Mrs. Poineau's White Chicken Chili

If you were on the Michigan Ski Team any time from, oh say 2006-2010, you know exactly what this chili is.  You got inside quickly after every race to eat this chili.  You thanked Mrs. Poineau endlessly for warming us up with this chili.  You thanked Kelsey for having such an amazing mom.  I'm not convinced that people didn't join the team just to eat this chili.



After I begged her endlessly, Kelsey and her mom sent me this recipe back in February of 2009.  But then I didn't make it.  I'm not sure what I was thinking - maybe I was afraid it wouldn't be as good as when her mom makes it - but I let it sit in my email inbox for that long.  Every once in a while, I'd look it up and think how good it would be, but I'd never make it.



Then finally this weekend, when the temperature dropped (though we were fortunate to be spared of the snow that hit my home state of Massachusetts!!) it was officially chili and soup season.  Now I don't like regular bean/beef chili, but after 3 years of skiing with Kelsey, white chicken chili is definitely one of my favorite soups.  After raving about this soup to the Monkey Scientist for weeks, I had to actually make it for him and our friends.

Needless to say it was a huge hit.  This soup is ridiculously cheesy, with a great kick and tons of flavor.  It is incredibly easy to make - it comes together like magic.  As Mrs. Poineau wrote in all caps - STIR OFTEN SO THE CHEESE DOESN'T BURN ON THE BOTTOM OF THE POT.  She's serious, stir it every 5 min or so.  Now, I have to apologize because I made this at the Monkey Scientist's apartment, so the photos are all from my iPhone.  They aren't great, but I had to share this recipe with you ASAP - please don't wait as long as I did to make it!



White Chicken Chili
from the kitchen of the Poineau family

Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken (I used half of a whole, 4-5 lb chicken)
48 oz jar northern beans (with juice) (note: I used 3 15-oz cans of white kidney beans)
2 tsp cumin
1 lb Monterrey Jack or Jalapenas (Pepper Jack) cheese, sliced thin or shredded (I finely diced it)
16 oz salsa or picante (I used Trader Joe's Chipotle and Garlic Salsa, but use your favorite)
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and white pepper to taste (I used smoked salt from TJ's)
(note: we also seasoned with chili powder and cayenne and added a can of diced fire roasted chilis from TJ's to make it spicier, but this wasn't in the original recipe and you can leave it out)
lightly salted tortilla chips

Instructions:
1. Boil chicken until cooked through, about 15 minutes.  Save 2 cups of the broth, drain the rest and remove the chicken.  Shred and debone.
2.  Add chicken and remaining ingredients into a pot, including the 2 cups of broth you boiled in the chicken in. Simmer 45 minutes to an hour, making sure the cheese is well melted.  Stir often so that the cheese doesn't burn the bottom of the pan. Add salt and white pepper to taste.
3. Serve in individual bowls topped with slighly crumbled tortilla chips.

Minnesota

There might be a little lag in posts this week, because I was off traveling again.  This time to the great state of Minnesota!



I had a lovely time visiting my bestest buddy Jeff.  While we were there we ate a juicy blucy and fried cheese curds at Blue Door in St. Paul, Jeff's famous chicken parm (I have to get him to share that recipe with you...let's just say it's not a Weight Watcher's recipe!), brunch at French Meadow Cafe in Minneapolis, and the worst salad I've ever made.  For the most part, lots of delicious eats.  We burned it off by hiking on the St Croix River a wee bit north of the Twin Cities in Taylors Falls.



So far I'm working on eating SALAD to make up for all that fried food.  Do you have any healthy recipe ideas for dinner this week?

Shredded Sprouts Salad

I have always been terrified of brussels sprouts.  They just don't sound good, and until recently they've only been featured as a weird ingredient on the menu that no one really orders, like liver and onions.  But these little veggies, they've made a comeback!  And with good reason, they're actually delicious!



My mom makes a brussels sprouts recipe where she keeps them whole and then cooks them in bacon fat.  I much prefer the shredded version.  When it's whole, the outside gets cooked and caramelizes but the inside often remains a bit raw.  Raw brussels sprouts have a very strong cabbage flavor, which is probably the flavor that gave these babies a bad rep in the first place.  So step 1 in making them delicious - shred your sprouts.



Of course, everything tastes better with bacon.  Step 2 is to fry them up in bacon fat.  Sprinkle back in the crumbled bacon.  You won't be sorry.  Even 1 piece of bacon in the whole batch goes a long way.  If you don't eat pork, use turkey bacon and fry them in butter or oil, still does the trick.



Step 3 is balsamic vinegar.  It gives the perfect bit of acidity while adding some sweetness to the sprouts. Sprouts need balsamic.  They were meant to be together.

Finally, cheese.  Like bacon, everything tastes better with cheese.  Asiago is fantastic because its a little salty and it's plenty hard to grate in easily.  I'd like to say you can never have enough cheese, but a little goes a long way here.



This recipe is my favorite vegetable side dish, maybe ever.  I can gobble up a whole batch on my own.  I almost never make a dish more than once (I love trying new things) but I've made this probably 5 times now and I'm dreaming about making it again tonight.  Even the Monkey Scientist, who claims to hate brussels sprouts, loved this dish.  Leave it to Jessica, a self-proclaimed veggie hater, to bring me the best thing to happen to brussels sprouts since...well ever.  Now go home and make these, you won't regret it!



Shredded Sprouts Salad
from How Sweet Eats

Ingredients
2 cups whole brussels sprouts
1/2 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon butter or bacon fat
1 slice bacon, fried and crumbed
1/2 ounce grated asiago cheese

Instructions
1. Cutting the stems off of the brussels sprouts.
2. Add sprouts to a food processor and pulse until sprouts are tiny shreds. Do it manually so you can control the size of the shreds. You want some larger pieces and you don’t want them to be crumbs!
3. Melt butter or heat up bacon fat in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and shredded sprouts, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and saute for about 5-7 minutes, or until sprouts are browning. Add vinegar, salt, and pepper while stirring and make sure sprouts are all coated. Saute for another 1-2 minutes. Remove and plate.
4. Top with crumbled bacon and a small sprinkling of asiago cheese. Devour!

Chorizo-style Pork Chops

I'm a bit of an early bird.  I love getting up early, even on the weekends, and seizing the day.  By 11 pm on a weekday, I'm already asleep.  It's a little bit of a struggle, since most of my friends aren't exactly excited when I call them at 9 am on a Saturday to go to the farmer's market.  I can't understand why...the morning is always so gorgeous and sunny!

Sometimes on the weekend, I'll try to quietly entertain myself for an hour or two and let the Monkey Scientist sleep a little later before I wake him up.  I'll read a book on my iPad or, lately, brainstorm recipe ideas.  A few weeks ago, lying in bed on a Saturday morning, I had the inspiration for this dish.  Yes, I was thinking about pork chops at 9 am on a Saturday.  I might like food a little bit.



If you didn't notice, I have been a little bit obsessed with chorizo lately.  I would love to eat it fried up for dinner, but pork sausage isn't exactly the healthiest protein in the world.  So I wanted to create a pork dish that could serve as the main course while incorporating all of those spicy, warm chorizo flavors into it. I decided the best way to do this was to make a marinade with all of the ingredients that go into my favorite chorizo sausage (except the ground pork) and smother some boneless pork chops in it.



Do you know what gives chorizo that unmistakable red/orange oil?  I couldn't quite figure it out until I started making this recipe.  It's dried chiles!  If you live in DC, you can find dried Mexican chiles in the produce section at most Giant supermarkets.  The best place for dried chiles though is the new Georgetown Safeway.  The Monkey Scientist stopped by there and found a wide selection at very reasonable prices.



This recipe turned out better than I ever expected!  The sauce was amazing - I could have licked it off the plate.  It did have a solid kick to it - which we love - but you could tone it down by using milder chiles and less cayenne.  It wasn't exactly the same as eating chorizo, but it certainly was healthier.  Except for the whole frying in bacon fat thing - but that was totally worth it. We didn't grow up eating pork chops, but they're fairly inexpensive and super easy and quick to make.  We ate it with my favorite brussels sprouts recipe - I'll share it with you later this week.  This was one of my favorite meals to date!



Chorizo-style Pork Chops
adapted from Homesick Texan and Simply Recipes

Ingredients
3 dried New Mexico chiles (or other Mexican dried chile peppers)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 small onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon oregano
3/4 teaspoon cayenne
2 teaspoons salt
4-6 boneless pork chops (about 3/4" thick)
1-2 tbsp bacon fat (or olive oil)

Instructions
1. Rinse the dried chiles, and then remove the stem and seeds. Heat the chiles for a couple of minutes on each side in a cast-iron skillet on high heat. Remove from skillet and let soak for half an hour in water.
2. After chiles are moist, drain the water and place the chiles and vinegar in a blender or food processor, also adding the diced onion and chopped garlic. Puree until a smooth, bright red paste is formed (can add a splash of water or vinegar if it's too dry to blend). It will look like ketchup.
3. Combine the remaining spices in a separate bowl.  Rub the pork chops in a heavy coat of the spice blend.  Place them in a Ziploc bag, then add in the chile mixture.  Seal the bag, then shake to coat the pork chops and place in the refrigerator to marinate for about 2 hours.
4.  Heat a skillet over medium high heat until hot.  Add the bacon fat (fry up some bacon, remove it and leave the fat behind) or oil and then the pork chops.  Do not crowd the pan.  Cook for about 2 minutes on each side, until you see a brown sear around the edges (it won't turn very brown because of the marinade).  Juices should run clear and there should be no pink inside when done. Serve immediately.

Hot Cocoa Mix in a Jar

This post is going to be a short one, but I wanted to share a great gift idea with you.  I made these cocoa jars to bring to my bestest friend and the Monkey Scientist's parents while I was visiting Chicago a couple weeks ago.  I think they're the most adorable gift to send for the holidays!



Of course, you can also make this mix and store it to have your own cocoa all winter long!  I had tons left over and I've been keeping it in a jar on my counter to make hot cocoa whenever I like.  You just mix it with hot water, or even coffee if that's your kind of thing, and it's ready! It's absolutely delicious - creamy and frothy and chocolately and sweet.  The best drink on a cold winter's day!



Hot Cocoa Mix in a Jar
adjusted slightly from Whole Eats & Whole Treats

Ingredients

3 cups powdered sugar
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp fine salt
1 bag mini marshmallows

Instructions
Put all of the ingredients through a fine-mesh sieve. You will have to smoosh the powdered milk through with a spoon. This breaks up those lumps of milk and makes a nice uniform looking powder.

Fill a glass jar nearly to the top with mix, leaving about 1" of space at the top.  Fill the rest with mini marshmallows and put on the lid.

Instructions for making cocoa: 
Fill mug 1/3 of the way (or less for weaker hot cocoa) with the mix. Add a little bit of boiling water (or coffee) and stir or whisk. Fill the rest of the way with more water/coffee.

Roasted Pumpkin and Lentil Soup with Chorizo

Finally the fall is here!

You know how I know?




I made soup!  I haven't made soup in months!  And my soup, it has PUMPKIN it in!  It truly is October, even if it feels like April outside.  (Although I'm sure when I'm in Minneapolis in a little over a week, I'll freeze my little tushy off!)




I came up with this soup on my own, though I consulted all sorts of recipes for ways to roast pumpkin as well as techniques for preparing lentils, meats, or squash in soup.  Everyone has their own ways of doing it - roasting the pumpkin or not roasting, pureeing or leaving everything whole, and even timing varied widely.  In the end, I just did what worked best for me.



I really enjoyed making my own recipe for this soup. I had a vision of exactly what I wanted, and I accomplished it.  I was hoping for a soup that was spicy and savory, yet sweet, and full of protein so that it would be filling.  I love lentils, but I'd never tried to use them in soup and I'm so happy with my results!




If you're interested in making your own soup recipe, check out this guide on Simple Bites.  It's definitely a skill worth learning.  Homemade soup is so much tastier and healthier than anything out of a can!  Almost any seasonal produce can go right in!  I love any excuse to use my immersion blender, so squash in the fall makes my favorite soups.



This soup came out so amazing.  I brought some leftovers to work and everyone was wandering towards me, asking what they smelled.  It was very filling and the flavors were complex.  I'm not sure how I feel about the pureed meat (that sounds disgusting) but honestly it didn't bother me in the final soup.  I actually love the texture of the blended soup.  If you're not into that sort of thing, you can probably just add it in at the end, after you blend the lentils and squash, or leave it out all together (although in that case, I'd add some chiles to increase the spice level).  I thought it was just perfect as is though!




Pumpkin and Lentil Soup with Chorizo


Ingredients
1 small pie pumpkin
1 1/2 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp cinnamon sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb chorizo, casings removed and crumbled
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp all spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 cups lentils, rinsed and sorted
7 cups vegetable or chicken stock

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with tin foil.
2. Cut pumpkin in half and remove seeds and stringy insides.  Slice into 2-inch wide crescents.
3. Spread butter, maple syrup, and cinnamon sugar over the foil on the baking sheet.  Rub the pumpkin on both sides in the butter mixture.  Arrange in a single layer and bake 20-30 minutes, turning them over halfway through cooking time.  When they're cooked, remove and discard skin and chop pumpkin.
4. Heat the oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the chorizo and cook thoroughly. Remove to a separate bowl with a slotted spoon.
5. Add the onions, garlic, and ginger to the pan.  Season with salt, pepper, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves.  Allow to cook until soft, about 10 minutes.
6.  Add pumpkin, then lentils, then stock.  Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to low and simmer until lentil are tender, about 30 minutes (may take more or less time depending on the type of lentils used).
7. Puree using an immersion blender.  Serve immediately (just don't burn your tongue!)

Kibbee-style Bulgar Salad

I have been literally itching to make kibbee for weeks.  Mom and I went out for lunch back home in NH, where the fattoush salad is out of this world.  I live for it.  We went to a restaurant where I'd never been before, and I was about to top my salad with lamb kabob when saw a strange new meat option - Kibbee. I'd never heard of it before, but I'm always one to try new things.  Especially when the waitress described it as "kind of like meatloaf, but with pine nuts, and better..."



I died.  It was like a pine nutty, lamby, flat, baked slice of heaven.  It was so savory I nearly forgot about the citrusy, sumac-covered, crunchy salad below.  As soon as it was gone from my plate, I was on my phone, googling recipes.  I picked up some bulgar at the Christmas Tree Shop (yes, I do just love a bargain) to drag back to DC with me.



And then, I forgot about it.  Until one morning, while digging in the back of my cabinet, I saw the bulgar and remembered.  The urge was back - I had to have kibbee.  Tonight.



Again, I scoured the web for recipes.  There were all sorts of variations - some with tons of spices like allspice, fresh mint, cumin, cinnamon or even hot sauce, others had feta, some mixed the bulgar with the meat and some layered them.  I decided I would combine them all and see what worked best for me.



Unfortunately, it really didn't work out for me.  It became a big mess instead of a nice slice.  Regardless, the taste was really fantastic and it made a great salad.  I like using bulgar in "pasta" salad because it is so healthy, so this seemed like the obvious route to me.  Regardless, this is not my last try making kibee!!



Kibbee-style Bulgar Salad


Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large Vidalia onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb ground lamb
1/4 c fresh chopped mint
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 c bulgar
1/2 c pine nuts
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Saute garlic and onion until soft, about 8 minutes.
2. Add ground lamb, mint, cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg and cook until brown (doesn't need to be cooked through).
3. Meanwhile, soak bulgar in warm water 15-20 minutes.  Drain and squeeze out excess water.
4. Combine bulgar, lamb, and pine nuts in a bowl.  Grease a baking pan well with oil.  Press mixture into pan.
5.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until cooked through. Serve on its own with roasted squash or over baby spinach.