Dreamer. Chasing Dreams.

This past weekend I had a few friends over for a Chili dinner. I had two recipes, one turkey chili and my favorite— Tailgate Chili! It was absolutely delicious and a great time with friends. For those of you that want to make this chili at home- have no fear, here’s the recipe!

Ingredients:

1 large onion (yellow)

2 lbs ground beef chuck

1 lb bulk italian sausage

1 package of bacon (most of the fat removed to make sure bacon is super salty)

3 (15 ounce) cans chili beans (medium), drained

1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

1 sweet yellow pepper (chopped)

1 sweet orange pepper (chopped)

2 green chile peppers (chopped, optional)

4 cubes beef bouillon

1 cup dark beer of your choice (I’m pretty liberal with this)

1/4 cup chili powder

2 1/2 tbs Worcestershire sauce

1 tbs minced garlic

1 tbs dried oregano

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp hot sauce (to taste)

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp paprika

1/3 cup brown sugar

Directions

1. Over medium-high heat, crumble the ground chuck and sausage and cook until evenly browned. Set in crock pot.

2. Cook bacon until crisp, then cut into pieces. Add bacon to crock pot.

3. Saute chopped onion in bacon grease. Add to crock pot.

4. Pour chili beans, spicy chili beans, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste into crock pot. Add bell peppers, chile peppers, bouillon, and beer. Season with chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, oregano, cumin, hot pepper sauce, basil, salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, and brown sugar.

5. Stir mixture and set on low 6 hours, or high 4 hours. After two hours, taste chili and season to taste.

6. Serve with Fritos or Tostitos, sour cream and cheese. Cilantro is optional on top.

7. ENOY!

For those of you that know me- I only cook on occasion, and when I do- it’s usually something I’ve done before. But, not this time! Last night, one of my oldest friends came over and we made a DELICIOUS rendition of Pad Thai. Literally, it was to die for.

SO, I’ve decided to share. Bon appetit! (or should I say: kŏr hâi jà-rern aa-hăan, in Thai).

Ingredients:

- 2 tsp. ground garlic

- 1/2 cup white sugar

- 1/2 distilled white vinegar

- 1/4 cup soy sauce (we didn’t use that much)

- 1 lime (for juice & pulp)

- 1 package dried rice noodles

- 1 lb chicken tenderloins

- 1 1/2 chopped peanuts

- 1/2 fresh chopped green onions

- 1 can julienned carrots

- 2 cups fresh bean sprouts

- 5 tbs peanut oil

- 2 tbs sesame oil

- 1/2 cup peanut butter (to taste)

- 1/2 tsp ground cumin

- 4 eggs

- 2 sprigs, cilantro

1. Combine 3 tbs peanut oil, dash of soy sauce, dash of garlic, and dash of sesame oil in wok and cook chicken until 95% cooked

2. While chicken is cooking, in small saucepan combine white sugar, vinegar, a little bit of soy sauce (no more than 2 tbs to start), lime juice and pulp, 2 tbs peanut oil, 2 tbs sesame oil, ground cumin over medium heat. *Sauce will smell a lot like vinegar. As it heats up, start to add peanut butter— do a lot of taste testing to balance vinegar and peanut butter. Depending on your tastebuds, you might need to add more of other ingredients.

3. Remove chicken from wok and cook four eggs (scrambled) in the pan juice/oil, add garlic if needed, etc. Add carrots, green onions, soy sauce, bean sprouts. Re- add chicken.

4. After cooking rice noodles according to package, add them to the wok with chicken. Stir (we used tongs— much easier). Then, pour sauce (to taste) over the noodles and chicken.

5. Serve with ground peanuts and cilantro on top.

ENJOY!