Chilly Times Call for...Chili!!

Veggie Chili

Well, it’s finally starting to cool off outside and finally feeling a bit more like Fall. Probably one of the few downsides to living in Phoenix. Almost mid-November and it’s still getting into the mid-80’s during the day. What’s worse, after 9 years of living in the valley I’m finding myself going, “Oh it’s going to be 84 today, I should wear jeans today since it’s cooler.” What has happened to this Canadian???

Whether it is actually cold, or “Phoenix cold”, now seems like a fantastic time for a bowl of chili. I decided to go with a veggie chili today – mainly because Dad is coming over and he’s a vegan. I’m determined one day to return him to the dark side. At the very least, get him eating dairy again, cooking for him can be a little difficult when you can’t put cheese on anything, and I love cheese.

My veggie chili combines an array of spices, veggies, and beans simmered in the slower cooker for 5-6 hours. I like to combine it with some fresh made biscuits (from scratch or Pillsbury…cornbread works too). Top it with some sour cream and cheese (vegan cheese for Dad and he doesn’t like sour cream anyways) and you’re good to go!

I like to start by chopping up roughly 2/3 of a large white onion, or 1 whole medium sized onion. In a medium sized pan, sauté the onion in a little bit of olive oil until soft and starting to brown. I enjoy using a flavored olive oil, there’s a great place in Flagstaff that has a fantastic garlic infused oil as well as a chipotle oil. Once your onions are done, remove them from the heat and gather the rest of your ingredients. You can also include 2 chopped green peppers in with the onions, I like to do this since it adds some extra veggies into the chili. Completely optional if you don’t want to.

You’ll need 1 can (15 oz) of tomato sauce, 2-3 tomatoes chopped (or if you’re feeling lazy you can used 1 can of diced tomatoes), 2-3 cloves of garlic (crushed), and 4 (15 oz) cans of beans. I used 2 cans of a spicy chili bean my grocery store carries, 1 can of black beans, and 1 can of pinto beans.

Starting with the beans, add the 4 cans into your slow-cooker. Mine is a 3-quart size, this recipe can easily be doubled for a larger crowd, in which case you’ll want to use a larger slow-cooker. Stir in the tomato sauce, garlic, diced tomatoes, and onion (green peppers too if you’re using them!). I usually add about ½ a cup of water into the mix as well.

Now it’s time to gather some seasonings. You’ll need chili powder, salt, brown sugar, basil, Italian seasoning, thyme, black pepper, oregano, and marjoram (see below of the measurements of each). Add in the seasonings, stir everything up and throw in 1 or 2 bay leaves. Cover and cook on Low for about 5 hours. You can easily let this simmer up to 6-7 hours. My slow-cooker automatically switches to a warm setting once the cook-time has finished.

Serve in a bowl, or if you’re feeling fancy a bread bowl, serve with biscuits or cornbread. Top with fresh chopped onion, cheese (I used some fresh shredded Cheddar), sour cream…the possibilities are endless! Either way, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this delicious dish!

Simple Straight Forward Recipe:

-2/3 large white onion or 1 medium white onion, chopped

-4 cans of beans of your choice (I use a spicy chili bean, black beans, pinto beans)

-2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed

-1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

-2 or 3 tomatoes, diced OR 1 can diced tomatoes

-1/2 cup of water

-2 green peppers, chopped (optional)

-2-3 tablespoons of chili powder

-A little less than 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

-1/2 tablespoon each of salt, black pepper, brown sugar, basil, and thyme

-About 1 teaspoon oregano and marjoram

-2 small bay leaves (or 1 large one if your bay leaves are huge like the ones I have)

-toppings of your choice

-Chop the white onion (and green peppers if you’re using them), sauté in a medium sized pan until softened and golden brown; set aside

-In your slow cooker, stir in your beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, garlic, and onion/green pepper mix

-Add in ½ cup of water

-Stir in seasonings, add in bay leaf (or leaves)

-Cover and cook on Low for approximately 5 hours, letting simmer for longer if you wish

-Serve in bowls with toppings of your choice

-Left overs can be refrigerated or frozen

Post Halloween Baking...Chocolate Raspberry Bars

Chocolate Raspberry Bars

Ahhhh it feels good to be back! I thought this might be a good place to re-start. Chocolate Raspberry Bars, those sound fantastic right now (as I’m making Coffee Cake…). I know it’s post Halloween and everyone is probably over sugared and fighting the risk of severe cavities. But…come on, Chocolate Raspberry Bars, how good do those sound?

The best part about these bars is how well every layer goes together. Don’t like raspberry? Not a problem I’ve substituted strawberry jam in these, and I’m pretty sure any sort of jam would work. Blueberry, Blackberry, Apricot whatever you want!

Let’s get started shall we? Since these bars are layered, they do require a bit of time to set before you can start on the next layer. Grab your ingredients, preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and let’s start on the crust. Grab 1 cup of flour and a quarter cup of confectioners sugar, mix them together then take ½ cup (or 1 stick) of butter. Now the trick here is to have the butter be cold, I usually cut the butter into smaller squares so I can easily cut it into the flour/sugar mix. Your mixture should look like this.

Take your crumbly, crust mix and press it into a very lightly greased 8x8 square pan.

Alright, now you're going to pop this in the oven for about 15 minutes, uncovered. You want it to be nicely browned, but obviously not burnt. You need it be firm so it won't crumble and fall apart later when you try to cut the bars.

While the crust is still warm you want to spread the jam on top of it. You do this while the crust is warm so the jam has the ability to spread a hell of a lot easier. I use approximately 1 cup of jam. My originally recipe only called for ½ a cup, which was clearly not enough. Use your best judgement on how much jam you want to use.






Next up…white chocolate layer!! Take half a block, 4 ounces, of cream cheese out of the fridge to soften. Take 1 cup of white chocolate chips and put them in a microwave safe bowl. Melt them at 50% power. I start at 2 minutes then stir, then another minute or so. Do not burn the white chips, yes you can easily burn white chocolate. Don’t do it if you can help it. It smells bad and you just worst of all, you just wasted chocolate chips.

Take the softened cream cheese and 2 tablespoons of milk and beat it until it's smooth. Then add in the melted chips and continue beating the mixture until it's (yes you guessed it) smooth. It shouldn't take too long.

Does your chocolate cream cheese mix look like this? GREAT!!

Now spread this carefully over the jam! As you can see I use a small spatula to do this. You need to do this with a light and gentle hand otherwise you'll mix the jam and the cream cheese layers together, and that’s not what we’re trying to do here. I'm sure it would taste just fine, but I always like the look of having the separate layers. So just go slowly and do it carefully.




All good? Excellent! Now we’re about ¾ of the way done with this baking project. Since the crust was warm when you layered on the jam, and then white chocolate/cream cheese mix was also a little warm when you spread that over the jam layer, you need to let everything cool completely. Take a step back, go watch an episode of something on Netflix or Hulu or watch the news (just kidding don’t do that, no one wants to watch the news…). Give it about 15 minutes on the counter to cool, then pop it in the fridge for about 1 hour to set.

Welcome back! Did you enjoy your episode of whatever you decided to watch? I hope you did. It’s time for the final step of our layered bars, the Chocolate Glaze! For the glaze it is incredibly simple. Take the microwave safe bowl you used before for the white chocolate and put ¾ of a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and the 2 tablespoons of shortening in it. Again, melt it at 50% for about 2 minutes, then maybe another minute. Stir it around until it's completely smooth like this...

Once you have your glaze all set, take the bars out of the fridge (if you haven’t already) and carefully pour the warm glaze over the layer of white chocolate. What I usually do is pour the glaze on and then pick up the pan and slowly tilt it around so the glaze spreads evenly.

Guess what you're going to do now...that's right, put this sucker back in the fridge so it can set. Only for about 10 minutes or so though. Once it's set juuuuuuust enough you can score the bars.

Not my prettiest work, but I did my best...

Once you cut them in the bars. Leave them in the pan, the glaze isn't completely set yet so you need to return this to the fridge (ugh I know) for sadly another hour or so. Gaaaaah!! Don't worry, distract yourself with something else then when that hour mark hits...you can FINALLY enjoy these! Cut the bars through the rest of the way and keep them in the fridge in a sealed container. The first bar will be the hardest one to get out and it will probably look horrible, but the others will be nice and pretty.

That's it! You're done! Enjoy and try not to be like me and eat all of them…it happens sometimes, it’s OK though no one will judge you.

Simple Straight Forward Recipe:

CRUST:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup confectioners/powdered sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, still cold and cubed or sliced in some way

FILLING:

About 1 cup seedless raspberry jam OR strawberry jam OR whatever jam you want really

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons milk

1 cup vanilla or white chocolate chips, melted

GLAZE:

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons shortening

-Combine the flour and confectioners sugar together; cut in the cold butter until the mixture is nice and crumbly

-Press evenly into an 8x8 baking dish, lightly greased

-Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 minutes until golden brown

-While the crust is warm, spread about 1 cup of your choice of jam evening over the crust

-Melt 1 cup of white chocolate chips in a microwave safe dish

-Beat 4oz of softened cream cheese with 2 tablespoons of milk, continue to beat until smooth, adding in the melted white chocolate

-Carefully spread the white chocolate mix over the layer of jam, spreading evenly

-Let set for about 15 minutes, the refrigerate for 1 hour

-In a microwave safe bowl combine semi-sweet chocolate chips and shortening, melt in the microwave, stirring until smooth

-Spread evenly over the white chocolate layer

-Let the Chocolate glaze set for approximately 10 minutes in the fridge before scoring the bars

-Return to the fridge for 1 hour

-Cut the bars through the rest of the way, can store in the fridge in a sealed container

-Enjoy!