Vegetable and Bean Chili

  Every year at work, we have a chili cook-off to kick off the start of March Madness.  The cook-off is always on a Friday, and it’s always during Lent.  For us Catholics, Lent is a time when we don’t eat meat on Fridays.  The only chili that I felt I made well enough to serve to other people has always had meat in it.  Leaving the meat out just didn’t taste right.  That meant I couldn’t eat my own chili during the potluck lunch! 

  This year, I thought I would do some research online for good vegetarian chili recipes.  This recipe base came from a recipe in Gourmet magazine. You can find it on epicurious.com.  It was highly rated, so I tried it out this week on my Hubby before I made it for the cook-off.  (Thanks for being my guinea pig, Love!)

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Gameday dinner: Meatball Subs

Hi all!  A few weeks ago I made tomato gravy with meatballs, and as usual, I had some sauce and meatballs left over to go in the freezer.  This time I didn’t have as much sauce as I thought I would, so I knew these meatballs were destined to become meatball subs.  They fufilled their predetermined fate this evening after Michigan gave my husband a heart-attack and came back to beat Michigan State.  Go Blue!

I know this might seem like a no brainer to many well-accomplished chefs… but sometimes I think we all need a reminder that a meatball sub can be a good use of leftovers. I have also been known to put them on top of a make at home pizza. Yum…

My meatballs will never be on par with Mom’s, but Jason likes them well enough.

Here is my round-about recipe for meatballs:

• 2 lbs ground meat (this can be all beef, or a mix of beef, veal and pork)
• a little splash of red wine (optional)
•  about 2 tbsp of italian spice mix
• about 2 tbsp dehydrated onions
• about 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• garlic salt to taste
• fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 1 egg
• dried or fresh bread crumbs; see below

Mix the ground meat and the next 6 ingredients.  Break up the egg in a small bowl, then add that to the meat mixture.  Add enough breadcrumbs until the mixture isn’t slimy (gross but true).  Form into balls and bake in a 350 degree oven until no longer pink on the outside.  Transfer the meatballs into a simmering pot of tomato sauce, homemade or store bought (You aren’t getting my recipe for tomato sauce).  Cook for at least 30 to 40 minutes. 

To make this fast on gameday, you could always buy the frozen meatballs (blasphemy!), and then cook them in jarred sauce (more blasphemy!).  Then put them into a nice hoagie roll, top with lots of mozzarella, then some parmesan, then wrap in foil and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  For parties,  you could keep the meatballs and sauce warm in a crock pot while the game is on, and just have the fixin’s ready for whenever people want them. 

The result is really good with chips, a pickle and a beer.

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Easy Gameday Appetizer

A few posts back,  I mentioned our favorite way to eat chorizo as taught to us by our friend Alba.  So, I can’t take credit for this recipe, but I wanted to share it with you because it was so easy to throw together for an afternoon snack while watching college football today.  And,  since I wasn’t thrilled with the last chorizo we tried,  I wanted to share this new brand with you.

   The brand I found was Citterio Rustica Chorizo.  I found it in the deli section of my local Harris Teeter.  It wasn’t very spicy, and the consistancy was similar to pepperoni.  I would try other brands if I saw them, but this was a good one to remember.

So, the recipe is pretty simple:

• Slice some chorizo sausage (you will probably need to remove the casing) and heat it up in a hot non-stick pan until it starts to smell good and render some of its fat.   Then transfer from the pan directly onto baugette rounds.  Done!

 Thanks for showing us this Alba!

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