White Chili

Mmmmm apparently I'm on a food blogging binge.

Dinner tonight: White Chili. Not only a favorite meal of mine, but a hit with the children, too.

Chicken stock, smoked turkey, great northern beans, yellow bell peppers, hungarian wax chiles, onions, garlic, and a little butter, cream, and spices: oregano, cumin, white pepper, a little dried cilantro...

Topped with a bit of sour cream and oyster crackers. A nice meal for a cool Autumn evening. Served on the lovely plate The Grand Lunar bought me, isn't it pretty? It makes me happy.

Omit the turkey & use veggie stock to make it vegetarian, or use canned evaporated skim milk to make it low fat. Make it spicy or make it mild. Serve it with tortilla chips and a little monterey jack cheese. You really can't do this one wrong.

recipe for Kerri:
2 small-to-medium yellow onions, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 yellow or white bell peppers, diced small
2 yellow wax hungarian peppers (which are hot, or use the similar yellow banana peppers, which are mild, or omit or substitute something else, light green anaheim work well; just go for a light color and the heat of your choice. It's so easy!)
~ 2 T. butter
2 c. chicken stock (homemade or from bouillon base stuff, sub vegetarian if you'd like)
3/4 - 1 lb diced smoked turkey (omit for vegetarian)
2 cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 c. white flour
~1 c. cream, half & half, milk, or condensed skim milk

saut� the veggies in butter, or to keep it lower fat in a little broth.
add the chicken stock, turkey, and beans and simmer awhile
season to taste (guesses for Kerri: 1 t. ground cumin, 1 t. dried crumbled oregano, 1/4 t. white pepper, 1/2 t. dried crumbled cilantro, more cumin never hurt anyone LOL, a few shakes hickory smoke flavoring, if desired)
just before serving mix flour with cool water or broth to a thin batter, pour into soup and mix until it simmers and thickens
stir in cream and remove from heat
serve with oyster crackers, sour cream, and/or monterey jack cheese

Pink Lemonade Pie

At Carrawayseed's request: Presenting the last two pieces of Pink Lemonade Pie ~ another way too easy dessert that's pretty and tasty and fun. This is modified from the recipe I got from Connie. Makes 8-12 pieces (the picture shown was cut into 12)

Pink Lemonade Pie

1 can Raspberry Lemonade concentrate (but limeade, pink lemonade, orange juice, all also work! have fun with it!) 1 8-oz container of non-dairy whipped topping (uh, I used a 12 oz this time, it was on sale) 1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk 1 pre-made graham cracker crust (you could make your own, but I'm lazy)

Whip together the sweetened condensed milk and the lemonade concentrate. I use my Kitchenaid Mixer with the whisk attachment.
Whip in the whipped topping. The original directions said to fold it in carefully, but ha ha I'm too lazy for that. I use the mixer.
Pour the mixture into the pie crust. If you're lucky (I always am) you've whipped it too much and it isn't fluffy and 'moundable', it's a tad bit too soupy. So you pour the remainder that doesn't fit into the crust into the whipped topping container, and freeze it. If it's not in a crust, it has no calories. Eat it like ice cream when the kids aren't looking.
Artsy Fartisfy - optional. Take a small blob of seedless raspberry jelly ~ I prefer all-fruit, and the black raspberry makes a beautiful color ~ and melt it in the microwave. Stir in a dribble of lemon juice. Drizzle the melted jelly mixture over the top and then swirl with a knife. Ooooh, pretty. And so easy.
Freeze until serving. This step is important.

Albino Brownies

Daniel (featured at right) said these were in the Top 3 brownies he's tasted. Carrawayseed said I can't tell people I'm making treats without sharing the love. So here's the way-too-easy recipe:

Albino Brownies*

1 package white cake mix 1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter ---- 1 - 14 oz. package Kraft caramels 1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk ---- 1 generous c. white chocolate chips

mix together cake mix, sweetened condensed milk, and melted butter
divide dough in half. Press first half in the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan
bake the base for 6 minutes at 350 degrees
meanwhile melt together unwrapped caramels with 1/3 c. sweetened evaporated milk, stir until smooth. Use a glass container and microwave or a double boiler.
pour melted caramel mixture over baked brownie base. If necessary, carefully spread caramel.
sprinkle white chocolate chips evenly over surface.
crumble remaining brownie dough evenly over surface
bake 18-22 minutes in 350 degree oven.

When cooled, gently loosen edges and place a large cutting board over the pan. Invert pan on to cutting board and press lightly, brownies should fall onto cutting board. Cut into 24 pieces.
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* Adapted from Grandma's Monona UMC cookbook. No albinos are harmed in the making of this treat.

No Bakes

Do you remember when I found out that The Grand Lunar's favorite dessert-snack was brownies from a box? An astoundingly simple way to make him happy!

I'm pretty sure I asked him, at the time, if there were any other "childhood memories that make me happy" and he couldn't think of any, but I recently discovered another: no bake cookies.

We were at a dessert going-away party at church and he came back with a plate of cookies and exclaimed, as if he'd discovered gold (or a free iPod nano), "Look, no bake cookies!"

I've tried to make these once before. I did something wrong and they were sort of soupy, never really set up right.

I guess I'll try again. If I can find a foolproof no bake recipe (and they're supposed to be foolproof, aren't they?) he'll be happy, and I'll be happy to be able to make him happy.

Happy happy. Joy joy.
From a simple No Bake.

I Bet You Didn't Have This For Dinner

Watermelon Salsa

On a bed of romaine, with a parmesan and cream cheese sauced pasta with chicken. It was good.

Elaborated for Karin
Those are red onions in the watermelon salsa, it's one of those sweet-savory sort of things. I wasn't sure if we'd like it, but The Grand Lunar and I did, it was different but good. Here's the ingredients:

• watermelon, cut small (and seeded would've been nice, LOL!)
  
• red onion
  
• garlic, minced
  
• small spicy chile of some sort, seeded & minced (I didn't have one so I added cayenne powder)
  
• cilantro
  
• ground cumin
  
• lemon juice (I would've used lime if I had it, and I saw one recipe that called for balsamic vinegar instead)
  
• salt

Did everyone like it? sigh.
The Grand Lunar and I liked it. Although Lunar did say he would probably prefer a tomato salsa :) The children didn't try the salsa, I didn't try to make them. Actually, for a change I was a "nice mom" (or so I thought) and didn't serve the meal all stirred together. (I do mostly one-dish type meals, rather than 3-4 separate dishes) So I made chicken-and-noodles together, and I made a big bowl of plain watermelon, and I had the romaine separate. They each got a small portion of each of those three items. I thought the children would really like the chicken-and-noodles -- with a sauce that had cream cheese melted into it? Who could resist that? And it was good, it wasn't one of my weird food flops LOL. But ... it wasn't a hit. Oh well. Nearly all of them ate the requisite "try-me" bite, and I guess that'll have to do.