Monthly Archives: April 2015

White Bean and Chicken Chili

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FullSizeRenderIt was April in Minnesota and I was still seeing snowflakes out my window (noooooo!!!), so I decided soup was still on the menu. This recipe is not as heavy as a traditional chili, but more a cross between chicken soup and chili and is a whole meal in itself. I used to make it only when I had extra turkey on hand after Thanksgiving, but now I’ll buy a whole roasted chicken at the grocery store, and use that to get going on the soup. Make this when entertaining a crowd, or for a few, and freeze some for later. Since it’s not milk-based, it freezes really well. I found the skeleton of this recipe online years ago, but have tweaked and added to it so that it no longer resembles the original. The trace amount of ground cloves in the broth give a unique, yet compelling flavor twist to this southwestern-style soup.

Makes 8 servings

For soup:

2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups ½-inch pieces cooked chicken or turkey
3-4 cups canned or homemade chicken broth
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, or 2 teaspoons dried cilantro
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cans (15-16 oz. each) great northern beans, drained
2 cans (15 oz. each) corn, drained
2 cans (15 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained

Garnish:

Blue or yellow corn tortilla chips, crushed
Sour cream (optional)
Grated Monty Jack cheese (optional)

Melt butter in large Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook onion first until translucent, and add green peppers to sauté until slightly tender, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes more, stirring often. Stir in all remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Serve soup with crushed chips and sour cream or cheese, if desired.

NOTE: This recipe is gluten-free if you make your own chicken broth, and use 100% corn tortilla chips.

Corn Bread

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IMG_0718When my college-age son Mitchell called (a real live phone call! not a text!) to ask how I made my corn bread, I thought I’d post this fabulous recipe for everyone. My friend Mary Ericksen shared it with me after I complained about my dry, crumbly corn bread recipe. This is the best corn bread ever—it’s actually more of a corn cake, but let’s not haggle over the name. The addition of a generous amount of sour cream makes it moist and delicious. We love dipping wedges of it in a bowl of hot chili on a cold winter day, or munching on it with a slab of barbecued ribs. It’s also great slathered in homemade cheddar cheese sauce and served with a couple slices of ham.

Makes 8 servings

1 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup white flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup sour cream (or Greek yogurt, if you want to cut calories)
2 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 375° Fahrenheit. Spray round 9” cake pan, or 9”x9” square baking dish with cooking spray. Combine all ingredients in large mixer bowl fitted with paddle attachment. Beat just until all ingredients are combined, scraping bowl occasionally with rubber spatula.

Pour batter into prepared baking dish and use spatula to smooth batter down a bit. (It will be thick.) Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Top of corn bread will be light golden brown when done. Let cool on wire rack for 15 minutes or more before slicing and serving.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Everyone has this recipe—it’s right on the package of Nestle Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips —but I’m often told my chocolate chip cookies are something special. This winter we hosted students from France and Japan (not at the same time), and it only took one warm, gooey, bite to make them disciples of the chocolate chip cookie cult. Antoine C., Antoine G., and Kana loved these so much that they requested the recipes, meaning this silly little cookie recipe is my first to go global.

My secret to fabulous cookies is to turn on the mixer and cream, cream, and cream again. I often turn on my KitchenAid mixer to cream the shortening and sugars, then let it go while I do other stuff. It doesn’t seem that you can over-do the creaming to make light, fluffy cookies. The other trick is to not over-bake. Remove from oven when lightly brown on edges. And of course you have to put love in your cookies. Don’t forget the love. That’s the secret ingredient.

Makes 2 dozen cookies (I make them big)

1 cup shortening (do NOT substitute butter in this recipe)
¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed
¾ cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups (or 12 ounce bag) of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips or Nestle Chocolate Chunks

Preheat oven to 375° Fahrenheit. In large mixer bowl, cream shortening with beater attachment on electric mixer. Slowly add dark brown sugar, then white sugar, and cream ingredients until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and cream ingredients. Add vanilla, and cream ingredients again.

In a separate medium-sized bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt with a spoon. Slowly add this flour mixture to the creamed shortening and sugar mixture until all ingredients are combined. Remove bowl from mixer, and stir in chocolate chips.

Drop cookie dough onto baking sheet with small spoon. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until light golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes before removing cookies from baking sheet. Continue cooling on racks. Store cookies in an airtight container.

Welcome to Fork, Knife, Spoon!

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This is for all my friends who’ve repeatedly said “why don’t you do a food blog?” Well, here it is, my first posting. (Marylee, you deserve the prize for being the most persistent.) My goal is to get at least 12 followers, just like Jesus. Or maybe I should go for a baker’s dozen? So help me out, friends! Follow a gal!

People often describe me as being like Martha Stewart, but that’s hardly fair. After all, I’ve never done prison time. Seriously, Martha’s my idol, and I’m no where close to possessing her domestic creativity. I love to try her recipes, as well as recipes from a variety of other magazines and websites, and then tweak ingredients and process to suit my family’s taste. So that’s what you’ll see on the pages of this blog – not typically my own creations, but my tests and trials of what the REAL food geniuses are doing. Working in a comm and marketing department, I know to give credit where credit is due, so all originators of recipes will be acknowledged!

Another passion of mine is glamming up a table for an event, whether it’s a small table for a family birthday party, or a dozen large tables for a ladies Christmas tea at church. You’ll see pics of table settings and centerpieces, invites and banners. Frugal is often my focus, so budget-minded folks will appreciate the posts. (Hey, I was Pinterest-y long before there was Pinterest. Just ask my mother, who patiently put up with my childhood collections of cans, bottles, other scraps, in case I could “do something with them.” Right, Mom?)

Anywho…welcome to my blog, and thanks for following so far!

Cheryl