Dan Made it Monday: Prize Winning White Chili!

Ok, I meant to post this a LONG time ago.  Like, back after Halloween time!  Remember this post from the Trunk-R-Treat and Chili Cookoff?  Well, I had received a few requests now for Dan's-First-Place-Prize-Winning-White-Chili recipe (how do you like that title?).  So here it is in all its deliciousness.  Now, it was pretty spicy when he was all done.  Ok, VERY spicy.  My sensitive, only-just-barely-stable pregnant belly could not handle it, but there is a lot you can do to reduce the burn like decreasing the amount of the cayenne, jalapeno, and green chilis, and adding sour cream.

Dan's-First-Place-Prize-Winning-White-Chili

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced jalapeno peppers
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 3 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
• 3 (15 ounce) cans white beans
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese 
• optional:  Sour Cream as desired

• Directions

  1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Slowly cook and stir the onion until tender. Mix in the garlic, jalapeno, green chile peppers, cumin, oregano and cayenne. Continue to cook and stir the mixture until tender, about 3 minutes. Mix in the chicken broth, chicken and white beans. (If you prefer a thicker chili like Dan and I do you can do as Dan did and decrease the amount of broth and puree one of the cans of beans.  We think it made it a more "chili" consistency and not so much a "soup")  Simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. Remove the mixture from heat. Slowly stir in the cheese until melted. Serve warm.  Optional:  add sour cream. 

The Terribly Terrefic Twos!

Its official.  Charlie-Marie is two years old.  This last Saturday we celebrated finishing up her second year of life and what a miraculous, fun, challenging, and blessed two years it has been!  I was awake early in the morning (due to one of my several nightly trips to the bathroom) and when I layed back in bed and looked at the clock it was exactly the minute Charlie was born.  I smiled.  What an amazing moment that had been two years ago.  A moment that would eternally change me and my life.  It is hard to imagine what life would be like without our precocious and sweet little spit-fire.  It is hard to remember what was so important before her.  I never imagined I could love anyone or anything the way I love little Charlie. 

She is SO active.  She LOVES the outdoors and everything in it.  She is not afraid to dive into things headfirst (both figuratively and litterally).  She is so confident and capable.  She has QUITE the sense of humor and is quickly mastering the art of teasing.  She LOVES spaghetti, bluberries, milk, and oranges.  She blows me away daily with how smart and quick she is.  She LOVES to pick on the dog which has caused me some concern and yet she has the tenderest heart when she senses sadness or pain in another.  Some days I SO look forward to her nap times or a break away from her and home, but then once she is asleep or I am away for a while I start to miss her so and am SO excited and thrilled when we are reunited.  She has the sweetest smile that lights up her entire face.  Her eyes sparkle with a zest and love of life that is an inspiration to me.  She knows how to make someone feel special.  She is a little social director.  She loves people.  She is amazing and I love her SO much!   

Ok, enough of my gushing.  I really could go on and on, but that will do for today I suppose.  Her birthday was a fun sucess.  I had big plans originally, but with the snow and ice storms that hit Washington (since we are visiting) and the power was out those plans quickly dwindled and were extreamely simplified to my disappointment.  That morning however, I was determined to get as close to those plans (power or not).  That afternoon the power turned back on and I was able to do some fun decorations, and make some scrumptious baby cupcakes which everyone frosted and decorated themselves that night.  We had triple chocolate cupcakes and pink lemonade cupcakes.  SO YUMMY!  We had Charlie's favorite meal for dinner - Spaghetti.  She litterally shoved it in her mouth (as you will see in the video below), she love it so much.  We had a few great rounds of ring-around-the-rosies, duck duck goose (which Charlie only partially understood, but had a blast anyway), and pin the tail on the donkey.  Of course she loved the gifts and was SO ready when it came time to blow out her candle - she knew just what to do!  She seems like a pro.  We had a blast celebrating Charlie's birthday and I look forward to many, many more!  Enjoy the sampling of fun we had in these videos!

And the winner of the CUPCAKE WARS is...

Beets, beets, beets.  Who would ever think cupcakes?  I have to mention first I also got a recipe from my Dad for grilled Beets that I can't wait to try, he says they are melt-in-your-mouth delicious.  I will post his recipe soon.  Because he was the only one to enter a beet in a form other than a cupcake he wins first place in the non-dessert beet category!  :O)

Back to the Cupcakes.  Well you girls certainly didn't make this easy on me!  It was REALLY hard because both cupcakes were amazing!  First of all I am in total awe and cannot believe you two BOTH came up with a perfectly delicious way to put BEETS, of all things, into a cupcake on your OWN!!!  It was really hard.  I had to recruit a fellow taste-tester (THANK YOU CAMI!!!) to sample the beety bits!  We had a delicious time tasting, sampling, and tasting a little more while we discussed in depth cupcake moistness, density, flavor, complexity/ease of replicating, creativity, look, etc. and trying to decide WHICH of these aspects were most important and worthy of the win.  Because I'm telling you each had their own winning points in different areas, and how do you decide what is most important in a cupcake competition?  Taste, creativity, originality?  And it was HARD!  The worst part about it all is that I finally decided on a favorite cupcake, but the other had my favorite frosting!  SO HARD!!!  I'm not sure I'm cut out to judge such close competitions!  Did I mention it was SO HARD?
(also, please don't judge the frosting skill, or lack there of, Cami did pretty well, but I did not do so well later on!)

Charlie certainly enjoyed them!  She helped me make both the cupcakes (which is partially why it became an endeavor that took half the day.  She loved the pouring and mixing, but best of all the sampling.  When I wasn't looking she lined up several cupcakes and took one bite out of each!  Sneaky girl!  Maybe she will become a professional food critic one day?  :O)

So although there is a technical first place, and let me tell you it was by a hair.  Both cupcakes were absolutely amazing and winners in their own way, and I'm not just saying that to be nice.  I brought the cupcakes today with me to our church Super Saturday and let everyone have at them.  Everyone loved both kinds and my opinions were echoed exactly over and over.  Now I will announce the winner and after that explain what all went in to my decision and some of the challenges I faced in the making and judging of the cupcakes, and then you might understand what I mean by close.  Because of just how close a competition this was I am also doing a second place prize of a $5 gift card to somewhere of your choice.

So the winner is....

*COMMERCIAL BREAK*

(in appropriate Food Network fasion)



Just kidding!  I won't make you wait any longer!


The WINNER is...

Megan's Chocolate Beet Cupcakes
BUT...
Try as I may, and after 3 different grocery stores I could not find the Ghirardelli cocoa powder highly suggested by Cari and had to settle for the natural Nestle cocoa powder.  I don't know to what degree that influenced the flavor of her cupcakes.  So all that being said, I congratulate Megan, but I also want to apologize and let Cari know I recognize that I wasn't able to perfectly replicate your recipe so I will be sending you a prize as well!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!  AND THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!!!

OH!  And I think I would LOVE to WATCH both of you on the real cupcake wars one day!


So, if you want to know just how much of a nerd I am you can see my spreadsheet on my judging criteria.  I took this judging very seriously I would have you know!  :O)

	Megan	Cari
Cupcake Flavor	X		It was tough and very close, but The chocolate beet had the best flavor of the two.
Frosting Flavor		X	Who knew just 1 Tbs of sweetened condensed milk could work such magic!
Moistness	X		Nicely moist without falling apart or tasting undercooked
Texture	X		Good balance of density
Complexity		X	Very involved and many steps and ingredients, but totally from scratch
Creativity		X	The idea of an all natural red velvet cupcake is definitely the winner here.
Ease of Replicating/Likely to make again	X		Was able to recreate start to finish within 30-40 minutes
Appearance	X		Grab'N'Go - at a glance most likely to see and pick up to try first
Picture Included	X	X	I LOVE IT!!!
Use of the Beet		X	Ingenious use of the beet trying to use as the food coloring

Cupcake Wars

When I started the BEET BLOG challenge the LAST thing I expected to see were CUPCAKE recipes!  And guess what?  I got TWO of them!  So we've now moved from Food Network's Chopped and The Next Food Network Star to CUPCAKE WARS.  A show I enjoy and am in awe of.  So Today I will be tackling the task of trying to recreate the odd yet scrumptious sounding cupcakes and the WAR will begin!  :O)  

This could be tough!

Here are the entries and their recipes if you would like to check them out or even try them yourselves!

Cari: All Natural Red Velvet Cupcakes

Megan: Chocolate Beet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Trunk-R-Treat and Chili Cook Off

 

We LOVE the annual Sandestin Branch Trunk-r-Treat and chili cook off!  It has become a fun tradition for us that we have made to 3 of the 4 since living here and will probably never miss again as long as we are here.  Remember THIS year and THIS year?  SOOOO much fun!  It is a great time for people to show off their mad chili-making skills and then off to the trunks that are sometimes extravagently decorated or not so much.  Then the kids just cycle around from trunk to trunk again and again until one by one each trunk runs out of candy and closes up shop.  It is such a fun and safe little gathering.  You get a little chatting time, enjoy some little dressed up kiddos, taste some scrumptious chili and sides and just enjoy yourself! 

Every year I plan a little theme for our family.  First the Bees, then the fairy tale themes (if Dan were there he would have been a prince).  Hey, I know it is super corny, but I only have a few years I will ever have this kind of control in my family's costume choices (and many other choices I'm sure) so I'm having my fun while I can.  This year we were the SUPER BREWERS!  I found shirts at Target for Dan and I then bought Charlie's shirt in the little boy's section then sewed the "S', skirt, belt, leg covers (try as hard as I could I could NOT figure out boots), bracelets, cape, and hair bow.  She was THE cutest super gal you've EVER seen!  When we finally put the final product on she ran around, cape fluttering in the wind and really hammed up the part.  Too bad she didn't ham it up for everyone at the party.  She was slightly overwhelmed with everything going on with all the costumes, people, food, and a "scanny" (scary) ghost and ghoul scaring everyone.  She did NOT like them.  All in all she had a good time with the other kids and was thrilled to be getting candy, even though she's probably only had 2 whoppers and a lollipop since. 

On to the chilli cook off.  I entered chili into the competition our first year and decided that was too much work for how little it was touched (I came home with almost an entire pot of chili left).  So I have just made my yummy baked corn casserole each year since.  HOWEVER, this year Dan decided he would join the fun.  He joked for weeks that he was going to win just by going to buy WalMart brand canned chili and dump it in a pot.  He was seriously going to do it until that morning.  He asked for help to find a white chili recipe, so I found one online and Dan went to town making his concoction.  I don't have to tell you how surprised and shocked we both were to find out he won first place!  Not everyone was too happy about it, but it sure made for a proud and happy Dan that night.

 All in all we had a GREAT time and can't wait for next year!  I'll have THREE minions that will have to dress to my costume demands next year!  Hee Hee!  Enjoy a few more pictures, and maybe you can join us next year!

 

 

WHAT you are comBEETing for! AND a little more TIME!

Ok, had enough of the beet posts yet?  

I can't believe I totally forgot to post your incentive for even participating!  

The winner of the BEET BATTLE will recieve...

a $10 gift card to your choice of  an ice cream/dessert establishment, or a craft store, or a Bed Bath & Beyond store in your area.
(And if I can get my act together in time a little special crafty something too!)

Does that sound like a decent reward or am I way off the mark of what you guys would like to battle for?  Let me know what you think.

AND!!! A VERY IMPORTANT addition!  You have until 

Midnight on November 1st 

to get it done!  That is 3 extra days!  Maybe that might help someone out!
The winner will be announced no later than November 5th.
Happy BEETing to You! 

To BEET continued...

Ok, so I think I have at least 3 people in the competition now and they all really seem to want to do it so 

The BLOG BEET BATTLE (click to see original guidlines) continues on.  

Of course if anyone else wants to be daring in the next week, we would LOVE more entries!  

I will have to do another competition in the not too distant future with a more...appealing ingredient.  :O) 

So that is all for now, and to all those daring to comBEET, may the BEET be with you!  

GOOD LUCK!!!

To Beet or NOT to Beet...

THAT is the question.  

So far, I have a whopping total of 2 people committing to trying the 

BLOG BEET BATTLE!!!  

(Thanks Cari and Dad!)

Sooooo...I'm thinking the beet is not a popular item people want to attempt 

OR 

it is just a busy time 

OR 

I really have 4 or 5 readers left that even glance at this blog.  

So what do you think?  New ingredient?  More time?  Another time? 

Or, is the blog battle just not meant to be?

It's A...

Feeling Blessed and Full of Joy!  

The Brewer's are welcoming a Baby Boy!
(Sorry to those who like to decipher ultrasound pictures.  Our scanner is down.)

200th Post Celebration AND Competition!!!

YAY for 200 POSTS!

I can't believe this is my 200th Blog post!  I have actually had 200 things to show and tell over the last 3 years.  That seems crazy to me.

SO, in celebration of my 200th post I thought I'd host another Blog Chef Challenge.  If you've been around my blog that long (all 5 of you that might still be reading my blog) you might remember almost 2 years ago my pomegranate extravaganza. You can go HERE to remember.   It was an experiment that was fun and I've been waiting for just the right unique ingredient and the right mood to do it again.  Now before the announcement of this food scares you all away, just be brave, keep an open mind, and try something new (if this is new for you, because it is for me)!  And just remember there IS a prize, and this time it will be WAY better than free Krispie Kreme doughnuts (although I don't know what REALLY can beat that).

The ingredient for this Challenge is the...

BEET

Now a little background about why I have chosen this food.  Last April I hesitantly tried a beet salad at a restaurant in Seattle and LOVED it!  I decided right then and there that I actually liked beets, that they CAN taste good!  Since then I have looked up a few recipes, but don't have the guts to try them.  I even went so far as to purchase some beets in hopes that it would motivate me to experiment, but instead they withered away in my fridge.  SO, that is where you guys come in!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your challenge (should you choose to accept it), is to use the ingredient chosen by the judge (ME) in a dish of your choosing such as a dessert, appetizer, or main course item. Be sure to include the recipe, your opinion of how it was to prepare AND how you liked it.  And of course a picture!  It would be even better with pictures of you WITH it!

The Ingredient is the BEET.

Beets are edible plants native to the Mediterranean. They are grown all over the world, since they are easy to grow and they thrive in most climates...Unlike many food plants, all of the parts of the beet are edible. Many consumers are familiar with the fleshy root, but beet greens are also very tasty. In fact, some types of beets are specifically cultivated for their greens, and they are known as leaf beets or Swiss chard. The colorful stems and rich colors of the leaves also sometimes play a role in ornamental gardens...Along with other root vegetables, beets can be grilled, baked, roasted, and boiled. They are often pickled for use in salads, and they may be included in root vegetable gratins and similar dishes. Beet greens can be used like chard and other dark leafy greens in things ranging from salads to quiche. When selecting beets to eat, look for firm, healthy specimens with no sliminess or discoloration, and store them under refrigeration. If the beets come with greens attached, remove the greens, since they leech moisture from the beet.  (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-beets.htm)

Beet greens contain a larger amount of nutrients than beet roots.  The greens are richer in iron, calcium, and Vitamins A and C.  Beetroots are an excellent source of folic acid and a very good source of manganese, potassium, and fiber.  Both the greens and roots are a good source of phosphorus, magnesium, iron, and vitamin B 6. (http://www.everynutrient.com/healthbenefitsofbeets.html) 

Time: You will have until NOVEMBER 1st at midnight to either post your effort on your blog (in which case be sure to comment on my blog you are doing so) - OR - email it to me - gidget278@comcast.net for those of you who do not blog. The winner will be announced no later than November 5th. 

The Judgment: You will be JUDGED on how good your recipe effort sounds.  The more you talk it up and accurately describe how it tastes the more I will be intrigued to try and recreate it.  Including a picture of your final product will be a big part so I can SEE it. Then it is always fun to see a little creativity/originality. The Top 2-3 recipe choices (if anyone even participates) I will make myself and taste-test myself and choose a winner.

The Winnings: The winner will receive a special prize yet to be determined and SOON to be announced (still have to get the OK from Dan) - but I'm sure will be worth the effort!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have no idea if anyone will participate, but I really hope you do!!! I know we are entering a busy time of the year but if you are so inclined Please do it! It will be so fun!