yum chili yum

Ever since visiting Alex and Jessica's for Red Beans and Rice, where we tried the West Indies Creole Hot Pepper Sauce, Matthew has wanted me to make chili. He just couldn't wait to try this new hot sauce (available from a little hot sauce shop in Normal Heights) with chili and Cornbread. I usually patch a couple recipes together when I make chili but this time I just added whatever seemed like it might make the chili better. We wanted to keep this chili relatively healthy so I used ground turkey breast and a smoked spicy turkey sausage for the meat base instead of ground beef and traditional Andouille Sausage. Matthew said, that this chili might very well have been better than my last batch made with Andouille, also incredible chili. Who really knows which one was better but I figured I'd better write a record of how I made this chili before I forget entirely. That has always been a serious flaw, my inability to recreate yummy meals. I suppose that just makes dinner extra special, if I've tampered with the recipe, or simply not used one.



Recipe

1 cup each of red beans and pinto beans, soaked for 8-10 hours(I put mine to soak before going to work and when i got home, I cooked them), drained, then cooked for 1- 1 1/2 hours with a large clove peeled garlic and a peeled potato. Discard the potato and garlic after the beans are done. If you cooked them the night before making the chili, then chill them until ready to use.

1-2 teaspoons canola oil
1 cup onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
1+ pound ground turkey
2 smoked sausages, sliced (I used turkey, but pork would be good too)
1 pint can diced peeled tomatoes
1 little can tomato paste
1 12 ounce bottle of porter, stout or brown ale (I used one of Matthew's home brewed porters)
2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1/4-1/2 cup water

Spices:
1 bouillon cube(not necessary, I just like the extra flavor)
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons chili powder(not the hot kind, the dark red, flavorful kind)
1/2 teaspoon hot chili powder or perhaps 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1-2 teaspoons stone ground mustard
6 or so, good dashes Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt

Saute the onion and celery in canola oil for about 5 min. add the bell pepper and saute another 5 or 10 min. just make sure the onion is starting to get very soft and a bit squishy. Dump the veggies into a crock pot. Cook turkey and garlic in a bit more oil, if necessary, and add 1/4-1/3 of the beer to pan, to help lift the stuck bits from the pan; add the bouillon cube and cook until meat is done. While meat is cooking, put all other ingredients into the crock pot, including your pre cooked beans and the rest of the bottle of beer. Add the meat mixture to crock pot and stir everything very well. Now, cook on high heat until it starts to bubble, turn down to low or perhaps medium if you have that setting(I only have keep warm, low and high settings, my low setting might be medium for other people). Let the chili bubble away until you get home from work or are done with your day and ready for a yummy meal. Serve chili topped with a dollop of sour cream, cheddar cheese and some very spicy hot sauce, alongside buttery southern cornbread.

A wee mushroom forest

Honestly, my idea didn't turn out very well. I thought it would be so cute to make a tiny forest out of the Chocolate biscuit mushrooms that I love to snack on, but it wasn't so cute. A bit silly and strange more than anything. I decided that I'd post it anyway, just because I intended to do so originally. My apologies for the strangeness.



Happy little forest mushrooms



Mushroom munching monster



Destruction!



Little Lone survivor

Weekend Trip...

...to the ever exciting Banning, CA.



We made the hour and a half drive up to Banning to see Matthew's friend Tim(who was in the area from the east coast). Since Banning has very little to do or see, we drove a couple miles down highway 10 to Cabazon where we visited the Dinosaurs and the local casino.



We played a couple slots, Matthew won 15 dollars and I lost a dollar. It's pretty amazingly desolate out there on the edge of the dessert. But we had a great visit and enjoyed every minute that we spent with Tim.

strawberry muffins

These muffins are very healthy, but surprisingly delicious, considering the incident that prompted their creation. Yesterday morning, after I looked around in the fridge for breakfast options, I realized that I'd left a week-out-of-date strawberry yogurt in my lunch bag, on the floor of the living room all night. It was completely at room temp. and so naturally, I thought, "maybe it's still good, i'll open it up and try some." It was actually delicious, didn't taste bad at all, but I decided to play it safe and use the yogurt in a batch of strawberry muffins.



I made a whole wheat muffin recipe and added freeze dried strawberries to the batter which was, of course, moisted by my rather dubious low-fat strawberry yogurt. Not bad, considering the origins.

Cutie owl necklace

Note: This is post 100

A darling gift from a dear friend. I adore it.



Owls are so cute and so I wear owl clothes, pins and now a necklace. I'm excited to show it off!



Thanks Clare.

Disappointed by cuteness

Why do I always think that Disappointed is spelled with two esses? Silly brain!

Perhaps, disappointed describes my feelings a bit strongly regarding my Recent acquisition of a pale pink Tofu bank, but here's the story:

I saw this little cutie at my favorite cute things store and on the generic tofu box style packaging, it said "tofu saver." I thought, "finally, someone else with my dilemma of how to save leftover tofu. Maybe it keeps even longer in this little box." I'll admit, I didn't look very hard at the item inside, it was too cute and I wanted it, no matter what it was. So, I bought it, brought it home, opened it up and was promptly shocked; it was a tofu shaped money bank. oh! that's what it meant by tofu saver. A tofu shaped block of plastic with a slit in the top designed for saving money. Makes sense. But I already have a piggy bank with kisses all over it and a little owl bank with glow in the dark eyes that scare me at night. I haven't filled those "savers" up yet.



Maybe I'll use this little pink creature to save up for some tofu, or perhaps I'll use it to save up for a trip to Japan. Who knows what I'll do with it, but despite it's total uselessness, I still like a happy bank named bean curd.

Stolen Photos

I stole a few photos from Jessica's Flicker page just to show what Matthew and I looked like at the Kentucky Derby party. I really have to start taking my camera to these sorts of things. I'll forever be stealing photos from people at this rate.



Me, picking a random horse to bet on



Matthew, picking a random horse



Watching the race



This must be after the race