The Cook-Off Chili

So every year my church has a Chili Cook-Off (for whatever reason), and this year when they announced it my first thought was "Freak, I cook now, I'm making chili," and freak, that's what I did. I went searching high and low, (which means foodgawker), for chili recipes, and I found one that was delicious beyond belief. It took a little tweaking but it came out amazingly. And to top it all off today it sleeted (yes, it sleets in Texas), and viola, no school, so this was perfect chili weather. Lol, get it? Chili weather...chilly weather. Yeah.... Anyway, I started this chili early in the morning and seven hours later the house smelled amazing, the kitchen was covered in the remains of failtastic macarons, and I could barely keep my step-mom away from the crock pot. So without further ado here is the (hopefully) award winning chili, which by the way I will keep you updated on how my chili does in the cook-off.

Chili Yum-Yum

adapted from Marzipan

- 2 pounds ground beef

- 1 28-oz can whole tomatoes, undrained

- 1 cup onions chopped

- 1 green bell pepper, chopped

- 1 jalapeno, chopped

- 4 garlic cloves, minced

- 2 16-oz cans kidney beans, undrained

- 2 teaspoons salt

- 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder

- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

- 1 teaspoon ground cumin

Add any other spices you want that will make it spicy or just yummy. I added some weird chicken fry spice hiding in my pantry and it was delicious, but this was because we couldn't find any paprika.

Start by chopping your veggies.

If they still look like this, they're not chopped...

There you go.

Next brown the beef, when you're finished siphon off the fat and transfer the rest into the crockpot.

Next, get someone (like Cicely, who doesn't even like chili) to sniff it...because it smells good.

Cut the tomatoes inside the can with a clean pair of kitchen scissors.

Add the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients to the crock pot and cook on the low setting, covered for 7-10 hours. If it gets too thick you can add water, or if it's too thin let it cook uncovered towards the end.

When it's done it'll look something like this.

Or this...

Make yourself some cornbread and you can enjoy this deliciousness too! Along with your cornbread you can make honey butter to go on top, which is just 1/2 cup of butter and 1/4 a cup of honey and it makes for something delicious and sweet to go right along with the chili. Eat it plain, add some cheese and sour cream, put it on a hotdog, or dump it on someone, but whatever you do, enjoy!

Atomic wannabe housewife, out.

Potato, Leek and Shallot Soup

Hey guys, sorry it's taken me so long to update. I've been going through a

process of making new things and waiting to see if its good to blog it, but by the

time I find out whether or not it's worthy, it's not pretty anymore.

That is my explanation for why there is still not any pie on this blog.

I'm sorry, my 50s Me is failing you. I know.

But let me redeem myself with this lovely little recipe that I am

deeming my magic recipe. It is magic because I actually got my

step-sister to eat it. Let me give you a little background on Cicely.

She refuses to eat anything new. It doesn't matter what it is.

It could be sunshine and rainbows and she would say "gross" and go

make herself some frozen chicken nuggets. So I have been trying

with all my might to find and make things that I have a chance of

getting Cicely to actually eat. I figure I'm making progress though.

This is my step by step process on how stubborn people will eventually

react to the new foods you want them to try:

1. They turn there nose up at everything you make.
2. They "promise" they'll try the things you make, and then don't.
3. They promise they'll try the things you make, and then actually do.
4. Love and acceptance.

This is the process I followed and it's pretty awesome. Anyway, here is the recipe for this magical soup. The Nectar of the Cicelys. (Because not only did she try it even though she claims to hate soup, but she ate almost a whole bowl and couldn't stop talking about how good it was.)

Potato, Leek, and Shallot Soup
from Sauce and Sensibility

Yields about 12 cups

- 5 tablespoons butter
- 4 leeks (white part only), cleaned, halved, thinly sliced
- 2 pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled and diced
- 4 shallots, peeled and chopped
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons chives, chopped (optional for garnish)

Alright so after you've done all of your slicing and dicing, or if your chopping is anything like mine, your Texas chainsaw massacring, start by melting the butter in a deep pot or a dutch oven. (Since I'm pretty much oblivious to what a dutch oven is, I just chucked it in a deep pot and it worked. It's got to hold at the very least 6 cups for all of that chicken stock.)


After the butter is melted, throw in your leeks and shallots and stir them frequently until tender, about 10 minutes. Should look something like this:

After that's done, toss in your potatoes and do a little shake, rattle and roll to get it all mixed together and then repeat the process of frequent stirring for another 10 minutes, so that your potatoes have a chance to get a little tender.

At this point I started wishing I could send smell-o-grams to my sister and mom because it smelled like unicorns and happiness. Actually I'm not sure if unicorns just smell like horses...if they do that sucks and I'm sorry, this shouldn't smell like a horse. After your 10 minutes of cooking the potatoes, add the chicken stock and bring it to a boil. Once it starts boiling turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I covered it, so if you want to go for it.


It gets all frothy like so. Once this is done all your veggies should be nice and tender so go ahead and start pureeing it in a blender or food processor small amounts at a time and once it's all blended it send it back into the pot for the heavy cream and Parmesan. Also the original recipe doesn't say where to put in the olive oil so I threw it in in this stage. Once all of that's nice and blended add salt and pepper to taste and ladle it into bowls with chives as a garnish if you wish. 'Tis quite yummy. I hope you enjoy this creation of yummy that is The Nectar of the Cicelys.

Atomic Wannabe Housewife, Out.