Holy meat that's a lot of cow!

With all this cold weather I thought it would be appropriate to make some chili! Yum Yum

Serious Chili from Cook this not That, David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding

3 ancho chilis
10 dried chilies de arbol
1 tbsp or oil or bacon grease
2 lb of chuck roast cut into 1/2" pieces
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 medium onions, diced
2 poblano peppers minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 can (28 oz) tomato puree
2 cups low sodium beef stock
1 can 14-16oz pinto beans
    Diced onions, minced jalepeno, shredded cheese, chipped cilantro and or sour cream for serving

Method~
heat a cast-iron or stainless steel skillet over medium heat. Add the chiles and cook, turning occasionally, until lightly toasted and crispy. The chiles de arbol will take about 5 min and the anchos about 10. (be careful not to breathe too deeply- chile smoke has been known to cause wilds fits of coughing) (and it smells bad). Discard stems and seeds and place chiles into coffee grinder or food processor. Grind into a fine dust. This is your chili powder- the heart of this dish.  (and it smells)
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Season the beef with salt and pepper and add to the pan. Sear the meat until all side are nicely browned, then add the onions, poblano peppers, garlic, cumin and 2 tbs of the chili powder (remember, its the smelly stuff). Cooking, stirring occasionally for about 5 min or until vegetables are softened. Stir in the tomatoes and stock. Lower the heat and simmer for at least 45 min or up to 90 min, until beef is fork tender.
Stir in the beans a few min before serving, heat through.

So this is some pretty intense chili. I've never had chili made with actual chiles, I guess thats because I live in Texas, and we're used to cowboy chili lol.

Chile carnage!!

WOW this dish had A LOT of prep work. Mostly on cutting the chuck roast into 1/2" pieces. I never realized how fatty chuck roast is, probably because I just throw it in the crock pot and let it go. So maybe this is why the beef prep took me so long, I was trying to cut out as much of the fat as possible, about half way through I contemplated going vegan again. Woah. When I make this dish again I will take the slacker route and either use stew meat (not sure if that will taste right) OR ground turkey.

So now onto praising this recipe. I loved branching out and cooking something completely different. Plus it used real chiles and if you know me you know I'm part Mexican (and by part I mean my taste buds and stomach), so I really enjoyed this.

The chiles are ready to meet their maker...

I let my chili cook for about an hour and half, I had time to spare so I wanted it to be EPIC.

I was so excited about eating it,  I forgot to take a pic of my bowl, this was Brandon's and he had already taken a bite... oops.

Sorry there was no picture of the beef I was too annoyed/grossed out when I got done cutting it so I just put it in the pan and walked away for a min, lol!

ANYWAY this chili  had amazing flavor and was very filling but not heavy. Perfect for a cold snowy day :)

I also made some of my Mom's amazing pumpkin bread. BUT you only get pictures... no recipe, its a family secret ;-) Plus I give loaves away during the holidays so what fun would it be if everyone had the recipe!?

Perfect!

Today is Super Bowl Sunday so I will be making stuffed jalepenos, deviled eggs, queso, guacamole, and home made ranch.
Blog Ya later!

Baking Makes the Heart Grow Warmer...

Well today I was snowed in and so I decided to bake some cookies! And drinks some Riesling, of course. But none the less this is a COOKING blog not a wine blog. lol

Well I decided to bake Andes Creme de Menthe chunk cookies. I was extremely excited about these cookies because I absolutely adore Andes, let's see how this goes...
Here's the recipe!
From the back of the Andes Creme de Menth Baking Chips bag-
1/2 cup of salted butter-softened
3/4 cup of dark brown-sugar
1/2 cups of white granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 packaged of Andes Creme de Menthe Baking chops
2 2/3 cups of flower

Blend butter, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla and eggs until mixed. Stir in Andes Baking Chips and then flower.
Chill for about an hour. Measure cut approximately 1 oz of dough. Form ball and slightly flatten. Raise oven rack to one level above middle and bake on non-stick pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 min Cool on pans for 4 min before removing.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

 Notice my favorite spatula, it has cup cakes on it :) It came in a 2 pack at target with a blue one for $1!

 This was the easy part, nice and easy to mix, very pretty and minty :)

AND THEN... comes the 2 and 2/3 cups of flour... I looked at that and thought "Ok, cookies aren't my strong suit but thats A LOT of flour. But I guess I'll follow the recipe"

So I'm adding the flour and stirring and stirring and getting a work out...... and then this happens...

 Stirring so hard and trying to add ALL that flour and it flew everywhere..
At this point I'm not hoping for very good cookies because they look like they're going to be dry. When I was trying to form the cookies it was pretty difficult, they kept flaking apart!

 And this is what I get, do they even look like cookies? Semi dry, definitely not what I expected. I expected more from my favorite mint chocolate candy. But alas I love Andes too much to give up, so I shall try again and use LESS FLOUR...
Whew Okay I'm done ranting about the flour... On to the next recipe.

Nestle Toll House Semi- Sweet chocolate and Premier White Morsel Cookies

2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup of butter softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
1 2/3 cup of Nestle Toll House Swirled Sweet Chocolate & Premier White morsels, divided
1 cup of nuts

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl until Creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture mixture. Stir in 1 cup of morsels  and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Top dallops with remaining morsels.
Bake for 11-13 min or until golden brown.

They're so pretty!!

It's like a morsel forest!

Something I learned about cookies today ~ Keep the dough cold when you are forming them. If not they will get VERY sticky and stick to your fingers. I took  a break after loading the first batch and put the dough in the fridge to chill.

Oven baked gooey-ness! THIS is what a cookie is supposed to look like! And they taste superb!

Well this is usually what I do on my days off.

Tonight I am feel nostalgic so I all going to cook some chili, more blogging to come!

Love you guys, be safe out there!

Starting out

Well I have never had a blog before but with it being the recent craze I figured I should try it out.

Like many of you I L.O.V.E.  to cook! So in an effort to save money and calories I have started cooking our weekly meals at home. I cook 2-3 on Sunday, because let's face it, I'm a working women and I just don't have time to cook big meals during the week.

Last week I cooked Spaghetti with spicy tomato sauce from Cook this not that by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding. 370 cals compared to 1,270 cals in the Spaghetti and Italian Sausage at one of the biggest Italian restaurants.

Diced onions with red peppers

***TIP FOR CUTTING ONIONS**
~~ I can't tell you how many times I have teared up over a good onion, UNTIL I realized if you put the cutting board on the stove and turn on the vent fan it sucks up all the fumes! I know, I know, I'm a genius.

I'm SAUCY!

Finished product, man it was SO good and very, very easy! I never would have thought to put red pepper flakes into an Italian dish, but man, oh man it was good.
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I also made Grilled Mexican Steak Salad from the same cook book, compared to a steak salad at a restaurant chain. The one I whipped up only had 340 cals compared to 1,800!!

Prep work.. boo

Yummy pico style salsa 

Add flank steak, Romain lettuce and oven baked corn tortilla strips and this is what you get!

Well folks thats all for tonight, I hope you enjoyed my pics and comments. This is a great cook book and will definitely change your mind about eating out!
More cooking and baking to come, stand by.