It's a little chili inside.

I know it's been almost a month since I've updated! It's been so incredibly busy around here with Thanksgiving, then getting everything ready for Christmas. I've been on the go non-stop, meaning easy dinners were in order.

With the cold weather, everyone was wanting some comfort food, so tonight's dinner is a simple turkey chili.

What you'll need;

2 jars of spaghetti sauce
2lbs ground turkey
1 can of kidney beans
2tbsp garlic
2tbsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon oregano

Now you can add seasonings like cayenne, hot sauce, or whatever other seasonings you like to create a spicy chili, but this is just a mild version.

Brown the turkey in a pan - I always add a little water to keep it from sticking to the bottom. Heat the spaghetti sauce in a larger pan, then add the kidney beans, turkey and seasonings and stir for about 10 minutes or until warm. Serve and enjoy!

The whole process takes about 1/2 hour.

I will be posting more recipes soon - especially the delicious cherry pie I made for Thanksgiving!

Until then, live, eat and be happy!
Cherise

Homemade Italian Bread

So I know it's been a while since my last post! It's been crazy with how busy we've been!

I love homemade bread, it typically takes forever to make, but this one only took a few hours (it's easy, just, takes a while.)

The original recipe comes from Diana's Kitchen

• 2 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 8 cups all-purpsose flour, stir before measuring
• butter
• yellow corn meal
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon salt

Pour warm water into a warm mixing bowl; sprinkle with the yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir in about 2 cups of the flour. Beat well; add salt and gradually beat in all but about 2 cups of the flour. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and cover with a clean dish towel; let rest 10 minutes.

Knead by hand for 20 minutes or until dough is very elastic, kneading in as much of the remaining flour as necessary for smooth dough. Place dough in a lightly buttered bowl, turning to grease all of the dough surface.

Cover bowl with foil then cover with a dish cloth and let rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in bulk.

Punch dough down and let rise to double again, about 1 hour longer.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half and form each portion into a ball. Cover with dish cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.

Roll each half of the dough into a 15x8-inch rectangle about 1/2-inch thick. Roll up tightly, starting with short side, sealing as you roll.

Taper ends by rolling out with hands until loaf is 10 to 11 inches long. Place loaves seam side down on buttered baking dishes which have been sprinkled with yellow cornmeal.

Add 1 tablespoon of water to egg white in a bowl and beat lightly; brush over and along sides of loaves. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth without touching dough -- place glasses or cups around loaves and place towels on them. Place pans in in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in bulk. Place a shallow pan on bottom rack of oven; fill with boiling water. bake loaves in center of oven preheated to 375° for 20 minutes. Brush with egg white mixture again and continue baking for 20 minutes longer, or until well-browned and done.

After we were done I cut the bread into pieces and added mozzarella, Parmesan, and garlic and cooked in the oven at 375º for 5-7 minutes. It was delicious!

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Alright, so I know it's been about a week since I've updated (oops!) But I do have some recipes!

I have never been a fan of pumpkin pie, it's always made me gag, and grosses me out. However, my friend Jimmy suggested I make a pumpkin pie from real pumpkins - being that the only kind I had ever had was pumpkin from a can or store bought pie. I have never baked a pie before, and I have never gutted a pumpkin, so it was definitely an interesting experience. haha

I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com

What you'll need;

• 2 cups mashed, cooked pumpkin - I used one medium pie pumpkin
  
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 1/4 cup honey
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the crust:

• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup cold water

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Halve pumpkin and scoop out seeds and stringy portions. Cut pumpkin into chunks. In saucepan over medium heat, in 1 inch of boiling water heat the pumpkin to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until tender. Drain, cool and remove the peel. To do this you will probably need a big strong guy, or a really super sharp knife! I had to ask my husband to cut it for me because I couldn't get through even with our large butcher knife!
   
3. Return pumpkin to the saucepan and mash with a potato masher. Drain well.
4. Prepare pie crusts by mixing together the flour and salt. Cut shortening into flour, add 1 tablespoon water to mixture at a time. Mix dough and repeat until dough is moist enough to hold together.
5. With lightly floured hands shape dough into a ball. On a lightly floured board roll dough out to 1/8 inch thickness. With a sharp knife, cut dough 1 1/2 inch larger than the upside down 8-9 inch pie pan. Gently roll the dough around the rolling pin and transfer it right side up on to the pie pan. Unroll, ease dough into the bottom of the pie pan.
6. In a large bowl with mixer speed on medium, beat pumpkin with evaporated milk, eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Mix well. Pour into a prepared crust. Bake 40 minutes or until when a knife is inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean.

Now, when I did the crust, I am HORRIBLE with it. So I just put it in the bottom of the pan and squished it down with my fingers until it filled up the pan and seemed thin enough haha. It worked out well.

One medium (6"-8" )pumpkin makes about 2 pies.

It's soooo yummy! It was the first time I ever liked eating pumpkin pie. Now, being that I am not a fan of pumpkin pie and I don't eat it often, I can't tell you if it's gonna taste "just like grandma's pie!" but it was good and everyone who ate it seemed to like it!

Dinner Party

My husband and I love to entertain people, and what better way to do that than to have a dinner party. I love cooking, and he loves to season things, so it was a great way to pass the time :-D
I made quite a few things, and I am pretty sure we are going to have leftovers for about a week. I will slowly add recipes from the night (maybe 1-2 a day), just so it's not overwhelming.

One of the things we had was the Seasoned Chicken over brown rice, my husband did add a little bit more pepper to it this time, and it was delicious.

A few of our guests remembered that it was my birthday (which I was surprised since we haven't known them very long) and they brought me some gorgeous pink roses, which definitely made my night.
That's all for this post! I'll write more later!

Cherise

Homemade Bagels

Okay, I bought some organic cream cheese and really wanted to try it, but had nothing to put it on. So I decided okay.. I'm going to attempt to make homemade bagels. I always thought they would be really hard to make, but I was so wrong.

This recipe is so easy and took a total of about an hour, including cook time. The original recipe is from a guy who used to wake up at 5am and make them every day for his bakery, and I was pleased not to have to adjust the recipe all that much, I think you may need a little more than 4 cups of flour, but not by a lot.

What you'll need;

4 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast (or 1 packet instant yeast)
1-1/4 cups of water

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. You don't have to worry about soaking the yeast when you use instant yeast (most yeast sold these days is instant yeast). The dough should feel stiff, but add the extra water if it's really stiff, or you can't get all the dry flour incorporated.

Plop the dough down onto the counter, and knead for about ten minutes, or until the dough is uniform and smooth.

Cut the dough into 8 equal sized balls, and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Pre heat your oven to 425.

Now, take each of the dough balls and using two hands, roll it into a little snake on the counter. When the snake is longer than the width of your two hands, wrap it around your dominant roiling hand. The dough rope should be wrapped so the overlapping ends are together at your palm, near the start of your fingers. Now take the two overlapping ends, and use your palm to squish/roll these two ends together. Once the dough is fused, you should have a perfectly circular bagel-to-be! This is the only part of the process that can take a little practice before your bagels will look really professional. Don't get discouraged if they don't look perfect, it just takes practice!

Let your bagels rest on the counter for about 20 minutes, and meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil, and grease a large baking tray lightly. You can just rub a splash of vegetable oil and rub it around.

After the 20 minute wait, your bagels will start to look puffy, and it's time to get them boiling! Add them as many at a time as you can to your boiling water without crowding them. Boil for about a minute, turn them over, and boil for another minute. Take them out a let dry for a minute and then place them on your oiled baking tray. Repeat until all the bagels are boiled.

Add the tray to the oven, and after 10 minutes, flip the bagels over, bake for another ten minutes; and they're done!

They are sooo good! Give it a try, it's not that hard!

Cherise

Spicy Curry Chicken

This was what we had on Friday night and it was delicious. I happen to love chicken, rice and spicy foods. It wasn't all that spicy, just a tiny tiny hint of it.

Typically when making curry you cut the chicken up into tiny pieces or cubed chicken, so if you want to do that you can. We decided last minute not to, because we just wanted to enjoy cutting the chicken open and eating it haha.

What you'll need:

4 pieces of boneless chicken breast (or 1lb of cubed chicken breast)
1.5 cups of water
2 tablespoons Black Pepper
2 teaspoons Sea Salt
1 teaspoon Ground Mustard
3 tablespoons Spicy Curry
1 tablespoon Onion Powder
2-3 teaspoons Red Pepper Flakes
2 teaspoons Parsley
1 tablespoonOregano
1 teaspoon Thyme
1 teaspoon Sage
1 cup Tequila (may be substituted with extra water, though it wont have the same flavor without it)
1 teaspoon Rosemary
2 tablespoons Paprika
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Sour Cream

Add water, tequila, Worcestershire sauce and chicken to the pan on medium heat, as the chicken is cooking add all of the spices. Then flip over and cook on the other side. The spices will come off in the liquid and flavor the entire chicken. Delicious!

This is what the chicken looked like as we were cooking it with all the spices.

The hubby wanted mashed potatoes with his chicken, I had mine with long grain brown rice. It was delicious.
Enjoy!

Cherise

Tomato Basil Soup and Mini Meatballs

Okay, so I know I haven't updated in a few days, but I have been cooking, do not worry!

I got very busy making a blanket for baby Juliet, updating my website, and taking care of my little teething angel ;-)

So this recipe is Tomato Basil Soup, it's pretty easy, I didn't make the tomato base myself because I didn't have the time, but if you do you just need to puree 5-6 tomatoes and boil it with a cup of milk.

What you'll need:

2 cans of unseasoned tomato sauce
1.5 - 2 cups of milk
1 tablespoon Basil
2 tsp Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Onion Powder
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Sage
1 tablespoon Oregano
1 tsp Cayenne

Heat the tomato sauce up until boiling, add the milk and spices, stir until warm.

Mini Meatballs:

1 lb Ground Meat (we used turkey, but you can use beef, lamb, chicken, whatever you usually use)
1 cup bread crumbs (to make yourself, toast bread and crumble)
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 egg
2/3 cup oil for frying (I use Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

In a medium bowl add all ingredients and mix together, roll into small balls. This makes approximately 50 mini-meatballs. While you are preparing your meatballs turn the stove on medium-high with enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, but not enough that it would drown the meatballs. *NOTE* When dealing with heating up oil, you want to make sure your pan is completely DRY before adding the oil to heat up, otherwise as it heats the water and oil will start to spark and it can hurt and burn. So DRY pan before heating up the oil!

Add the meatballs to the heated oil. You can put a lid on and cook for 15-20 minutes, checking periodically to turn the meatballs so they don't burn on any sides.

I personally like putting the meatballs into the soup, however, we have picky people in our family so we had them separately.

Enjoy!