Chili cook off day

Today my work put on a chili cook off, I LOOOOOOOVE making chili and was really excited. Chad made a chili also, so I ended up buying a new futuristic crockpot just for the event. We had score cards where you can rate the taste, color, texture, aftertaste so on. $5 got you a bowl and all the money went to a charity (our work sponsored a family for Christmas). There were six of us who entered. I ended up in second place with 38 points, the winner was at 40, so it was pretty close. Second place is still pretty good I think. 

This is the futuristic crock pot I got, it beeped every time I tried to set the temp on it. It seems super complicated for a crock pot, but I think it's pretty awesome. I have a feeling it might have a time travel feature, imagine munching on a ham while checking out what happened to the dinosaurs.

The only thing that kind of bummed me out about the cook off was I brought my chili in tupperware straight from the fridge and put it in the crock pot when I got to work. I had about 3 1/2 hours to get my chili warm, but it really didn't work out the best. Low setting was too low so 1/2 hour lost, Med was too low 1/2 lost, it was still cold. So high it was and then someone unplugged the crockpots. By the time it was time to taste my chili was cold, my co-workers where really cool and pushed the cook off by 1/2 hour to give me a little time to heat my chili up. It reached about room temp by the time people started eating it. It tasted great but it wasn't really as hot as I wanted. At that point I stopped worrying about it and let it be what it was.

In the end all the chili was eaten up and we made $215 for the family, it was a really great time and I am sure that family will be really happy. I love raising money for charity with food, cooking and eating it. Win win!! 

Pecan Tassies

This year I am going to spend Thanksgiving with Chad's family. I thought it would be nice to bring my Grandma's pecan tassies. They go great after dinner or in the morning with coffee, I love these little pies so very much. A little taste of home. 

recipe:

CRUST-

1 (3oz) package of cream cheese 

1 c. sifted all purpose flour 

1 stick of butter

Have all the ingredients at room temp, mix together and chill for at least 2 hours. Makes 2 dozen 1 inch balls and put inside muffin tins.

FILLING-

1 egg beaten 

3/4 c. brown sugar, firmly packed

1 tbspn soft butter

1 tbspn vanilla 

2/3 chopped pecans 

mix all togethe, fill cups 3/4 full. Bake at 325 degrees for about 25 mins, cool on rack, use sharp knife around the edges and lift out.  

Miso crusted salmon with Veggies

Tonight I made a rosted miso crusted salmon with a side of veggies, I know I see it too, SMILE!!!! I have a hard time plating, something I want to learn. For now, I can live with making yummy food. The recipe for the salmon :

1 tbsp yellow miso paste
1 tbsp fresh ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce (low sodium)
1 tsp lemon juice
pepper to taste

mix it up and cover the top of the salmon and bake as normal

For the veggies I just cut up yellow potatoes, tomato and asparagus. I baked them at 400 for about 20 mins and I seasoned them with some infused oil I made.

This is a garlic, rosemary and truffle oil. I love having it around, so easy to just pour on something and enjoy the flavor it brings. This container normally lasts a month or so and when I run out I make more. Doesn't take very long. Chop and cook the garlic (most important to cook the garlic, it'll go rancide in the oil if you don't) put it in the jar with chopped rosemary and 6 drops of truffle oil, with a dash of salt and pepper. I let it sit for about two to three weeks and there you have it. Goes great on salads, cooking stuff in or just as a season. I change the recipe every time I make more, very convenient. 

Miso soup with broccoli and red peppers

I love miso soup so much and it turns out its really healthy for you. Also pretty quick to make. I use organic MSG free yellow miso, then season it with onion powder, clove of garlic, ginger and shichimi (Japanese chili powder). I add veggies to it and boil them in the soup until tender, all cooked in my donabe pot. I love my donabe pot!! I think it adds something to the food, just makes everything taste good. The gyoza were store bought and fried in a pan with olive oil, I'll attempt to make those myself later down the road. 

my lovely donabe pot <3

Veggie pesto brown rice veggie pasta -- gluten free

Putting that yummy pesto to work, I thought a veggie pasta would be a delicious way to do it. I picked some veggies (asparagus, broccoli, red pepper, peas and tomato) 

I sauteed them mixed with a little olive oil and my pesto sauce ( about 3-4 tablespoons) until tender and mixed them with some gluten free brown rice veggie pasta. I used Tinkyada Pasta Joy Ready and out of all the gluten free pastas I have tried, it was crazy good. The package looks like this:  

 very much enjoyed it. I shredded some gruyere cheese on top and wallah, super fast healthy dinner. 

Kale and spinach pesto

I had some kale in my fridge I needed to use before it went bad and presto I made some pesto. I know that was really terrible. Anyway I found a really good kale pesto recipe on www.inerikaskitchen.com (love her blog) it really spiced up my salmon and pilaf I planned for dinner.

recipe:
http://www.inerikaskitchen.com/2012/02/kale-pesto-recipe.html (mine I added 6 cloves of garlic, spinach, tomato, went with pine nuts and Gruyere cheese.)

Pesto crusted salmon with a brown rice pilaf 

Black bean patty with cheese

I was thinking about cheese burgers all day, in an effort to be healthy I remembered about my black bean burger patty recipe. With some cheese and crinkle cut fries, I made my burger dinner dream come true.

recipe:

16oz can of black beans, rinsed 

1 red pepper

1/2 onion 

4 garlic cloves

1 egg

handful of cilantro (finely chopped)

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin 

1 tbsp hot sauce (any kind)

1 med tomato 

2 jalapenos

1 cup panko 

I saute onion, pepper, jalapeno, cilantro, tomato until all tender. I mash up the black beans and add the veggie mixture, spices, egg and panko, make into patties. I heat up a little oil then fry up the patties until both sides are browned. 

Banana bread -- gluten free

Relaxing morning sitting at the table with some coffee and banana bread, a great combination if I may say so. I normally make banana bread when we forget to eat our bananas and  they start to brown. I just started the gluten free version and it is great.

recipe:

2 1/2 c. gluten free all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 c melted butter

2 c sugar

3 over-ripe mashed bananas

4 eggs beaten 

1 c chopped nuts

1 tbsp banana liqueur (or dark rum)

preheat oven to 350 degrees, put mixed ingredients in a well greased loaf pan and bake for 65-70 degrees. Mine tend to brown too fast on the outside, so about half way through baking I cover it with foil. After it tests done allow to cool a few minutes, remove from pan and rub the top of the loaf with butter to soften edges and glaze the top.

Korokke (Potato & Meat Croquette)

 I was craving croquettes today and thought it would be fun to try to make them. They are pretty easy, make mashed potatoes add cooked carrots, peas, onion and meat with an egg. Make into patties then dip them in egg and panko and fry in oil. Serve hot with some curry, you have the perfect dinner.

French toast blueberry cream cheese sandwiches

For Sunday brunch I thought it was be nice to switch it up. I made regular french toast, eggs, cream, cinnamon, nutmeg and a touch of vanilla extract. Then I took cream cheese and mixed some sugar and a handful of blueberries. Great Sunday treat :)

Smoked gruyere cheese puff FAIL

My neighbor invited me to a party she was throwing for her birthday and I thought it would be nice to bring something to snack on. I was really excited when I found this cheese puff recipe, I mean smoked gruyere is crazy good. I could probably eat a whole block of it in one sitting, which is pretty gross. I wanted to make this recipe gluten free so I substituted out normal flour for the gluten free brand. The recipe also called for a dough mixer which I didn't feel I needed. You can already see why this didn't work out. Without the mixer and adding in three eggs it called for, it turned it into a complete mess. So I stated to add more flour in a panic to make it dough again. It was so sticky and gooey getting it into balls onto the tray was terrible. Once I got all the different sized balls on the tray I put them in the oven. After being in the oven for about 15 mins I saw they started to look good and they smelled great. Once the buzzer went off they were golden and I thought it might have worked out. Nope, I took the biggest one and it was raw in the middle, I put them back in the oven for 15 more minutes. Still raw in the middle and the outside was about to burn if I cooked them any longer. They look great, sadly it didn't work out. Valiant effort for the cheese puffs...

Chickpea Masala

I have been very excited to make this. I went to every web page I could fine to for a good recipe. I found a ton of different ones but nothing really jumped out at me. I was able to get the key ingredients and took the things I liked from some of the recipes, my Frankenstein Masala. I used

2 tbsn olive oil (most all for butter)

3 garlic cloves

2 jalapeno, minced

1 tsp red pepper 

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cumin 

2 tsp ground ginger 

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp garam masala (I used my homemade one)

1 tsp salt

1 can unsalted tomato sauce 

1 c. heavy whipping cream

2 cups chickpeas

I was very happy with how it turned out and how easy it was to make, I have a feeling this is going to get thrown in the regular meal rotation.