Ultimate Chili

Deer hunting in my family sometimes feels like a holiday before the holidays. While the men bond in the woods, the women usually bond in the kitchen. In past years we have tackled lefse, caramel rolls and donuts from scratch. Our main goal is to relax and enjoy each others company. By the time our hungry hunters come inside we have quite the spread ready for them. Saturday night I was in charge of the soups. I made chicken wild rice soup and my Ultimate Chili. The chili was the crowd favorite so I am featuring that recipe tonight. (Zach even said this made his top 3 of the best chili he's ever had.) This chili has a couple of special ingredients that give it an edge over you basic recipe. The warm and spicy layers of flavor are cooled off by the cheese and sour cream toppings. I always make a big batch and freeze it in individual servings for easy lunches on the go. Ultimate Chili (Note: I never measure ingredients when making soups, so use this as a guide. Your seasoning amounts will vary on how spicy you like your chili) 1 lb. ground beef 1 sm. onion diced 3-4 stalks of celery diced 1 qt. whole tomatoes 1 qt. tomato juice 1 can chili beans in medium sauce 1 can black beans drained 1 sm. can green chilies diced salt/pepper 1/2 tsp. garlic powder 1/2 tsp. cumin 1/2 tps. oregano 3-4 Tbls. chili seasoning Toppings: sour cream, cheese, avocados - Brown ground beef, onions and celery in soup pot. Drain excess fat. Add remaining ingredients and simmer at least 20 minutes.

M&M Cookies

We spent the weekend Up North at my parents' house where the kitchen is packed with home-cooked foods and happy people. Staying there with family and friends is the perfect balance of relaxation and pure chaos. While we're there my mom makes most of the food and my dad makes sure no one goes hungry. : ) This weekend I was able to make a couple of family favorites that I know you will like too. There is nothing better than warm cookies to fill a room with the smell of home. These M&M cookies are the perfect treat. They differ from chocolate chip cookies in that they have crisco instead of butter. The crisco makes a very different cookie texture. The end result is a soft and chewy cookie. Paired best with a glass of milk!

M&M Cookies

1 c. crisco

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. water - not sure why this is necessary but I always do it : )

2 eggs

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 c. + 4 Tbls. flour

2 c. M&M's

Beat crisco and sugars until creamy. Add remaining ingredients in the order given. Bake at 375 on an ungreased cookie sheet 10 minutes.

(I always take my cookies out before they look done and let them sit for a minute on the cookiesheet before moving them on wax paper or a cooling rack to cool. )

Tangy Pork Chops & Candied Squash

If you haven't cooked pork chops for your family lately I suggest bringing it back on the menu. I always seem to forget how good and easy they are. I like to use bone-in chops because I think they deliver a more tender meat, but feel free to use boneless if you like. My vegetable for tonight is perfect for every fall meal: Buttercup Squash. I've only had squash prepared one way (the way my mom makes it) and that is baked and then mashed like potatoes. I love them like this but every time I make them my husband claims he is "not a squash kind of guy." This is his polite way of saying that he doesn't like something I make. Tonight I was bound and determined to get him to change his mind. I tried oven roasting the squash with brown sugar to make it taste more like candied carrots and less like squash...it was a success - he liked it!! The sweet apple cider in the pork chops made a delicious gravy that was actually great with the squash. All in all this meal was delicious and satisfying - a great spin on an old classic.

Denise's Quick Tangy Pork Chops

4 Pork Chops

1/2 C. Flour

1 pkg Onion Soup Mix

1/2 C. Dry white wine

1/2 C. Apple cider

Season flour in a shallow dish with salt and pepper. Dredge meat in flour mixture and brown in olive oil in a heated frying pan at med-high heat. Brown each side about 3 minutes. Transfer meat into a casserole dish and sprinkle dry onion soup mix over the meat. Pour wine and cider over the dish. Bake covered at 375 for 30-35 minutes.

Oven Roasted Squash

Buttercup squash - peeled and cut into 2" cubes

Olive Oil

Salt, Pepper

Freshly grated nutmeg

3-4 Tbls. Brown sugar

Line baking sheet with parchment paper (for easy cleanup). Place squash on baking sheet and drizzle olive oil to coat. Season with remaining ingredients. Bake at 375 for approx. 35 minutes, stirring a couple of times.

Golden Mushroom Chicken

One cannot consider themselves a true Minnesotan wife unless they own a plethora of recipes that call for cream of something in a can. If you don't believe me, keep an eye out at the next potluck you go to and notice that Cream of Mushroom Soup could very well be the official state food.

Tonight's meal is no exception. Denise's "Fancy Chicken Breasts" calls for Golden Mushroom Soup which I really liked using. I made only a few changes to her recipe - I added fresh rosemary and baby spinach since I had them on hand and since they compliment chicken so well. There are endless possibilities for what you could add to the chicken before rolling it up. The bacon wrap holds the chicken together and keeps it very moist. Ryan gave this meal two forks way up. I think it would be perfect for serving to guests since it can all be prepped before hand and then kept in the refrigerator before baking.

Golden Mushroom Chicken

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

6 slices of bacon

1 can of golden mushroom soup

1 c. sour cream

sliced fresh mushrooms (opt.)

Pound chicken breasts down to about 1/4" thickness. (Tip: Place chicken in ziploc bag to pound out for easy clean-up) Season chicken and roll up breasts. Wrap a slice of bacon on each. Set in a casserole dish. Mix soup and sour cream. Add in mushrooms. Spread over chicken.

Bake at 375 for 60-75 minutes.

Excellent over mashed potatoes (Tip: Freshly grated nutmeg in the mashed potatoes adds a warm, earthy undertone)

Mac-n-Cheese

I feel like I should back track and explain what is going on here. This past weekend I received a hand-made cookbook from Ryan's aunt Denise. She hand wrote all of her favorite recipes she has saved from family, friends and magazines over her lifetime and gifted them to me. (Thanks Denise!!) I decided to dedicate our dinners for this week to her cookbook. This blog is what resulted.

Sunday I made her apple crisp. Monday I thought I would jump right in and try her world-famous macaroni and cheese. This is Denise's favorite food - she even requests that everyone raises a fork of it in her honor at her funeral luncheon. I started making it knowing that it would be hard to convince Ryan and I that this would be as good Kraft. As funny as that sounds, Ryan and I both grew up on Kraft and it is a shared comfort food. I followed the recipe exactly since I didn't want to stand in the way of perfection. What I did love about this recipe is that it calls for thin spaghetti instead of elbow macaroni. I also liked that it bakes in the oven and forms a cheesy crust on the outside and is very gooey in the center. We gave it two thumbs up but Ryan requests more cheese for next time. (This is no surprise since Ryan thinks all food tastes better with extra cheese or ketchup!)

Denise's Macaroni & Cheese

2 C. + sharp cheddar cheese, cubed

7 oz. thin spaghetti noodles, cooked al dente

Medium white sauce (below)

Butter casserole, put in cooked noodles pour white sauce over followed by cheese cubes. Mix to make sure sauce spreads through noodles.

Bake at 350, uncovered for 1 hour.

White Sauce

4 Tbls butter

4 Tbls flour - melt butter and add flour. Add:

2 C. milk

salt & pepper

celery salt - small amount

oregano - small amount

"Spike" - small amount

dry onions (minced) about 1/4 cup

Apple Crisp

On Halloween Ryan and I went to pick apples at Emma Krumbee’s Apple Orchard. We were so happy because we actually got to pick them from the trees! Half of a bushel later, I realized that Ryan and I will be getting more than our apple-a-day. I turned to your cookbook, not sure if you even had a recipe for apple crisp – and you did! I chose that particular one because it called for oatmeal and I like my apple crisp with oatmeal in it. Of course I had to add a couple of things: craisins which I re-hydrated, orange zest and pecans for the topping. The recipe was easy and delicious!! I highly recommend the craisins for a cran-apple crisp. They were nice and tart! Our dessert was as sweet as our victory over the Packers – go Favre!!

Apple Crisp

6-8 Tart apples peeled, cut in 1" chunks

1 1/2 C. Brown Sugar

3/4 C. Flour

3/4 C. Rolled Oats

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Nutmeg

6 Tbls. Butter

Zest of an orange

1/2 C. Craisins re hydrated in orange or apple juice

Heat oven to 350. Toss apples with cranberries and orange zest and fill buttered pan. Blend remaining ingredients and crumble over top. Bake 35 minutes.