Saturday, September 26, 2009

Days 620 & 621 and headed into the fog today

We are headed out into the fog soon to go to Norman. I have a meeting at the college there and we'll get to see Serenity when she gets off work. Hope everyone has a super weekend!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Chili Recipe #2 (the new one)

This is the recipe that Tom has used for the last couple of years at the chili cook-off. It's a little hotter than the other one, but apparently it's good. I'm a real wimp when it comes to hot foods so I can't say how hot this one is, I've not tried it.

Chili Boca Llameante

Ingredients:

2-1/2 lbs. Ground beef
1/2 lb. Sausage
2 tbsp. Oil
1 Med. onion, chopped
5 cloves Minced garlic
2 tsp. Onion salt
2 tsp. Black pepper, coarse grind
1/2 tsp. Crushed red pepper
1 Green bell pepper, chopped
1 Red bell pepper, chopped
3/4 cup Chili powder
3 tsp. Garlic powder
2 tsp. Picante sauce
2 cans Ranch style beans w/jalapeno, 15oz.
4 cans Tomato sauce, 8oz.
1 can Diced tomatoes, 14.5oz.
1 tsp. Hickory (or mesquite) liquid smoke
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup Beef bouillon broth
1/2 pkg. Taco seasoning

Directions:

In lg. skillet, cook ground beef and sausage in oil with onion, minced garlic, and 1 tsp. each of onion salt and pepper.
Drain grease, then add bell peppers, 1/2 cup chili powder, garlic powder, and picante sauce.
Reduce heat to low and continue cooking for 3 minutes, stirring well.
After 3 minutes, boil 1/2 cup water with one beef bouillon cube and 1/2 pkg. taco seasoning, then add to skillet.
Add remaining ingredients, including remaining onion salt and pepper, and gently bring to a boil.
Allow to simmer for 15 minutes, then add remaining 1/4 cup chili powder and stir well.
Put in slow cooker and cook on med-hi heat for 3 hours.
Let cool, then refrigerate overnight in cooker.
Reheat well the next day when ready to eat, serve with grated cheese and chopped onions.
Makes approx. 1 gallon.
Enjoy!

Chili Recipe #1 (the classic)

This is Tom's original chili recipe that he won with for several years:

Chili
3 pounds ground beef (browned and drained)
32 oz. tomato sauce
2 cans Ranch Style beans (we sometimes use one can of the sweet onion beans and one can of the jalapeƱo beans).
1/3 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
2/3 teaspoon cumin
1/3 large onion, finely chopped and saute
2 green bell peppers, finely chopped and saute
salt and pepper
2/3 cup ketchup
1 cup water

Mix all ingredients together in a slow cooker and cook for at least 3 hours. I usually put it on high for about an hour to get it bubbling, then turn it down.

Now the thing you have to understand about Tom is that he never really follows a recipe so he tends to add stuff as it is cooking. However, this is about as close to his "recipe" as it gets. LOL.

Days 618 & 619 and Tom won the chili cook-off

Sorry about yesterday. My allergies and sinuses were killing me, I took two Benadryl and went to bed early.

Anyway, congrats to Tom, he won the chili cook-off this year at work, AGAIN! I'm so proud of him! Now he gets to go to the big cook-off downtown (which he hasn't won yet, but he SHOULD!)

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Day 617 and changes in behavior

So whenever I'm feeling discouraged and down about how things are going for us, I try to remind myself of the positive changes we've made in our life over the last 617 days. This is a summary of our courtesy pay/bank overdraft charges for the past few years:

2009: $0 so far!
2008: $90 (two before we began FPU and two after from stupid mistakes)
2007: $1170 in courtesy pay fees and $90 in returned check fees for a total of $1260!
2006: $1282.50

Wow! what a turnaround, huh? So no matter what else we've done wrong or had go wrong, at least we have saved over $2000 by not being stupid with our checking account. LOL.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Days 614, 615, & 616 and got to see my parents yesterday

My parents came for a short visit yesterday. My mom retired a few months ago and she's been cleaning stuff out of her house. As she so morbidly put it "she's doing it now so we don't have to do it after she's gone". Um...yeah, thanks for THAT mental image, Mom. LOL. So anyway, she brought us a carload of stuff from her house, so apparently when I retire, I can clean it out of my house so my kids don't have to go through it. LOL. Anyway, it was great to see them, wish they could have stayed longer. Hope everyone had a good weekend and has a great week!