Slow Cooker Chili

Grandma Tibbett made the best chili soup ever. Her secret was brown sugar. I've been craving Grandma's chili soup for awhile now. Actually, that's not entirely true...I was craving vegetable soup, and while I was looking through my recipes I found Grandma's chili soup recipe, and THEN I started to crave it! Unfortunately, Grandma's recipe is kind of complicated (and it calls for "oleo." What the hell is "oleo?????"), so I settled for "Grandma's easy vegetarian slow cooker chili" - a recipe I found online about a year ago that turned out pretty well.

So, I went to Clement's and got all the necessary ingredients plus 2 pounds of ground chuck (let's face it - vegetarian chili is like caffeine-free Coke...there's no point). Actually, I got 3 pounds of ground chuck, but I used one pound for nachos that Michele and I made for dinner (but I digress...). Long story short - this chili turned out well, and there is a LOT of it! It helps to add 2 pounds of hamburger meat. :)

One of the coolest things about this chili is that Michele was here just hanging out with me, so we actually worked together to make the chili. As we were finishing up, I told her that I always have a great time cooking with her, and she told me that she finds it fun and relaxing. How cool is that? It reminded me how intimate food is and how much food can bring people together. As an aside - I felt the same way about cooking with Jen when I was at her and Kim's place over New Year's. Jen and I made breakfast for Jane and Kim, and I had an absolute blast cooking with her. I made pancakes, and she made eggs, sausage, bacon, etc. It was a lot of fun, and I felt like it really brought us all together. Jen and I also made a big pot of barley mushroom soup several weeks ago, and that was also a rockin' good time. Yes, I'd say "cooking with friends" is definitely on my list of most favorite things to do in life! :)

Pizza

So...Michele and I made this amazing pizza. We used that dough that is pre-made but needs to rise and then be rolled out. IT. WAS. AMAZING! We added a ton of Trader Joe's basil tomato sauce, three different kinds of cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, and parmesan), hamburger, mushrooms, and peppers. We had a great time putting it together and eating it. I think it's about time for another one soon! :)

Grilling

This is the epitome of the perfect summer day: a meal that has been grilled. This particular meal is a grilled swordfish steak, rice, a salad, and stuffies - a native Rhode Island food. Stuffies are quohogs (giant clams) that have been mixed with stuffing and then put back into the shell. You can cook them in a variety of ways - my favorite so far is grilling. :)

Soup

Ok...so I got inspired and decided to make some soups for the cold weather. For this adventure, I purchased a $100 Kitchen Aid food processor. While the food processor did a stellar job of actually pulverizing the food and was also easy to clean, it was too small, and I couldn't believe that the (plastic) bowl for the thing seemed to be so cheaply made. I mean, seriously - I worried that if I lost my grip on the thing and it slipped out of my hand, it would shatter into a million pieces!

Anyway, so I used it to make cream of spinach soup (light on the cream, heavy on the spinach) and sweet potato coconut chili (not what it sounds like - it's heavy on the sweet potatoes with a hint of coconut milk and red chili peppers). They turned out so well and were so gorgeous that I photographed them and decided they were brag-worthy. :) Bring it on, winter - BRING IT ON!

Buckeyes

If you're from the Midwest, you probably recognize these. They are buckeyes...peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate that resemble a type of nut, called a buckeye. For some reason, they are very popular around the holidays, so I decided to try making some. They turned out well, if I do say so myself. :) I think it helped that I dipped them in a combo of melted chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Good stuff.

Chicken!

This is a dish that Catalina taught me to make. Saute onions, add raisins, pour over chicken breasts, squeeze on the juice of 2 oranges, bake at 350 for 20 minutes. This time, I decided to try using dried cranberries instead of raisins. It looks and smells amazing...I have to wait for it to cool before I can taste it!