This is how I appear any given Saturday. #blessed

Next, add the beer and turn up the heat to medium high. Let it reduce down a little. There is no science to this, you could skip reducing altogether and it would be fine.

Kroger is not paying me to advertise their honey.

After reducing, add everything in the last set of ingredients. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for 45 minutes.

My Aunt Pam taught me a super cool trick for measuring honey.Spray the measuring spoon with cooking spray. I really wanted to make a pun with Pam since it's my aunt's name but I'll spare you. The honey just slides right out! I was amazed. But I'm pretty easily amazed. I like to think of it as endearing and not silly.

Top with shredded cheese, sour cream, lime wedges, or serve over chips. Get crazy. Go with your gut.  I prefer just cheese but you can eat whatever makes you happy.

Enjoy your deliciousness. Freeze your leftovers if there are any.

So this particular resolution yielded an awesome recipe. Only two more months until we get to make them all again! What's a resolution you've kept??

Guest Post Friday: Ode to Basil by the wickedly funny Robin Cochran

Robin is back for Guest Post Friday!! I can't explain to y'all how accurately she is portraying our delusional dreams of being adorably southern on TV. We are absolutely insane. And also, THAT BOOK. I bought it after staring at hers for multiple hours and have given it to my other favorite foodie, my Uncle Sid. You need it. Everyone with a refrigerator needs it.

After I got married a million years ago, I suddenly became responsible for providing meals on a daily basis for my husband, and I had to learn how to cook. There was a time in our early marriage when I would brown ground beef and add a box of Hamburger Helper and feel like I had really accomplished something in the kitchen. And let’s be real - I HAD. I successfully fed myself and my husband. I followed directions on a box and combined ingredients. And no one got sick people rarely got sick in the aftermath of my cooking. 

My cooking has come a long way since then. I don’t know what prompted it, other than me just being tired of cooking the same stuff every single week (“Thursday is frozen pizza night!”). But somewhere along the way, I started loving to cook. I guess it became a way that I could be creative. I obsessively watched the Food Network and tried to remember all of the tricks and tips that I saw the professional TV chefs show me. I tried to pay attention to what ingredients “paired nicely.” I was constantly looking for new recipes to try. I would think for days about my menu plan for the coming week. I was always on the lookout for a great new cookbook. I geeked out so hard on food and cooking that for my birthday one year, I asked my husband for this book:

This book. A friend from Huntsville who is a chef recommended this book to me when I sat beside him during Wednesday night dinner at church and asked him a thousand questions about being a chef and culinary school and what great recipes he was using…this book is what he calls the “Culinary Bible” - and IT. IS. AWESOME.

When I met Whitney and we discovered our mutual love of food/cooking, we immediately clicked because we could always discuss our plans for dinner, what recipes we had tried that worked/didn’t work, bounce ideas off of one another, etc. Whitney and I even invented this thing called “Cook-Along” where we get together and one of us teaches the other our “go to” recipes. (Let’s be honest, we both have this daydream that we are actually on the Food Network, displaying our cute southern charm as well as our best kitchen secrets as people in our live studio audience smile at each other and whisper, “aren’t they adorable?” as we teach them how to properly season their oven roasted chicken. But, I digress.)

Through the course of my cooking experiences, I have fallen completely in love with certain ingredients. Whitney talks about her love for ingredients, specifically, almond extract here. Well, this is mine: 

Hello, Beautiful. I bought this locally grown basil from the Farmer's Market that is a few blocks from our house.

That’s it: fresh basil. I love everything about fresh basil. I wish that I could have a basil-scented air freshener for my whole house. Every single chance I get, I use it in cooking. I use basil propaganda to get other friends to use it when they cook. IT’S JUST SO GOOD. I use it when I make marinara sauce; I put it in Alfredo sauce (the recipe I use calls for parsley but YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME); and don’t even get me started on how many different uses I can find for fresh basil pesto (homemade pizza, italian sub sandwiches, toothpaste…ok, maybe not that last one). This ingredient is so versatile and flavorful, it is almost guaranteed to take an average dish to the next level. 

So what about ya’ll? What ingredients are you crazy for? Which ones do you spread propaganda about? 

Cherry Pork Chili

This chili is one of the things I made during my Freezer Meals adventure. I just ate a giant bowl of it and it was AH-mazing. I will absolutely make it again. Also, not hard at all. You can either assemble all of the ingredients into a Ziploc bag and freeze, or make it right away.

Ingredients
3 cups ground pork, browned
1 large red onion, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cumin
16 oz frozen cherries
28 oz crushed tomatoes
1 cup enchilada sauce
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Whether you freeze it or not, cook it in the crockpot on low for 8 hours. I didn't have to add ANYTHING at the end of the day. DELICIOUS. Don't get freaked out the cherries aren't THAT prevalent of a flavor. The recipe serves 8 so I put half in one bag and half in another. I will FOR SURE make this again. I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy stuffing my face.
In conclusion, easy, fast, delicious, no clean up.

WAIT.
Have I told you about crock pot liners yet? If I have just ignore this part. Listen, if you don't use a crock pot liner I can't understand you. Go directly to the store and buy them. If these items didn't exist I would just throw my crock pot away. They are THAT critical. Imagine if after every time you cooked, you just threw the pots and pans away and had nothing to clean up..THAT'S WHAT A CROCK POT LINER ACCOMPLISHES. If you aren't sold by that description you are beyond help.

I can't even think of a good question to end with because I'm just wondering why anyone on earth wouldn't use a crock pot liner. This may keep me up tonight.

NYC Day 2

Day two we slept in just a smidge. I woke up first because my stomach doesn't care if I'm tired; it demands food. So I ate my leftover Carbonara and just relaxed for a little while. We had some pretty intense standing/walking stuff planned on day 2, so the rest was good. 
I say we because OBVIOUSLY Casey and I helped a ton with the planning/prep for this trip. 
I'm almost sure we did SOME work.

Any?? 

.....
Okay we did nothing. But in our defense Laurel likes to plan and she has fancy spreadsheets with ratings called Smith Stars so like really what can these two idiots contribute to that?

The answer is nothing. We can contribute nothing. I mean look at us. Ewww no don't.

While we were on our way to go to the Statue of Liberty we stopped in to a little deli named Stir for lunch. I got a sandwich called the Broadway and it was very interesting. It had tiny chopped up sweet pickles in it, which I HATE. I HATE sweet pickles. But this..it was incredible. It had tiny thin fried onion strings and pastrami and OMG Italian panini heaven.

After that we did a full day of touristy activities. Ellis and Liberty Island were SO fun, especially as we tried to guess how often people per day fell down the stairs of the ferry or dropped their phones in the water. We are super cool people. 

I wish I could explain to you this photo. But I can't. Not the venue. Just enjoy your own questions and laugh.

Did you know ferry rides are windy and impossible to look cute on?

After Jen got off work, we met up with her for dinner. We went to S'MAC, an awesome mac and cheese place.

Watch out for the giant hole in the street. By the door.

I ordered 4 Cheese: Cheddar, Muenster, Gruyere and a touch of Pecorino. Can you blame me? Did you READ that line up? Cheese addicts everywhere rejoice. However, after sampling everyone's, I had a touch of order regret. Don't you hate that? It was only a mild case but still. The thing that was my favorite out of what I tried was Alpine: a Swiss Mac that keeps you coming back for more. Gruyere coupled with its partner in crime, slab bacon. I didn't order because sometimes, and I know there will be naysayers, I think stuff has too much bacon. I love bacon. I really really do. But I don't want all my food to taste like bacon every single meal. The Alpine, however, had the perfect amount of bacon. I should've ordered it. Or built my own. ANYWAY, the 4 Cheese was great too.

After dinner, the four of us split up for the night. Casey and Jen went to a soccer game, and Laurel and I did a random assortment of funtivities, most of which will probably end up on her blog. Some are not fit for the masses on the interwebs. Just kidding. Mostly. Anyway, that night was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip because not only did Laurel and I have SO much fun, but we saw the sun set over the city from the Empire State Building. Absolutely magical. There are no words. We were exhausted and looked like death and they wouldn't let us sit down inside while we waited on sunset but oh my gosh you guys. SO worth it.

Best. Night. Ever.

A little bit mesmerized.

Day 2 ended with me watching Friends (my ALL TIME favorite show) IN NEW YORK, on a couch, eating hummus, with one of my favorite people on the couch next to me. It was one of those times where you just love your life more than you thought you ever could. Tell me some surreal and simple moment where you were unbelievably happy! Not when you won the lottery or something crazy, just one of those blissful sweet moments.

Empire State Building

Freezer Meals

My life is crazy. My schedule is crazy. I help take care of a lot of people. Even though I wish I could just spend 3 hours cooking dinner ever night and experimenting with new flavors and techniques and ingredients..I have way too much to do for all that. I took a little leaf of out my friend Laurel's play book and decided to make some freezer meals (basically I want to be just like her when I grow up. That is not an exaggeration. Go read her blog.)

Gelato break in NYC

The main resource I used was www.onceamonthmeals.com. I wanted this process to be as fast and painless as possible, so I was looking for things that required no cooking ahead, and could be made in the crock pot. Basically, I wanted to assemble things in a bag and then be able to eat it with zero work later. But you know me, I can't follow instructions. Like at all. So, visit their website for their ideas, and you can see which ones I loved and modified here. I won't be posting anything until I actually eat it, so more will come later.  First up, Pineapple Beef Teriyaki.


Pineapple Beef Teriyaki
20 oz pineapple chunks (if you use canned, don't drain it)
1 1/4 cup red onion, diced
3/4 cup of teriyaki sauce
1 tsp ground ginger
1 cup green bell pepper, sliced
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2.5 pounds of sirloin tips (Original recipe calls for beef stew meat, but we had sirloin tip roast and I cut it up. Use whatever is on sale that week.)

Combine all ingredients and put in gallon freezer storage bags. Label your bag with your instructions: "Thaw & cook on low in crockpot for 7 hours"

A few notes:
-This recipe serves 6, so I divided mine into two bags.
-My pickiest friend in the world loved it so much she made it after she had it when we went to the beach.

The pickiest most wonderful human alive, my friend Jen.

-I served it over rice.
-It tastes better if you freeze it. If you just follow the instructions and cook it, it's good, but not as good as when you freeze it first.
-The first time I made it, I cooked it on high for 4 hours. It was fine. 
-I absolutely, under no circumstances, can I spell teriyaki without spell check/autocorrect.
-Do you have crock pot liner bags? If you don't, I'm about to change your life. Go buy some. You will never have to wash your crock pot again. You will want to abandon any and all stove cooking for a while. Enjoy your crock pot honeymoon.

What do you do when you need to prepare for a busy season of life?

NYC: Intro & Day One

This summer, I was invited on a trip to NYC with some of my very favorite people, Casey & Laurel Smith. The trip was insanely wonderful and busy, and Laurel took crazy amounts of time out of her life to make sure she planned a trip with everything that I wanted to see! I hope you will go read about our adventures on her blog, like that time I made Casey throw the plate. 

On the way home from the airport, Laurel and I decided that I would blog food and she would blog..everything else. That girl takes care of everything. Love you! It was the most fun time and I don't think I can ever say thank you enough to either of you for letting me third wheel your vacation. I mean seriously. Who does that? The Smiths.

Enough with the non-food words. I think the easiest way to explain to you how much awesome food I ate is to tell you about all of it. I literally wrote down EVERYTHING I ate on this trip on a note in my phone. Most of my days revolve around food anyway, but I took it to a new level in the Big Apple. So, without further ado, Day One. 

Breakfast/Travel Food:

Bagel at Starbucks

My free pretzels from airplane. Plus someone else's pretzels because I don't say no to free food.

Lunch/Snack:

We were in line for the Daily Show the entire day pretty much, so we took turns going to this little store on the corner to get lunch. Think a gas station but with no gas pumps. A convenience store I guess you'd say. But it was nice, and they had basically a full sandwich shop. Plus air conditioning. I got an Italian panini that was pretty good but I couldn't finish it because it was sooo hot outside. Good pickle though. 

The Daily Show where we saw MELISSA. MCCARTHY. Just ignore our precious exhausted faces.

Dinner: 

Absolutely, without a doubt, in my top three favorite meals on the trip. See how definitive that was? We were at Mario Batali's Otto restaurant. So incredible. The entire meal was divine from start to finish. For our appetizer, we had a cheese plate that Laurel and her friend Jen (our super generous hostess) had already tried several times. If I went back, I would probably just order cheese over and over until I was full.  It was served with the most AMAZING peppered truffle honey and bread. Since my return, I have literally dipped sliced bread in honey with plain black pepper in it. It's no where near as good..but it's still better than no honey. Just trust me here.

Let's see if I can pull myself out of fantasizing about cheese plates long enough to finish this post.

My entree was Spaghetti alla Carbonara. It was SO good and different from any carbonara I've ever had. The pancetta added this deeper salty flavor that blew my mind. The scallions kept all the flavors from being too heavy..it was perfection in a bowl.

I'm checking flight prices to go back right now.

After dinner, we went to Laurel's favorite place in NYC, Molly's. This is where the infamous plate/shoe throwing occurred. I don't have a giant sweet tooth, but I like cupcakes pretty well. I liked the atmosphere of Molly's more than anything. It was so fun and cute! I had a Lemon Meringue Cupcake, which I didn't even eat until the next day. But Oh. My. Gosh. The icing. It was like if meringue and marshmallow creme (two of my favorite sweet things ever) had a baby. A delicious baby. Incredible. Someone get me a jar of Marshmallow Creme stat.

My eyes are open but it's like I'm not there.

I think this HAS to be pre-plate throwing based on my smile. I don't look embarrassed yet.

Several more NYC posts headed your way...but for those of you who've been, I want to hear the best thing you've ever eaten in NYC!

#collegekitchen

A lot of sweet girls from the student ministry that I work for are growing up. It's so cool because I get to see them turning into these awesome young women who doing some super cool stuff with their lives. Some are starting to cook on their own away at college, some are starting to try their hand in their mom's kitchen. Because we all know food is my love language, I've really wanted to put together a cookbook for them of some of my first ever recipes that I made for myself when I first started cooking. But we also all know that I will never actually get around to that. So girls, you get a blog series. Hope you love it and all it's non-grand gesture glory.

I always grew up around cooking. Both my grandmothers are ridiculously skilled in the kitchen. I've always helped. I even cooked a few things on my own. But I really didn't find my way in the kitchen until about February of my first year of college. I pretty much had eaten all the frozen ravioli, ramen, popcorn, and carrots and ranch that a person can eat. You can't just survive on carrots and ranch. *JIm Gaffigan audience member voice: Hey that's the name of this blog...* While most people in college probably ignore this feeling, the fat kid inside me couldn't let it go. I NEEDED some real food. So, I would call my grandmother, and tell her what I was craving. She'd tell me how to make it, I would write it down. Grocery store run (in my backyard basically. How obsessed do you have to be with food to practically live in a grocery store parking lot? I digress.) Once I had the ingredients, I basically made Mamaw talk me the entire time I cooked it. Kind of like having a cooking instructor. This was critical because she didn't usually have measurements or anything official. Mostly it was, "add in this until it starts to look___" or "just pour a splash of milk in" or "you know, until it looks right." I blame her for my terrible instruction giving skills. Which is funny since I try to WRITE YOU PEOPLE RECIPES.

That's the short version of how I learned to cook back on ol' Reed Street in Tuscaloosa in 20…you don't need to know the year.  Now, my lovelies, I will attempt to help you fill the void in your hearts and stomachs left by moving away from your momma's kitchen. These recipes would be great for any beginner/busy person. If you have already obtained your degree, you are still 100% allowed to make them.


Two Ingredient Pork Chops
1 lb. of pork chops
1 can of sliced peaches

Season your pork chops with salt and pepper. Heat a non stick skillet over medium high. Once it is hot, place the pork chops in. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, until they get a little golden color on them. Don't mess with them while you wait. Just leave them sitting there until you get ready to check for color/flip. Once you flip them, leave them for about another 10 minutes.

Then add your peaches in with juice and everything.

Turn the heat down to medium, or even low. This depends on your stove. What you want is a steady simmer. Tiny bubbles. What you DON'T want is huge bubbles threatening to overflow the skillet. Let that cook, covered, for another 15 minutes to 30 minutes. The longer you can let them simmer, the more tender they will be, and the more concentrated the peach flavor will get. Just trust me, fruit and pork is a winning combo.

Make a packet of instant mashed potatoes and a steamer bag of veggies, and you are DONE.

Home cooked meal for the win.

This phase of life is so fun. I wish I could come stand in all of your kitchens with you and see you finish each and every meal you attempt. If you try and fail, that's fine. That's why you have Buffalo Phil's and Momma G's and Dominos. I can't wait to hear how it all turns out!

P.S. If this girl can learn to cook over the phone, you can too. Clearly I knew what I was doing in life.

Red hair. Guitar hero. Oh, college.