Chili in a Bread Bowl

Fellow RWHS graduates, tell me this was not your favorite meal the wonderful lunch ladies made.  My wonderful mom made me a lunch everyday, so I never ate it.  But, I remember begging Erin Ulrich for the top of her bowl if she didn't eat it.  Those bread bowls were to die for and the chili (although it's not my favorite) was so good according to those around me.  People waited patiently for Tuesday lunch to roll around so they could indulge in such a delicious lunch.

I attempted to make this lunch for dinner last night.  I wanted to use my new dutch oven while Jon and Faye were here, and show that I can take care of their son by giving him good food every night if I wanted to.  I do want to, I'm just lazy.  So I made the bread bowls, and found a 30 minute chili recipe online.  Bread bowls turned out great.  Chili was a let down, so I won't be making this exact recipe again.

Ingredients
1 yellow onion
4 cloves of garlic
1 lb. ground beef
1 can kidney beans, drained
chicken stock
salt, pepper, cumin, cinnamon

Directions
1. Heat some oil in your pot.  I used the dutch oven, but it could be a normal pot.
2. Dice the onions and mince the garlic.  (Check out my new. fancy cutting terms)
3. Saute your garlic and onions for 3-5 minutes, until tender.  Throw in some salt and pepper.
4. Add your ground beef and break apart with a fork or something.  Work around until browned.
5. Add the kidney beans and chicken stock.  Add enough stock until it's the amount of liquid you want.
6. Add some more salt and pepper, to taste.  Then, add a tiny dash of cinnamon.  Taste it and add cumin until it's the taste you want.
7. Scoop it into the bread bowl and sprinkle a tiny bit of cheese on top.

It was okay, but not great.  I liked Todd's vegetarian chili more.  I think I might do that one next time, which has peppers in it and you mash the beans a little to make it thicken up, but add some meat to it.  We're not hippies.  Jon and Faye liked it (or were polite and said they did), so it will have to do.

In other news, we are for sure moving to Chicago next year for Todd to finish Seminary.  It was always likely, but we found out last week he was awarded the Kern Scholarship, which pays his tuition for the next 3 years.  With that scholarship, and not having to worry about taking out loans, it's a definite yes to us moving there.  Our friend Greg also got the Kern, so they will take all their classes together and go on the retreats together.  That means girls' weekend for Stef and me! We also heard back from the housing people this week, saying they should have us placed in an apartment around June 1st.  We can then move in anytime during August.  So, praise God for providing and thank you for your prayers about all this.  Next, we need to find me a job and then we are good to go.  I just need to figure out what I want to do.  Someone told me culinary school.  I told them that doesn't make money, it makes me pay money.  Plus, no.

Anyway, enjoy your RWHS cafeteria meal.  It's super yummy. Also, I talk about Greg and Stef a lot so here is a photo, so you can have a visual.  She looks like Anne Hathaway and is way to good looking for Greg.  But, Greg may be the nicest guy in the world, so it balances out.  (Read into that what you will.)  Here they are at her brother's wedding last fall.

Potato Soup in Bread Bowls

I miss having friends. Todd and I like Mankato, and we are probably getting together with some new friends on Thursday to play Catan. But we miss our college friends and I miss my group of 5 from Red Wing. They have been my best friends for my entire life. But, I have always had a great relationship with Erin Ulrich. We met when my family started at First Covenant and we have been friends since. She's 3 months older, has the same name, and brothers similar ages to mine. I love the Ulrich family and they have loved on me since I was little.

So you can imagine my excitement when Erin said she could drive the 2 hours down to Mankato to hang out with me Friday night while Todd was gone. And, you can imagine my growing excitement as I planned our night of girly food. I finally landed on baked potato soup in bread bowls. I used the baked potato soup recipe I wrote about back in November. It's a tested and wonderful recipe. We didn't use the green onions because of Erin's aversion. But feel free to use them if you love them. I found the bread bowls on Eatin' on the Cheap (thanks for the link Corrie) and they were oh so good. They reminded both Erin and me of "chili in a bread bowl" day for all my RWHS graduate readers out there.

Baguette Bread Bowls
a Good Housekeeping recipe

2 cups of warm water ( 105 - 115 degrees)
1 package of active dry yeast ( or 2 1/2 teaspoons if you have the stuff in the jar like me)
1 T sugar
1 T salt
5 cups Bread flour
1 large egg white for brushing

In a large mixing bowl, combine water and yeast and let stand for 5 minutes or until foamy.
Meanwhile, stir together salt and 3 cups of flour in a seperate bowl.
Add flour into mixing bowl and mix until nice and smooth ( I am using a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. If you don't have a mixer, use a wooden spoon)
Gradually add in an additional 1 1/2 cups of flour to make a soft dough.
If you have a stand mixer: Continue to knead with the dough hook for 6-8 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Adding in remaining 1/2 cup flour to prevent sticking.
If you are kneading by hand: Knead on a floured surface for 8 minutes or until smooth and elastic, adding the remaining 1/2 cup flour in as needed to prevent sticking.
Shape dough into a ball and roll around in a greased bowl in order to cover all sides with grease. Cover with a damp towel and let rise in the bowl until doubled in volume.
Grease a cookie sheet. Punch down the dough and divide into four equal pieces.
Shape each piece into a ball and place on cookie sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled.
Preheat oven to 400. Lightly score the top of each loaf with an "X" to help with expansion.
Beat the egg white well and brush the top of each loaf with the egg white ( alternatively you can use butter.).
Bake until well browned, about 35 minutes.



To hollow it out, cut a hole in the top and scoop it out with your fingers. Leave it on the plate because it's great to dip in the soup.




It was a great dinner. I made the bread bowls the night before and wrapped them in plastic and left them in the cupboard. The other two Todd and I will use sometime this week with a Chicken and Wild Rice recipe I got from Lisa at work.

Thanks Erin for coming down! We ended up staying up all night just chatting and she then had to drive all the way back to Bethel for a class on Saturday morning from 8:00am-2:30pm. Well done Erin, being a responsible grown up and still going to class. I am really proud of her. She is pursuing a teaching certificate (or degree or something. I'm sort of confused), but she will then teach high school biology. I think she will like it and do a great job. Here is a horrible picture of us at a Wild hockey game earlier this year. Love you Erin!

"Vegetarian" chili and homemade rolls

Thank you Spark People for sending us delicious recipes everyday. Actually, every night at 12:30 my phone gives me a lovely little "ping" to let me know that it's sitting in my inbox for me to read/delete at first glance if it seems gross at soon as I wake. I'm feeling a little too plugged in now that I have written such a sentence. Anyway, this recipe came to us (Todd and I both get them) and he took the initiative to make it. Here is the recipe.

Alyson's Vegetarian Chili

This vegetarian chili can be made on the stove top or in a slow cooker. It's great for cold winter days - serve with fat free cheese and sour cream as garnish!

INGREDIENTS
1 (15 oz) can pinto beans - drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz) can black beans - drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz) can light red kidney beans - drained and rinsed
1 (15oz) can dark red kidney beans - drained and rinsed

2 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes

2 cups celery, diced
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 small yellow bell pepper, diced
1 medium red onion, diced

2 T ground cumin
3 T garlic powder
4 T chili powder


DIRECTIONS
Heat a large sauté pan over medium high heat, spraying with cooking spray. Cook vegetables until they are slightly soft - about 6-7 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine tomatoes, beans and spices in a large dutch oven or slow cooker. When vegetables are done, add them to the mixture and combine thoroughly.

For Dutch Oven: Simmer for 3-4 hours on low, stirring every so often.

For Slow Cooker: Simmer for 6-7 hours on high.

We added 3 jalapeños and some chicken stock and omitted the tomatoes. The stock is why it's "vegetarian". Plus, we put in some garlic and cut as much as we could in half. We didn't need to feed 8 people.



After Todd started to let it simmer, I thought we could use some bread to go with it. I used a recipe I found in a free Cuisine magazine sent to me because...I don't know. But I know I like free things. I may make Boston Cream Pie also found in there, but that's for another day. The bread recipe.

Ingredients
1 packet of yeast
1 cup warm water
pinch of sugar
1 egg
1 T salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
3-3/5 cups flour

Directions
1. Water, pinch of sugar, and yeast go in a bowl and foam up.
2. Whisk the egg
3. Whisk in sugar, salt, and oil
4. Whisk in foamy yeast
5. Stir in flour, 1/2 cup at a time until it is hard to stir.
6. Turn it out on a floured surface and knead until smooth and soft
7. Let rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or doubled in size
8. Punch down
9. Grease a pan and make ping-pong sized dough balls to place 1/2 inch from each other
10. Cover with towel and let rise until doubled in size.
11. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown on the top.
12. Brush with butter and top with
-Equal parts dill, salt, and sugar
-Parmesan cheese
-Toasted Fennel or sesame seeds
-Cinnamon sugar

These rolls were so good! I will for sure make them again and the whole batch. The one up there is a half batch.





So, lots of information. Enjoy!

Baked Potato Soup

It was pretty yummy last night. Todd and I made this once at his house and it was great (with a different recipe) and made it once at our apartment (with yet another recipe) and it was crap. So because Todd loves me and I love potato soup, he let me make it again with this recipe. Notice the "let me" part of the last sentence. Maybe he is a bit too manipulative. Oh well, I got my soup didn't I?

MAKES 4-5 SERVINGS

8 small potatoes or 4 large baking potatoes

Bacon, 12 strips cooked and cut up or buy the precut by the salad dressing in the store

4 green onions, chopped

2/3 (11 Tablespoons) of butter. Yikes!

2/3 cup flour

6 cups of milk

1 cup cheddar cheese

salt and pepper

-Chop the green onions and cook and cut the bacon (or get your bag out). Measure out all the things you will need because you do need to continually stir this recipe. Then you don't have to bother your husband who is playing a video game to come help. Oh wait, that's ridiculous. Make him do this part so he contributes in some way.

-Cook the potatoes in the microwave and scoop out the insides into a bowl. Set aside.

-Put a large pot on medium heat and melt your butter.

-When it is melted, add all the flour and cook for a minute. It will look like a lumpy mess now.

-Gradually add the milk and cook over medium heat. You can always add more at the end, so you may not want to add all the milk now (I put in four cups now and 1/2 cup later). It all depends on much potato insides you have. Let it bubble, but not boil.

-Add potatoes, cheese, bacon, and green onion. Add salt and pepper to taste.

-Let the entire soup heat up, but not boil. Here is where you can add the remaining milk if it seems to thick.

-When it's warm, serve it up and put some more cheese, bacon, and green onions on top. You can get some french bread to go with it, but it's a thick soup and was fine by itself.

So eat up. I will let you know if it's any good reheated in our microwave we finally got! Thank you Chris (our boss) for having a $15 good microwave.

Stir Fry and Egg Drop Soup

Todd and I made quite a little pattern for ourselves on Monday nights this past year at school. We would make stir fry with each other and then watched Heros. It was a good constant besides struggling in Chemistry. So, we decided to make our dish for Todd's family and add egg drop soup. Unfortunately, I only have a picture of the soup.

Stir Fry for TWO people

-Rice

-Carrots

-Celery

-Chicken

-Kikoman Stir Fry Sauce

-Red Chili Sauce

Boil two cups of water in a medium sauce pan. Stir in one cup of rice, reduce heat to low and cover. Rice will be ready in 15-20 minutes.

Defrost and cut chicken into small pieces and fry in oil in a frying pan.

Cut carrots and celery into bit size pieces and add to almost cooked chicken.

Stir in stir fry sauce and mix in cooked rice.

Stir all together, adding sauce to taste.

Put in Red Chili Sauce if you want it spicier. It does not take a lot.

This is pretty basic and super yummy. Again, it makes for easy leftovers, not that you would have any.

The Egg Drop Soup we got off of Food Network. It makes four servings.

Ingredients

• 4 cups prepared chicken stock, plus 2 tablespoons
• 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 green onions, chopped, including ends
• Salt and white pepper, to taste

Directions

Bring soup stock, grated ginger and soy sauce to a boil. In a small cup, make a slurry by combining the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of chicken stock. Stir until dissolved. Slowly pour in the cornstarch mixture while stirring the stock, until thickened. Reduce heat to a simmer. Pour in the eggs slowly while stirring the soup in the same direction. The egg will spread and feather. Turn off the heat and add the green onions. Season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately

So there you go. It is a good night of yummy, semi-asian food.