Gordon's Amazing Easy Chili Recipe

This is my honey's time-tested crowd-pleasing recipe with a few adaptations we've made over the last couple of years. And yes, it has beans ... and yes, we're Texans ... you wanna make something of it?

2 1/2 pounds 80/20 ground chuck
2 1/2 pounds beef stew meat or beef roast cut into small cubes
2 cups of diced onion and/or shallot (whatever you have handy)
1 head of garlic, minced
1 46-ounce can of V-8 juice
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 packet of Goya sazon (whichever version you prefer)
1 beef bouillon cube (we like Knorr brand)
2 cans Bush's Texas chili starter*
2 dried chipotle chile peppers (more or less to taste)
Red wine such as Cabernet to deglaze pan

* Bush's chili starter has become almost impossible to find. You can substitute a can or two of chili beans, and add cumin and regular chili powder to taste.


In a Dutch oven brown the ground beef. Pour into a colander to drain off fat, but leave a little fat in the pan to brown the stew meat. Brown the stew meat on all sides in stages in a single layer in the Dutch oven. Pour into colander to drain excess fat, again reserving just a little fat in the Dutch oven to cook the onion/shallot/garlic.

Add the onion and/or shallot. Stir and cook until slightly softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add a nice splash of red wine to pan to deglaze. After deglazing pan, return all browned stew meat and ground beef to Dutch oven.

Add V-8, tomato sauce, tomato paste, sazon, and beef bouillon cube and stir well. Add 2 whole dry chipotle peppers (or to your taste) and stir gently to avoid breaking the peppers so you can remove them before serving.

Remember that as the peppers simmer and rehydrate, the smoky spicy flavor will become stronger. Also keep in mind that you can always add more chipotles to make it more spicy, but once you go overboard, too bad, so sad. I recommend tasting the chili every 15 minutes or so to see if the spice level is to your liking.

Simmer the chili gently for several hours and let the liquid reduce. Add Bush's chili starter or chili beans plus cumin and regular chili powder to taste and continue simmering until chili is as thick as you like. Fish out the chipotle peppers.

This is nice served with all the fixings, Fritos, grated cheddar cheese, chopped red onion, sour cream, chopped cilantro, maybe a side of cornbread.

Planning Our Spring 2010 Garden

We have just a tiny veggie garden space in a nice, sunny corner of the back yard. It's time to start planning what we'll grow this year. We've decided to plant only one tomato plant and only one or two chile pepper plants and plant lots of herbs.

The Love Of My Life has already said I'm not allowed to plant sunflowers in our little veggie garden space this year :) I know they're not really food plants for us, but they're like crack for the bees. And yes, they do reach 5, 6, 7 feet in height and start falling over and shading out everything else in the garden, but hey, they attract bees and birds, right? Okay, so I guess I'll plant some sunflowers in our front flowerbed instead.

If we plant tomatoes and/or chile peppers we'll have to devise some sort of protective cage around the plants to keep out the birds, squirrels, or whatever vermin stole all the fruits of our labor last year. It was like we were operating an all-you-can-eat buffet for all the wildlife in the area, and they were inviting all their friends! If I'm going to go to the expense and trouble to buy the plants, fertilize the plants, and water the plants, I want to harvest some of the peppers and tomatoes too!!! Seems pretty fair to me :)

We've had wonderful success with parsley, basil, cilantro, and oregano. We had such good results with parsley, basil, and cilantro growing from seed last year that I think we'll sow seed for those three this year and not bother with buying plants. I'd love to get some really strong rosemary plants going. I need to find some of the hardy ones that can make it through the couple of days or couple of weeks of cold we get here in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Shouldn't be too tough.

We're in Zone 8, so if anyone has any recommendations of easy-to-grow veggies or herbs, let me know. I love this time of year. It's warm enough that I can feel the promise of spring coming soon ... but not so warm that I have to move my sorry, lazy self from the couch and actually go outside to tidy up the patio and the yard and prep the garden. Life is good ... sigh ...

The Victory Garden And Beyond ... Frugal Cooking As Patriotism ... Cool!!!

I saw this cool poster on the fabulous blog, http://gardengrocerygadgetgirl.blogspot.com/

Here's a link to a Web site that describes how our government has historically encouraged us to garden and be frugal in our cooking in order to help war efforts, http://www.fruitfromwashington.com/History/harvest.htm

Homemade Fried Rice

I find the fried rice from Chinese takeout/delivery restaurants inedible. Try this recipe for homemade fried rice which is very tasty, easy to prepare, and has lots of fresh, nutritious ingredients.

Homemade Fried Rice

3 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
10 medium to large shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cut into small pieces
4 ounces ham, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
1-3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 large eggs, beaten
4 green onions, thinly sliced
pinch of salt
a few grinds of black pepper
2 cups cold leftover cooked white rice
1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the shrimp, ham, and peas and cook for 1 minute. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce and transfer to a plate or bowl to keep warm.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in the frying pan. Add the eggs, green onions, salt and pepper. Scramble the eggs in the frying pan. Once the egg mixture starts to cook, add the rice, shrimp mixture, and sherry or rice wine. Adjust the seasoning with additional soy sauce and salt and pepper to taste.

Tip: Use cold leftover rice. Freshly cooked rice will just make a sticky mess.

Adapted from a recipe in "The Take-Out Menu Cookbook" by Carla Snyder and Meredith Deeds. I highly recommend this cookbook for all home cooks who wish to replicate ethnic restaurant food at home.

Be Creative, Improvise, And Be Frugal

I get so tired of hearing the cliche, "these tough economic times," but you know what, this economy is making almost all of us tighten our budgets and be cost-conscious. Be creative in your cooking, improvise, and let frugality work to your advantage.

My stepdaughters were here this weekend. They're pretty picky, but both love lasagna. We always put lots of shredded or chopped veggies into the sauce to sneak some nutrients into their diet, and we did that this time. We had leftover meatloaf that we made earlier in the week, using lots of shredded veggies and oatmeal pulverized in the food processor. TLOML chopped up the leftover meatloaf and added it to the lasagna sauce instead of plain old ground beef ... genius! The sauce was so healthy and nutrient-rich, but it tasted so good you'd never know it was good for you.

Normally we mix ricotta, shredded parmesan, and egg for the ricotta layer in the lasagna. When we started mixing up the ricotta layer we found that the tub of ricotta in the fridge was only half full and we only had about half a cup of ricotta, so we added some leftover cream cheese and sour cream, mixed in the shredded parmesan and an egg, and voila, an improvised ricotta layer that turned out to be pretty darn good.

Be frugal, be creative, use what you have on hand ... it's fun and yields surprisingly tasty results.

A Very Merry WHITE Christmas

Okay, so I'm 45 years old and I've lived in the DFW Metroplex or not too far from it my entire life. Around here we're more likely to have shorts-and-short-sleeve weather at Christmas time than cold weather. Well, this year I experienced my first ever white Christmas!!! It started snowing here on Christmas Eve afternoon and the weather was cold enough that the snow was still on the ground on Christmas Day. It was such a beautiful experience, and since I'm statistically probably halfway through my life it's not really likely that I'll experience another White Christmas, so I cherish this amazing holiday.

Due to the weather we were "snowbound" for the night at the home of my beloved Mami-y-Papi-in-law after our Christmas Eve celebration, so I had another fun experience for the first time of waking up with my "extended family" and enjoying Christmas morning with all of TLOML's family, my stepdaughters, and my son. I'll treasure this day for the rest of my life.

So now on to the food. For Christmas Eve with my second family and for Christmas Day with my first family we prepared Roasted Rosemary Walnuts, courtesy of a recipe from http://www.chowhound.com/, www.chow.com/recipes/14260?tag=nl.e351:

Roasted Rosemary Walnuts Recipe
TIME/SERVINGS
Total: 25 mins
Active: 5 mins
Makes: 8 to 10 servings (5 cups)

Roasted Rosemary Walnuts
By Amy Wisniewski

Nuts and booze are a tried-and-true combination for any happy hour or cocktail party. Here the addition of rosemary and black pepper classes up the combo without getting too fussy.

Game plan: These nuts will last up to 10 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

This recipe was featured as part of both our Academy Awards Cocktail Party menu and our Bar Snacks photo gallery.

INGREDIENTS
5 cups walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped
4 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS
Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle.
Place nuts on a baking sheet. Add remaining ingredients and mix with your hands to evenly coat.
Bake until nuts are browned and toasted, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet, transfer to a bowl, and serve.

These incredible tidbits and also the following wonderful Kahlua Spiked Pecans (recipe from www.desertculinary.blogspot.com/) http://desertculinary.blogspot.com/2005/05/kahlua-spiked-pecans.html were big hits.

I think the rosemary walnuts were slightly too oily and I'll decrease the amount of olive oil next time I make them. However, both of these treats were like holiday crack to me and I think to both of our families, absolutely fabulous recipes.

Kahlua Spiked Pecans (Adapted from Stop and Smell the Rosemary)

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg white
3 tablespoons Kahlua
4 cups pecan halves

Preheat oven to 325

In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, cinnamon and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together egg white and Kahlua. Add pecans and stir well to combine.

Sprinkle half the sugar mixture on top - mix well. Pour the rest of the sugar on top and stir until completely combined. Scoop the mixture onto a large baking sheet lined with foil and coated with nonstick spray. Spread the pecans to an even single layer.

Bake until pecans are lightly toasted and browned, stirring every 10 minutes - about 20 to 25 minutes total. Remove from the oven and scoop the hot pecans onto wax or parchment paper to cool completely.

Note: I used half white sugar and half brown sugar because I had a dab of brown sugar that needed to be used up and it worked perfectly.

We prepared the black bean dip we've made before, recipe courtesy of Erica at http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/, http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/2009/06/black-bean-dip-dip-de-frijoles-negros.html . Everyone loves this stuff!

Black Bean Dip (Dip De Frijoles Negros)

Although it doesn’t look very pretty, this creamy black bean dip tastes absolutely delicious and is very easy to make. You can serve it with tortilla chips or Patacones.

Ingredients(About 2 cups)
1 (14 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
¼ teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus extra for garnish
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon minced canned chipotle chile in adobo
½ tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Directions
1. Place all the ingredients in food processor until the dip is smooth and creamy, scraping the down the bowl as needed.
2. Transfer the dip to a serving bowl, sprinkle with fresh cilantro and serve with tortilla chips.

This dip is so, so good, and so healthy! As Erica says, it's not so pretty, but damn, it's tasty! I made it again with dried beans that I soaked and cooked, just because that's very inexpensive and we really enjoy preparing food from scratch as much as possible.

We also made a wonderful white bean-roasted red pepper dip, recipe also courtesy of www.mycolombiankitchen.com/

White Bean -Roasted Pepper Dip

I love beans! In Colombia we may eat beans two or three times a day. I never get tired of eating beans so I have a long list of bean recipes. This one is a delicious white bean –roasted pepper dip. It is great as a light and healthy snack with pita chips, as an appetizer for your next party or for that unannounced visit, as it is quick and simple to prepare!

Ingredients
1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans
1 roasted red bell pepper
3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
¼ cup olive oil
Salt and black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped onion
Chives for garnish

Directions
1. Place all the ingredients in the food processor and mix until well combined and smooth.
2. Transfer the dip to a serving dish and top with the fresh chives. Serve with pita chips on the side

I used a can of rosada beans for this dip because I had one on hand, and it was really good.

We made the Cook's Illustrated hummus recipe again, with a few modifications, http://kearbyskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/homemade-hummus.html This time we made a double recipe and used a little more garlic, a little more olive oil, a little less sesame tahini, and 2 cubes of Knorr chicken bouillon. It turned out really good.

Also made the stuffed mushrooms that I've been making for 25 years that everyone seems to like. Recipe to be posted later.

And in other important Christmas Eve news, SMU defeated Nevada 45-10 in the Hawaii Bowl!

Christmas Lunch

The court reporting firms I contract with had their annual holiday lunch on Monday. It was so great to see everyone, our office manager, the other court reporters, our videographer, and the owner of the Spanish translation service we use. Following are the recipes I prepared for the lunch:

STEAMED BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH SUNDRIED TOMATO AIOLI

Brussels Sprouts

1 1/2 lb. Brussels sprouts, rinsed and bottoms trimmed off
1/4 lb. thin-sliced pancetta, finely diced (can substitute bacon)
½ cup finely diced shallots

Fill a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes and set aside. Using a steamer basket placed inside a medium saucepan with a lid or an Asian-style bamboo steamer, steam Brussels sprouts for approximately 10 minutes. They should still be a pretty green color and should still have slight resistance to a fork pressed into the base or into the middle of the sprouts. Remove from steamer and drop into the ice water to stop the cooking and maintain the pretty green color. Drain sprouts and place in serving bowl.

In a skillet over low to medium low heat, slowly cook pancetta. Cook until it renders its fat and becomes slightly crispy. Increase heat to medium low to medium and add shallots. Cook slowly until shallots are tender. Pour pancetta-shallot mixture over Brussels sprouts and mix well. Serve with sundried tomato aioli.

Sundried Tomato Aioli

¼ cup oil-packed sundried tomatoes, drained
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 ½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Finely chop sundried tomatoes in food processor. Add egg yolk, garlic, mustard, and lemon juice and blend well. With machine running, gradually add oil through feed tube in slow, steady stream. Blend until smooth and thick. Season with salt and pepper. Blend for a few more seconds.


Notes:

I also added a little squeeze of anchovy paste to this recipe, about 1 teaspoon. It adds more flavor depth. If you have anchovy paste handy and like it, give it a try. If not, no problem.

Next time I make this aioli I’ll use only half the amount of sundried tomatoes so that the aioli will be a bit more subtle.


SIMPLE GARLIC SHRIMP

1 lb. medium (about 25 per pound) shrimp, rinsed, shells removed except for tail section, and de-veined
1 head of garlic
Zest of 1 lemon
6 tablespoons butter
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
Italian seasoning
Salt (if needed)

Separate the head of garlic into individual cloves. Remove root end and skin from garlic cloves. Divide the garlic cloves in half. Slice half of the garlic cloves very thin. Finely dice the remaining half of the garlic cloves.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over low to medium low heat. Add the olive oil. Add the sliced garlic and cook very slowly until browned. You want the garlic to give a nice toasty garlic flavor to the oil without burning. When browned, remove garlic slices. Add lemon zest.

Keep temperature at low to medium low. Add the diced garlic and slowly cook until garlic is soft. You don’t want to brown this garlic. Sprinkle the butter/olive oil/garlic combination liberally with your favorite Italian seasoning, 1-2 teaspoons.

Add the shrimp to the skillet in a single layer and keep the heat low. Shrimp cook very fast and you want to give them a chance to absorb all the great garlic flavor, so cook them very low and slow. After a few minutes, flip the shrimp over and continue to cook them in a single layer. When all shrimp have turned pink and curled up a bit they’re done. Taste a shrimp and the buttery sauce for seasoning. If needed, add a sprinkle of salt.