Aaron discovered this chili while on a camping trip a few weeks ago and liked it so much he asked for the recipe. He had a pot ready for dinner when I got home one day last week, so I have no idea what all goes in it, but the main ingredients are baked beans and ground meat of your choice (Aaron used venison), and some honey. It was delicious and made me want to go outside and sit in a folding chair in the woods behind our house while I ate. The baked bean and honey flavors were so subtly sweet and smokey and yummy. And the heavy spoonfuls filled my belly good. Also, can I just say Ritz crackers are the bomb. I had forgotten how delectable their buttery flakiness is. I had a second bowl of Camp Chili just so I could eat more Ritzs.
We brought a cooler of leftovers home from Thanksgiving in Longview. Turkey...sweet potatoes...corn casserole...green beans...dressing...and this Chicken Veggie soup. My mom packed it for us in case we got burned out on feast food. It's a simple soup, just chicken, broth and lots of earth grown goodness. I had a bowl for lunch two days in a row. It's been raining and cold here the past two days, so having this soup has been nice. Plus, my Momma made it, which is really the best part because it feels like getting a hug from her with every warm spoonful.
This week's soup was French Onion. Oh la la and très délicieux and savoureux beaucoup! Did you know I took French in high school and college?
In the spirit de cuisine français, I listened to Nouvelle Vague while I cooked. Except during the onion preparation, I paused the iPod and instead sang the song the French cook sings in The Little Mermaid, only I changed it to onions instead of fish - Les oignons, les oignons, Hee-hee-hee, HAW-HAW-HAW!
Englishly speaking, this has been the easiest soup to make so far.
I started out using a recipe I found online, but it called for five pounds of onions and I got tired of slicing onions after about two pounds worth. And I started to get anxious that I was losing my concentration and I DID NOT want a repeat of the onion-fainting incident. Hee-hee-hee, HAW-HAW-HAW!
So I went to my trusty Joy Of Cooking cookbook and found the recipe there that thankfully called for only two pounds of onions. Fantastique!
The recipes were very similar, so I incorporated ingredients and instructions from the online recipe into the book recipe, for instance adding a bit of brown sugar to the onions as they caramelized. I like it because my cook book now has notes written in the margin. I hope to some day have a cook book full of handwritten notes.
That's pretty much all you do for this soup. Slice onions, put in pot with butter. Watch as they magically produce sugars and colors and smells from deep within. Add a pinch of this and that, plus chicken stock. Simmer. Top with toasted bread and gruyère. Melt, et voilà!
At the last minute, Aaron suggested we invite our neighbors over to share the soup with us. I was a tad nervous because I had no idea how the soup was going to taste, so when I called to ask them to dinner I added that we might all end up eating chicken nuggets and green beans off their two-year-old's plate.
It was so nice. We had the windows open, and there was a stretch of time where the only sounds were the quiet rain pattering outside in harmony with the knife chopping down through hearty root vegetables (no fingers this time!) and the soft sizzling of sausage and garlic and onions sautéing on the stove.
It was the perfect soup day.
Dinner was ready just in time for one of our favorite t.v. shows - America's Funniest Videos - so we ate our soup on the couch, giggling between bites at the antics of America's zaniest pets, clumsiest adults and adorablest children.
AFV is always the beginning of the end of Sunday for us. It kind of signifies the wind-down of the day and weekend. (Mad Men signifies the end, in case you were wondering.) In the Bussey house, whatever you're doing on Sunday, you better be done by 6:30 and ready for dinner and some hilarity.
The Minestrone soup turned out quite tasty. The author of the recipe notes that the soup is really better the second time around, after it's been chilled and reheated. Aaron and I concur after having leftovers on Monday. Next time, I might make it a day ahead just so we can have it reheated the first time around. And we'll invite the neighbors over for a bowl of Day Old Soup.
Actually, they are not so much bars as hunks. I've figured out that the things I make at home don't generally present as well as commercially made foods. But they sure do taste good!
That there is a hunk (2 hunks to be exact) of cranberry-almond-honey-oats-and-some-other-stuff goodness.
Very nutritious and delicious... and most importantly Fast and Easy.
They ended up being great for the camping weekend...and we had some to bring home and enjoy with coffee at breakfast...as an after-school snack...and at bedtime with Sleepytime tea...
I've been dreaming about granola hunks. Maybe it's time to whip up another batch.
The cool weather and early sun-setting have given me a hankerin' for warm soups simmering on the stove. Oooh cozy.
And I want to use the soup mug my Mom passed on to me. I bet that thing is as old as I am!
Aaron first requested his childhood favorite, Rattlesnake Stew, which I for some reason invariably pronounce Rattlestake Snew. It's one of those wonderfully savory snews to which you can add just about anything you wish and you don't have to measure ingredients. Swirly egg noodles are the namestake facnor. I think they are supposed to resemble rattlestake nails...kind of...maybe...not really. I'm pretty sure the snew got it's name simply because it came from a house full of rowdy boys. Arrgh arrgh arrgh. It might have been dubbed Butterfly Stew (which I can pronounce without issue) if it came from a house of little girls. Wait, that doesn't really work does it?
Next up, Creamy Corn Chowder with Cheese and Bacon, or as we call it, 4Cs&B. In the picture, you sadly can't see the awesomeness that is the chowder - although that topping of cheese looks yummy, eh - but it has corn, red potatoes, onions, garlic and bacon(!). The perfect chunkiness for a chowder if you ask me. It hit the spot. More 4Cs&B please!
On the menu next are Minestrone and French Onion soup. Mmmm mmmm good.
Aaron and I spent last weekend camping on Lake Whitney with family. We could not have asked for a more beautiful weekend to be outdoors.
This is how I prepare for a camping trip. Please do note my fancy chef hat, courtesy of Aaron.
This is how Aaron prepares for a camping trip. Also, please do note how Sadie prepares for a camping trip.
As you can see, we take great care of the very important camping preparations. As long as you have cookies and fishing gear, who needs a tent, sleeping bag, folding chairs, or deodorant? Not us! Oh, I'm kidding. We took folding chairs.
This was my first time camping in a camper. It was fun, and the best part was the symphony that happened when most everyone in the camper was sleeping. It was magical.
Some highlights from our weekend: Daryl drank a cup of straight Aunt Jemima syrup on a dare - except he would have done it anyway. Janet bargained with the kids to not talk about poop for at least 20 minutes… no such luck. Trisha wore her high-school letter jacket for the first time ever. Ronnie cooked the meat and was the hero. I got to shake the Bisquick Shake & Pour pancake batter. Aaron caught and cleaned a catfish. Jarod taught us all how to play the deceivingly complex game of Bag-O. S'mores!
We also held a funny face contest. Who was the winner? You be the judge.
I made these cupcakes last night to celebrate a few October birthdays at work.
And in case you're wondering, Aaron is my taste tester, so he does benefit from my baking of late.
This picture is from the Real Simple website, but I assure you, mine looked just as perty. I even got a little crazy and swapped out the candy corn for Halloween colored M&Ms on some of them, because, ya know, HALLOWEEN COLORED M&Ms! Which, by the way, are electric orange, green and purple. They will electrify you!
It went like this: As I was topping the c-cakes, I turned my head slightly to the left and saw the bowl of Halloween M&Ms that I keep on the counter, and my eyes got wide and before I even knew what was happening my hand had reached over, plucked three little guys from the bowl and tucked them neatly into the frosting on top of a cupcake. It's like my hand had a mind of it's own. SpOooOo0Ky.
Strange thing, though. The candy corn and M&Ms bled their colored candy coatings into the icing overnight. I put them in the refrigerator, but when I took them out this morning there were orange, green and purple streaks all over the tops. (and no, the cupcakes were not hot or even warm when I placed the candies on top)
My bet is some serious sugar-on-sugar action, errr, I mean a chemical reaction of C(6)H(12)O(6). Or a goblin. SpOooOo0Ky.
What a weird word, spooky. spookyspookyspookyspooky. Like elbow. elbowelbowelbowelbow
I may have just eaten 2 pumpkin cupcakes in a row... which may explain this entry.
I really made it to celebrate a couple of friends' birthdays at work. Chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese icing. And y'all, it was good!
From now on, when I make this cake, I'm going to call it the Serendipity Cake, because serendipity was definitely at work with this cake.
Exhibit A: Yesterday I was walking by a friend's desk and noticed she had one of those cake-carrier things sitting on her desk. It made me think "Hmmm, I wonder how I'm going to successfully get that cake from my house to my office?" This is pretty typical for me, that I would not have thought ahead to that part. That in making the cake, I would have merrily hummed along singing my song frosting my cake and would not have thought about the issue of transport until it was a complicated mess. Then I would have cried to Aaron that I messed everything up and he would have figured out a solution while I sat in the corner blind with tears licking a spatula.
But! Instead! I was quick to ask my friend if I could borrow her cake-carrier. It was perfect! She even loaned me the pretty cake plate that fit perfectly and kept the cake from sliding around inside the carrier and messing up that spectacular frosting.
Exhibit B: I was planning to bring the cake on Thursday to share at a meeting. However, when my boss saw the cake-carrier sitting on my desk, he mentioned something about the cake and the meeting and tomorrow - which would be today - which is not Thursday. And my brain went beep beep bope beep bope boop and recalibrated to realize that, yes, in fact, that meeting is on Wednesday, not Thursday. Wednesday. Just like it is every two weeks. Our regular Wednesday meeting. Thus I was saved and came prepared with cake in hand on the correct day!
Exhibit C: As I was looking for a cake recipe, I just happened to read some "helpful tips" in one of my cookbooks. And among all those helpful tips was this: To avoid making a mess of your cake plate when frosting a cake, place strips of wax paper around the edge of the plate under the cake while frosting. When done, slide the wax paper out from under the cake, and voila! No messy cake plate! Seeing as I've never really frosted a cake, at least not the sides of a cake (is that weird?), it hadn't occurred to me that this might be a problem. But looky there, how clean and pretty the plate is on my first try!
Exhibit D: I was very pleased with the finished cake, only wishing it was a tad more festive for the birthday girls. But I decided not to dwell on it. I was just happy I would actually have the cake on the right day! This morning when I got to work I was putting together a birthday flower bouquet (from the group), and realized I could use a couple of the flowers as cake toppers! Ohhh, ahhhh, how nice.
So that's it. The A, B, C & D of why this is forever the Serendipity Cake. And I must admit I felt very fun and fancy baking in my cute apron (thanks Momma!).
I would be remiss if I didn't mention how sweet Aaron was to drive me to work today and help me carry in the cake and all the flowers and vase for the group bouquet. It was so nice to spend my morning commute with him. Thank you ATB! I love you.
This is one of Aaron's favorite quotes. We say it a lot. Pretty much anytime we see chocolate cake.
"Dad is great! He gives us chocolate cake!" (around the 7:10 mark)
