Sweet Potato Chili

Well, well, well... Happy 2012.  Undoubtedly, it will take me the next 8 months to figure out how it is 2012. I'm not the swiftest one to get used to writing  the new dates on checks or correspondence in general.  A couple of years ago (so, maybe 2009) I was writing a check at the grocery store, and I started to fill in the date box with 1996.  NINETEEN-NINETY SIX.  What? It wasn't even 2006, let alone 1996.  Brain-fart.  (Oh, I don't suppose it's appropriate to use the word fart in a post about a bean-based recipe, but  ha ha ha... it has now been typed, and I'm too lazy to delete it.)

Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie

First of all, these photos are a little dark and uninspired, but as is usually the case, I do most of my cooking late at night, and it's currently 11 p.m. Pacific Time.  So I'm a little sleepy, and it's very dark and very rainy out.  In fact, I believe we got nearly 2 inches of rain today.  Now then, I made the promise to try to do my chili-themed blogs this month, but I will admit that I overlooked how fast this month would fly by, and how side-tracked I would be by holiday-related crafting and other projects.  So ... it's still on deck for me to finish up the chili-recipes, and I think I'll get a chance to do so in December, but for now, let me do a last minute Thanksgiving appropriate dessert, which is really yummy.

The recipe came via my mother-in-law, as it was apparently one of my husband's favorite Thanksgiving desserts.  I've modified the spices a little bit, but other than that it's the same as the one she gave me.  It's a very fast, easy and tasty pie; and totally All-American. I mean, it has Jell-O brand vanilla pudding, and you can't get much more All-American than by putting Jell-O brand pudding into a recipe! (Which reminds me of how much I miss Jell-O Pudding Pops, and those ads by Bill Cosby.)  Oh... and HAPPY THANKSGIVING.  May we all find something in our lives we are profoundly thankful for.  If you are reading this, I can already remind you have a computer or smart-phone, electricity and a roof over your head. And that's more than what much of the world has.  We are blessed.


INGREDIENTS:

1 cup canned pumpkin
2 cups vanilla ice cream (softened a bit)
1 3.4 ounce package of Jell-O vanilla instant pudding
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1 dash nutmeg
1 dash all-spice

1 pie crust (I like the graham cracker no-bake crusts, as a great contrast to the pumpkin ice cream, but you could also do a regular pie crust, and bake it first according to directions or make your own from scratch.)

Optional:
Cover top of pie with whipped cream, after it is set up.

Blend all ingredients in a large bowl with electric mixer until fluffy, and fill into the pie-crust.  Chill, at least overnight (you can also freeze it and let it thaw a half hour prior to serving, if you want it more ice-cream like.  Otherwise, it serves up nicely, like a 'cream pie.' And you will clearly not be able to refrain from licking the beaters or possibly licking out the bowl with your tongue.  It can't be done.

Falafel

When I was a young whipper-snapper of a hipster, and I was always hanging out in Seattle, there was a place called Aladdin's on The Ave in the University of Washington District. (Now, if you're not a local, you won't know that The Ave is actually officially called University Way, not University Avenue.   It's anyone's best guess why it's called The Ave.)  Aladdin's had really great Mediterranean food, and my go-to was falafel sandwiches with tzatziki.  So good. Mmmmm.

Going even farther back, into the misty, water-colored memory windmills of my mind, when I was a kid in Sweden, our mom had a recipe which she occasionally made, and at the time we referred to this recipe as "ärtbullar" (or pea-balls) from an authentic Mediterranean recipe of chickpeas.  I'm not sure if the recipe just called them ärtbullar or if we just were too ignorant to call it Falafel.

A Note About Spices and Seasonings

I wanted to take this opportunity to mention that knowing the proper balance in seasoning your dishes is the difference between simply following a recipe versus cooking with a gut instinct (ha ha!) for a true "off the cuff" cooking experience.  Some recipes you should probably not mess around with too much (for instance, due to the scientific nature of baking, cookies, pastries and breads are left best unaltered.)  But with herbs, spices and seasonings, there is an acquired learning curve that will eventually take a novice chef up to a more instinctual level.  So I'm going to give a few points here to ponder if you are just learning to cook.   It took me a while to master some of these myself, so don't be discouraged if you have to approach these suggestions with some trepidation. 

Black Bean Chili with Cilantro

I promised in the last entry that there will be a "Chili" theme on the blog. Quite overly ambitious as I tend to be, I may have even promised a "Chili Week" but then I realized that would involve cooking chili multiple times in *ONE* week, and that led to the sure knowledge that I'd probably quickly tire of both cooking and eating chili.  Thus, to be realistic, I will just make a reasonable attempt to blog all the chili recipes by the end of November.

I know, I know...

Hello faithful readers -- all 16 of you at last count.  .... Happy Fall!  First off, my apologies.  I'm SO delinquent in updating the blog lately. I've been sick, hubby was sick, things just got kind of uninspired, tired, and just flat-out busy there for a while.  But, if I maybe can whet your appetite, stay tuned for my upcoming theme of CHILI-week, where I will be featuring several chili recipes, including:
1. My trademark "Black Bean chicken chili with cilantro"
2. My mother-in-law's recent experiment with the regional favorite, "Cincinnati Chili"
3. My husband's aunt's cook-off-winning "Real Texas Chili"
4. ...and a potential fourth recipe from another friend who recently placed in a chili cook-off as well.

In the meantime, go check out some cookbooks on Amazon for inspiration

Oh, and by all means try this recipe out for pumpkin cookies that have the texture and flavor of a spice-cake, and are just amazingly delicious.  For my own variation I drizzle a tangy icing that I make from powdered sugar, and lemon juice.  There's no exact measurements-- just take about 1/3 cup of powdered sugar and add a tablespoon or two of lemon juice and stir ... add more juice or more sugar to control the thickness.  It is meant to be drizzled, and not spread.  Lemon sounds like a  strange contrast to the spicy pumpkin flavor, but believe me it's really good.

Some Tips about Onions

Given that I have not bothered to write up a recipe for a good while, I'm going to 'pepper' my blog with some random tips, as in the previous entry about cleaning a stove without the use of chemicals. 

So we shall talk about chopping onions, fast and efficiently.  If you weep uncontrollably at the thought of chopping onions, you can borrow my little trick of keeping some swim goggles handy in the kitchen.  No -- not a snorkel goggle-- I mean those sleek things that folks like Matt Biondi or Michael Phelps would wear. It might look a little ridiculous to wear swim goggles, but hey... better than having your mascara run all over your face.

Now, I realize that most people with rudimentary knife skills can probably figure out how to chop an onion.  I mean, you just chop it, right?   However, if you want to really increase your efficiency, I figured out a way to speed things up and control the size of your diced onion cubes with a little more calculation involved.

Chemical-Free Range/Oven Cleaning; A Tutorial

Hi faithful readers. Okay, I know... I'm quite delinquent on updating a recipe; our big summer project was getting some contractors to rebuild our retaining wall, and it is going on week 4 now. Thus, not much new inspiration for foods and recipes. However, I was on a cleaning binge today, and decided to show you how to deeply and thoroughly clean your stove/oven/ range combo, to keep your kitchen cooking area spic-n-span, for easy and low-maintenance clean ups.

Roasted Eggplant Soup

Okay, I know that it's July and most of the United States are in a heatwave.  However, here in the Pacific Northwest, it's been way cooler than even our normal summertime averages. So I felt like making something a bit savory, and I realized just now as I typed up the title that I cook with eggplant a lot.  I have other recipes up my sleeve, too, which I’m sure I’ll get around to eventually.  But anyway, I had meant to do my recipe for Cordoba Fried Eggplant (Berenjenas Con Miel) but as time did not allow today to haul out the deep fryer, I opted to do something a little easier.  I found this similar recipe online at Safeway.com, and made it with a few minor modifications.   It was a hearty, but light soup, full of rich, savory flavors, and it was delicious with some bread on the side.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp (Strubarb Crisp)

For some people, rhubarb is a word that makes the hair on the neck stand up.  And then there are folks like me who can't get enough of the stuff.  My amazing mother sometimes makes rhubarb 'creme' (sort of a soupy mess of rhubarb, made with fresh rhubarb, sugar, and potato starch that is absolutely delicious...)  I will probably make some of that in a few days as I have a lot of rhubarb in my garden which I need to use up.  But that's not what I'm making today.  I'm going to share a recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.  I don't know where the recipe came from, but as it is so frequently the case, I will just assume that my mom gave it to me.  Crisps are fairly universally similar (oats, sugar, butter, spices) so I don't know if this one has any particularly unique qualities, but I shared a pan of it with my neighbors last month, and got an email back that said "Oh my, that crisp is so good! Wow. Thanks again!"  It's especially good with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top.