Turkey Chili (aka Chili II)

I'm a big Alton Brown fan, and 99% of his recipes turn out just as good as, if not better than, other/original versions. The first time I tried to make his chili, I was missing a bunch of ingredients, so I used what I had. It was delicious. When I tried making his chili recipe "properly", it didn't work for me at all. Tortilla chips in chili? And no beans? Not to mention it just didn't taste right to me. So, I came up with my own version of his chili. I like it because the adobo powder gives it a slight sweetness, and the chicken stock adds body. Plus it takes maybe an hour from start to finish. You can start this in a crockpot before work, and come home to tasty fixins.Warning: This one is so good you may need to double--or triple--the ingredients.


Chili II


1 Pound Ground Turkey



1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt

2 tsp. Peanut Oil

12--24 Ounces Chicken Stock

1 Tbs. Tomato Paste

1 tsp. Ground Cumin

1 Tbs. Chili Powder

2 Tbs. Adobo Powder

1 can Kidney Beans, drained



Season the meat with salt. Brown the meat in the oil. Add the chicken stock, then the tomato paste, cumin and chili powder. Add the adobo powder and beans.Cook for about an hour. Serves two very hungry people or three mildly hungry ones.

Pot Roast With Vegetables

My mom gifted me with a pot roast a few weeks ago, and I finally got around to cooking it. It wasn't as hard as I thought.


Pot Roast with Vegetables


1 2lb pot roast

1/2 cup water

1 squash, cut into sticks

2 zucchini, cut into sticks

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup garlic powder

1/4 cup onion powder

Salt and pepper to taste


Combine spices in a separate container. Season the pot roast with 1/2 of the spice mix. Brown on both sides in an ovenproof pan and add water. Cover roast and place in oven at 350 for an hour. When 30 minutes are left, season vegetables with the rest of the spice mix and add the oil. Toss well. Place next to pot roast in oven and bake for 30 minutes as well. Serves 4-5, perhaps with leftovers.

Spam Musubi, Chicken Nuggets and Sweet Potato Fries

My poor fiance was sick today, so I made him breakfast. Dinner was even better, but you'll see that in a second.


As far as breakfast, I have to blame Andrew Zimmern for this one. We were watching the Hawaii episode, and all of a sudden my man got a craving for spam musubi. We didn't have the right kind of rice, but we had everything else, so...


Spam Musubi in a Bowl

1 cup brown rice

1/2 can Spam

Salt and pepper to taste


Cook the brown rice according to the package directions (usually 3 cups water to 1 cup rice, cook till the rice grains swell and burst and the water disappears, about 30 minutes). In the meantime, cut the Spam into small cubes and brown them in a pan. Put the cooked rice in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, and add the Spam. Serves three.


Dinner was a reasonably speedy affair. I found chicken thighs in the freezer and made short work of them. Thank goodness for YouTube videos...


Chicken Strips


6 chicken thighs, sliced into strips

2 cups breadcrumbs

2 cup panko breadcrumbs

4 eggs

3 cups oil

Salt and pepper to taste


Heat the oil in a pan. Meanwhile, beat the four eggs in a bowl and lightly season with salt and pepper. Combine the breadcrumbs and season them as well. Dry the chicken strips and dip them first in the egg, then cover them with breadcrumbs. Fry them in the hot oil till golden brown. Serves three.


The sweet potatoes... what can I say? I turned them into french fries, my favorite side! YouTube came to my rescue again. It's the best way to figure out how to slice a root vegetable into fry shapes.


Sweet Potato Fries

1 1/2 sweet potatoes, sliced into sticks

1 cup cornstarch

Sugar (or Splenda) and salt to taste


After the chicken strips are done, lightly coat the sweet potatoes with cornstarch and fry them in the hot oil till golden brown. Sprinkle with sugar (or Splenda) and salt to taste. Serves two.

Doorknock Dinners--Fried Chicken,Stuffed Bell Peppers, and More

After two days of being taken out to eat, and a day of fast food, my friend begged me to come over and help her move. I was starving and I told her as much. "I'll help, but I can only stay for a short time. I have to make dinner for myself and the fiance."


"You can cook here," she said, waving at the partially enclosed, well lit kitchen. "The middle shelf in the refrigerator is mine. You can use whatever I have on there."


My friend lives with two other roommates,hence the "personal shelf". And lemme tell ya, this kitchen is a dream. It's the size of my dining room, you can see into the living room and the rest of the area, and it has a GAS STOVE. I haven't cooked on a gas stove since I moved out of my parents' house!!! Needless to say, I consented, and pulled off my own version of "Doorknock Dinners."


My appetizer came from my friend's fruit bowl. Who knew kiwi and banana could taste so good?


Kiwi and Banana Hors'dOeuvres


2 kiwis (ripe, yet fairly firm)

2 bananas

1/4 cup chai honey


Slice the kiwis and bananas crosswise. Stack the banana slices onto the kiwi slices, arranging on a nice plate. Heat the honey in a separate container for 15 seconds, and drizzle over the fruit. Done!


While my fiance and her boyfriend ate the fruity hors d'oeuvre, I started in on the side dishes. Bell peppers, yams, and ground chicken are your friend. And so is sugar and butter.


Stuffed Bell Peppers


3 bell peppers

1 package ground chicken (sold in a sausage like tube; about 1/2 lb)

1 small can sliced mushrooms

2 cloves garlic, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste


Take the tops and seeds off the peppers. In a separate bowl, mix the ground chicken, mushrooms, garlic, salt and pepper. Stuff the bell peppers with the mixture and place in an oven safe pan. Bake at 350 for roughly 45 minutes or until meat is no longer pink.


After starting the bell peppers, I realized I needed to make the candied sweet potatoes. I then remembered that I could cook them in the microwave. And it would take about the same amount of time as the bell peppers!


Microwave Candied Sweet Potatoes


3 sweet potatoes (the ones with the bright orange flesh)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 stick butter, cut into small pieces

Cinnamon to taste


Peel the sweet potatoes, then slice crosswise. Put the first layer in a microwave safe container, then add a small piece of butter on top of each slice. Sprinkle the whole thing with a teaspoon of sugar from the 1/2 cup. Do the same thing with the next layer of sweet potatoes, and continue till all the potatoes are gone. Add the last of the butter and sugar (if there's any left), then carefully pour the orange juice down the side of the container to avoid washing off the butter and sugar. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon. Cover with saran wrap or a lid, and microwave for 30-40 minutes on high. Serves four.


Last but not least, at one point in the evening, my fiance had to go home to pick up some tools for my friend's computer. I asked him to bring back the chicken I'd just defrosted in the refrigerator. It became our main course. Who knew one chicken could feed four hungry people?


Fried Chicken for Four


1 chicken, cut into pieces (separate the thigh and leg, and cut the breast into four chunks)

4 tablespoons oil

Salt, pepper to taste


Carefully dry the chicken parts and season with the salt and pepper. Pour the oil into a hot pan (use medium to medium high heat). Once the oil is hot, carefully place the chicken pieces into the pan, with the bone-in pieces close to the center. Cook for ten minutes on each side. Serves four, depending on the number of pieces per person.

Baked Tilapia and Fried Okra

My fiance and I came back from martial arts practice exhausted. While he began another load of laundry, I came up with this recipe. I love a full freezer. It makes life so much easier.


Baked Tilapia and Fried Okra


4 tilapia filets

1/2 bag breaded Okra

2 small potatoes, cut into small sections

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 1/2 cups canola oil

3 fresh garlic cloves, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste


Pour the oil into a heavy skillet and set the heat to medium high. Spray a pan with nonstick coating. Put the filets in the pan. Season with salt, pepper and garlic on both sides. Place in 400 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.


While the fish is cooking, toss the potato chunks into the cornstarch. Set aside. Drop one piece of breaded okra into the oil. If it sizzles, the oil is hot enough to cook with. Add okra and potato chunks carefully in batches, using no more than half the pan space at a time. Cook till golden brown, then carefully remove and drain on a paper towel.Season with salt and pepper.


Pull the fish out of the oven after 30-35 minutes and check for doneness. If the fish flakes when you gently twist a fork in it, it's done. Serve hot with okra and potatoes.

Creaming Butter or Sugar--Crucial Step or Waste of Time?

The only thing I cooked over the weekend was hot dogs--so lemme talk about creaming butter and sugar today.


When you read most cake directions, you'll notice that the first instruction is, "Cream butter and sugar together." Why waste time doing this when you can just throw everything in the mixer? By blending the butter and sugar together, you're whipping air into the butter, and the sugar helps trap those fine bubbles in there. You'll also notice that the butter will change color as you whip, which is how you know you're doing it right.It may take about five to six minutes to cream properly.


Cakes that have taken this step have much more volume than ones that don't, all other things considered. My mom makes a seven layer cake, but she never bothers to cream the butter and sugar first--as a result, her layers are about a quarter of an inch high. I tried to do the same, but I followed the steps. I used the same recipe, but my layers were four times as big as hers (and I had to stop at three or risk the structural integrity of my cake!) So next time you see this step in a recipe, take the 5-6 minutes and do it. You'll be glad you did.

Shrimp with Garlic Pasta and Sausage

So yesterday, my fiance was kind enough to cook dinner, since I was too exhausted to be bothered. Probably better for both of our health anyway. He made this dish, which was surprisingly good. I just wish he hadn't used the shrimp I was saving for his birthday, which was today...


Shrimp with Garlic Pasta and Sausage


4 cloves garlic

1/2 box pasta

1 package raw shrimp

2 sausage links

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Salt and pepper to taste


Boil the shrimp thoroughly until well cooked.Drain the cooking water, then rinse them off (this step is for people who are allergic to shrimp's high iodine content). Shell the shrimp and set them aside.


Either pan fry or microwave the sausage till done (tastes better pan fried). Slice into small rounds and set those aside.


Follow the package instructions for the pasta and cook till al dente.


While the pasta is cooking, zest one lemon and juice it. Mince four cloves of garlic. When the pasta is done, drain it and mix it with the rest of the ingredients. Serve warm. Serves one hungry writer and her considerate mate.