Chilling with the Chili

After one of the most boring Saturdays EVER, I decided I needed to bring a little fun into my Sunday.To accomplish this goal, I decided to invite over two of my good friends, Brendon and Davey, and cook them some vegetarian chili. A few hours after inviting them over, they showed up at my door in full ugly Christmas regalia...and I could not have been more excited. Granted, they looked a little insane and they were wearing women's clothes from Kmart, but it is the thought that counts (?). To continue with the holiday theme, we played a game of Risk. Well, actually, Risk has nothing to do with the holidays...unless your holidays involve a lot of yelling, luck, and crazy strategies. So really, nothing to do with the holidays, but fun nonetheless.

ANYWAYS, the chili was awesome. Wanna make it? Of course you do. Because you love chili. And you love me. DUH.

Super Duper Awesome Veggie Chili

Gather:
4 stalks of celery
2 carrots
1 yellow onion
5 gloves minced garlic
2 jalapenos
2 bell peppers
1 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon crushed red chili pepper flakes
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/2 tablespoons cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 cup veggie broth
1 - 1/2 cup brewed coffee
3 cans of beans (I used 2 cans of black beans and 1 can of kidney beans)

Preparation:

1. Heat some oil in a medium - large pot. Add the celery, carrots, and onion, chopped. Stir for about 1 minute and add the garlic. Add the bell peppers. (My bell peppers were frozen so I just cooked them until they were thawed and cooked through). Cook all of the ingredients until cooked thoroughly. Add the spices and cook for another 30 - 60 seconds to incorporate the flavors.

Mierpoix

2. Add the tomatoes, broth, and coffee. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

3. Add the beans and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

4. Serve with your favorite toppings - cheese, avocado, sour cream, etc.

This + cornbread = HAPPINESS.

Cheddar Broccoli Soup

Fall weather has FINALLY arrived in Santa Barbara! Of course, fall weather here is not quite the fall weather that most of the nation knows. Fall here is marked by a little bit of wind and temperatures below 65 degrees or so. Even though this is not quite as chilly as the 40 degrees in my old city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, I still like to believe that it qualifies as soup weather. I don't think there is anything better than sitting on the couch with a warm bowl of soup and a good book or something good on the TV.

Cheddar Broccoli Soup

- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 3 - 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 head of broccoli
- 1 carrot
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- Salt & pepper
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground mustard
- 2 cups milk
- 6 oz sharp cheddar, shredded

1. Heat some olive oil in a large pot and add the onion, cooking until soft. Add the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds.
2. I really wasn't in the mood to chop up all the veggies, so I chose to toss them into the food process and chop them up pretty small. Then I threw them into the pot and stirred them around for about 5 minutes to soften them up.
3.  Add the vegetable broth and seasonings. Simmer for 10-15 minutes to incorporate the flavors.
4. Add the milk. Simmer for another 3-5 minutes and then add the cheese and stir.
5. Eat! I ate mine with some crusty french bread and artichoke - the leaves make excellant spoons!

A Fall Favorite

Fall is all about grilled cheeses, soup, leaves, coffee (does it get much better than a Pumpkin Spice Latte?!), and lazy days cuddled up with a good book. I love fall for all of these reasons. In Santa Barbara however, the fall months are not exactly fall-like most of the time. Today it was a blazing ninety degrees...not exactly the crisp fall weather one expects and craves in October. Because real fall days are few and far between, I jump on every one of them and try to do all the cliched things I can possibly think of. So when the temperature hit a somewhat cool and fall-like 60 degrees last week, I took the chance to make a delicious grilled cheese and heat up some tomato soup. I made one of my all-time FAVORITE grilled cheeses - enjoy :) [The pictures do not do the sandwich justice, unfortunately. I really need to get some better lighting in my kitchen. Just trust me on this one and try it!]

Gruyere and Apple Grilled Cheese

Ingredients:

- Ciabatta bread

- Olive oil

- Garlic clove

-Red onion

- Salt

- Pepper 

- Gruyere cheese, sliced

- Apple, thinly sliced (I used a Granny Smith)

- Cinnamon

How to:

1. Start by roasting some red onion. Thinly slice some red onion - 1-3 slices per sandwich should be sufficient. Toss the onion with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper and broil, flipping once the onions are starting to crisp up on the first side. When the onions are crispy on the second side, remove them from the oven.

2. Slice the ciabatta bread in half. Drizzle the cut side with a little olive oil. Take a garlic clove and cut the top off. Rub the bottom portion on the ciabatta bread. Place the slices on a cookie sheet on the middle shelf and broil until they are golden brown.

3. Place the slices of apple on the bread and top with a little sprinkle of cinnamon. Layer the gruyere on top of the apples and top off with the red onion. Stack the top of the ciabatta onto the sandwich and stick 'em in the oven at about 350 until the cheese is melted! YUM!

Pizza for Breakfast

This weekend, I needed a hearty, hangover curing breakfast. So off to the store I went in search of the perfect thing to make. As I meandered the aisles, I finally settled on pizza. Pizza with eggs. I am completely convinced that both of these things, along with asparagus, have some sort of magical hangover curing ability. And maybe they do because after I devoured a couple of slices (I probably could have ate the whole thing if I hadn't invited a couple of friends over), I felt pretty damn good. Or it may have been the mimosa that I drank along with the pizza. Or the fact that, unlike my usual Saturday/Sunday situation, the pizza was NOT leftover from the night before. In any case, I have found a way to indulge in two of my favorite things at the same time.

You will need:

- 1 pizza crust (for the sake of convenience I just picked up a Boboli crust)
- Some pizza sauce (I had some leftover canned spaghetti sauce that I spiced up with some fresh oregano, thyme and rosemary)
- 1/2 a potato, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 3-5 stalks of asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1/2 - 3/4 cup of grated Gruyere cheese
- 4 eggs
- A healthy sprinkling of Parmesan cheese

Now, let's make this:

1. Preheat your oven to 425.
2. Heat up some olive or vegetable oil. Put the potatoes in the oil and WALK AWAY. This is the hardest part, but seriously, leave them alone for a bit. You want them to be nice and crispy. Come back in 5-8 minutes and if they are crispy, flip and repeat. If they aren't quite ready yet, let them sit for a minute or two longer and then flip. Once the potatoes are almost done, sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper and maybe a little garlic powder.
3. Heat up a little more oil and saute the asparagus. My asparagus was pretty thin so it only took about 4 minutes to cook.
4. Spread some sauce on your pizza crust and then sprinkle on the Gruyere. Top with the asparagus and potato. I then pulled out the middle rack in my oven and put the pizza on it BEFORE putting on the eggs so I didn't have to worry about moving the pizza from the counter to the oven and potentially losing an egg. Crack the eggs and place on the pizza. Be careful from placing them too near the edge as they will spread. You can also use a spoon to make a little bit of a well for each egg. Last, but not least, top the pizza with some Parmesan.
5. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until the egg whites are set and the cheese is bubbly.
6. Cure your hangover blues. Or just have a nice breakfast/brunch/brinner.

I just ate dinner...but I am hungry again. Drool.

A Life Changing Meal

Sometimes you stumble upon a recipe that really, really changes your life. I know that this sounds crazy and dramatic, but seriously this happens. At least to me. My most recent life changing discovery was Eggs in Purgatory. Everyday, I get about a million recipes emailed to me. Usually, I don't even bother to open them but when an email came in with all egg recipes, I had to open it. I love eggs. And I especially love poached eggs (Eggs Benedict is my favorite thing for brunch. Ever.). Anyways, in this email there was a recipe for Shakshuka or eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce. After some research, I decided that I was going to have to make this dish in some form. I settled on the Eggs in Purgatory variation because I happened to have a lot of the stuff on hand already. In fact, that is the beauty of this dish - it can be made from whatever combination of herbs and spices and cheese you have on hand. The ingredients magically come together in about 20 minutes to form a completely heavenly dish best complemented by some crusty bread. So easy, so fast, so amazing. It has become a weekly (at least) staple for me. I usually eat it for dinner, but it also makes for a great brunch. I personally like to eat it out of the pan (less dishes) while giving thanks to the first person to think of making this dish. So, go on and make it. Now. It might change your life too.

Ingredients (for a single serving):

- Olive oil

- A clove or two of garlic, minced.

- Half an onion

- 1-2 tomatoes, chopped

- 1-2 jalapenos, finely chopped

- Some spices (I used Whole Foods Grind to a Salt which has nice little mix of stuff in it. Get creative. Have fun.)

- 1/2 cup or so of water

- Spinach (optional)

- 2 eggs

- A handful of basil, chopped

- A bit of feta

Cook it up:

1. Heat some olive oil in a medium sized pan. Throw in the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds. Add in the onion and cook until the onion is translucent and soft. 

2. Add in the tomatoes, jalapenos, and spices. Add in some water. The amount you add will depend on the consistency you want for your sauce. Simmer it all for about 10 minutes to bring all the flavors together. Add salt and pepper to taste. If desired, you could put the mixture in a food processor/blender at this point to make a smoother sauce. I liked the texture as it was, so I chose not to do that. Plus, that just makes more dishes. And food processors suck to clean. I did, however, decide to stir in a nice big handful of chopped spinach and cook until it was just wilted.

3. Turn the heat to low-ish. Make a little well in the tomato mixture and crack an egg in. A little ways away, make another well for the second egg and crack it in as well. 

4. Put a lid on the pan and cook until the eggs are set. I like to cook mine for about 10 minutes so that the whites are set, but the yolk is still runnnnny. If you prefer a less runny yolk, cook it longer. 

5. Top it all off with some cheese and basil! Eat with a nice piece of bread. I had some toasted ciabatta with butter. HOLY YUMGASM!