killer chili

i consider this the best chili recipe ever. it's hearty, spicy, easy to cook and great to pack for lunch for the work week. that is, if there is any left. there are rarely "leftovers".

2 lbs ground chuck

1 medium onion, chopped
A few cloves of garlic, minced

1 can of diced tomatoes (15 oz)

1 can of tomato sauce (the smaller can, i think 6 or 8 oz)

1 can of Joan of Arc Spicy Chili Beans (15 oz)

1 packet of Buena Vida Chili Powder (it's a green and white label, Kroger usually has it)

about 6 Aunt Jane Mexican Peppers, diced
*you can use Kroger brand pepper too, just make sure you get "hot mexican peppers" not pepperoncini.

in a large sauce pan, brown the meat with the onion and garlic. drain off the fat, (i use a slotted spoon to transfer the meat into the pot. then i pour the fat into a glass container to throw away later.) in a large stock pot, add the rest of the ingredients, stir and cover. cook slowly for about an hour.

if you like your chili hot (and why wouldn't you?) add a few tablespoons of the juice from the mexican peppers when you add the rest of the ingredients.

jared and i like to top our chili with chopped scallions, sour cream and shredded cheese. growing up, it was standard in my family to eat chili along with torn off pieces of flour tortilla. yum! of course you can also serve the chili over spaghetti noodles and top with shredded cheese, "cincinnati style". the truth of the matter is, you can eat this chili as is, no toppings necessary. it's that good. try it! definitely let me know if you like it as much as i do.

red, white, and green

one of my all-time favorite summer dishes is caprese salad; basically, a combination of 3 ingredients: tomatoes, basil, and fresh mozzarella, drizzled with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and seasoned with a little salt and pepper.

it goes without saying how easy this is to assemble. there's really no rules. chop and toss everything together in a bowl; slice and stack on a plate; whatever. but another great thing about this is that the quality of the ingredients makes a dramatic difference to the finished product with very little extra effort. sure, you can get by on grocery store tomatoes and packaged basil, but swap those for vine ripened, farm fresh tomatoes and fresh picked basil and your at a whole different level.

new favorites

although we haven't been blogging, we've definitely been cooking! a few weeks ago i bought 3 new cookbooks:
Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites
Moosewood Restaurant New Classics
The Food You Want To Eat by Ted Allen

so far we've made 4 recipes from the Ted Allen book:
cucumber yogurt dip
spicy cajun "pigs" in puff pastry
basic tomato sauce
butternut squash pie

the only one that i wasn't thrilled with was the cucumber yogurt dip. it was light, fresh and yummy but i don't think i used enough salt on the cucumber as it drained. the recipe isn't bad i just thought it needed more flavor. i'll probably take another shot at it before i rule it out. we used some homemade greek yogurt from the Mediterranean store at Findlay Market. actually we picked up almost all of the ingredients at Findlay. we've been going there almost every weekend now that it's warm (unbearably humid) outside.

we picked up the andouille sausage for the "pigs" in puff pastry at Mike's Meat's. those are delicious! what a fun appetizer, everybody loved them. i could have eaten the whole plate. the recipe includes a killer chutney mustard as a dipping sauce. i can't wait to make those again. actually i can't wait until Jared makes them again (he was in charge of that dish and it was pretty labor intensive due to the filo dough.) :)

the basic tomato sauce was not what i consider basic. not because it was difficult but because it had a classic, comforting richness without being too buttery or oily. it's a solid tomato sauce recipe for sure. it calls for lots of fresh herbs which makes all the difference. we poured it over some penne and enjoyed it with crusty french bread warm from the oven. mmmmm.

i LOVED the butternut squash pie. it's probably my favorite out of many recipes (not just Ted Allen's) that we've tried recently. i would recommend it to everyone. don't pass it up just because it happens to be vegan. it is SO good. red onion, red bell pepper, raisins, walnuts, spinach and of course butternut squash, are joined with fresh cilantro, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil to form colorful layers under a golden crust of filo dough. serve a slice over the basic tomato sauce (see above, or any store bought tomato sauce, Jared and I like Rao's) and you'll be in heaven. i certainly was.

more to come from the cookbooks...
we've made quite a few moosewood recipes that i'll definitely have to share.

in the meanwhile, got any cookbook recommendations? i still have some $ on my amazon gift certificate that i'm itching to spend...