Chili today, hot tamale

We plan out our menu for the week on the weekend. It is easy now to have a game plan for dinner and to have all the ingredients on hand.
Today I made chili. It's very easy, delicious and it makes a lot.

Chili

1 qt tomato juice
2 lbs beef
2 cans kidney beans
1 large onion
2 cans stewed tomatoes
2 green peppers
1/2 cup butter
3 stalks celery
pepper
cumin

Brown meat in large pot. Drain. Add rest of ingredients. Bring to a boil. Simmer (usually I simmer for 2-3 hours). Add pepper and cumin to taste.

We usually have bread or biscuits with it. I have made corn bread and that's a good choice too.

Dressing

As per request here is the yummy dressing recipe:

Cornbread & Apple Dressing

Makes 16 servings
Working time: 25 mins Total time: 2 hrs

1 lb sweet Italian ( or any sweet sausage)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
2 cups finely chopped yellow onion
2 cups chopped celery
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups cornbread, crumbled (I buy it in a bag. I think Pe.pperridge Farms makes it.)
4 cups fresh bread crumbs (from a bag or 10 slices country bread)
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage (I use dried Sage as I can never find the fresh. A rule of thumb when using dried: use a third of the amount of dried as you would the fresh)
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 cup low sodium chicken broth (use more if you need it)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the casings and crumble and brown the sausage in a large non stick skillet over medium high heat--about 10 mins. Remove and set aside the sausage and reserve 1 tablespoon of fat. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter with the fat, add the peppers, onions, celery, salt and black pepper, cook over medium low heat until vegetables are soft--about 15 mins. Toss in the sausage, cornbread and bread crumbs, apples, parsley, sage and thyme. Transfer to a 9 x 13 inch baking dish (I use two), pour the broth over the dressing and dot with remaining butter. Bake until the dressing is heated through and golden about 1 1/2 hours.

Everyone enjoys this dressing. When we started to have Thanksgiving at our house with all of our family I wanted to put my own stamp on holiday favorites. This recipe came from one my favorite magazines Country Living.
Enjoy!

Monday musings

My weekend was pretty good. How was yours? I had off from the og Friday night (always yay! for that), Saturday night at the bar was crazy busy but very profitable and Sunday I had off to go to a baby shower (yucko). It was for a girl I work with. This is the one who lost her little girl due to anencephaly. I sat with my fellow og mates and caught up with the goings on in their lives. It was nice to see everyone but seeing all that baby stuff and multiple pregnant women was too much. I couldn't wait to come home.
My very talented husband made Rita Kennedy's famous Irish baked potato soup. It's a soup that I used to get at a restaurant in Blooms.burg called Russell's. I won a cookbook and a cooking lesson with the owners (a couple). How cool is that? I'm so glad I have the cookbook because the wife passed away a couple of months ago and right before that they sold the restuarant. That made me very sad because it was my favorite place to eat since I was little.


Rita Kennedy's Famous Irish Baked Potato Soup

2 quarts chicken stock
4 large baked potatoes, diced (leave skins on)
1 quart heavy cream
1 large onion, cleaned and diced
1 tablespoon fresh garlic
1/2 stick unsalted butter
kosher salt and black pepper to taste
8 ounces sour cream
1 pound bacon, cooked and diced
16 ounces cheddar cheese
roux (1/2 melted butter to 1/2 flour)

Saute onion in butter, in saute pan, until transparent. Add garlic to onion and cook for 2 minutes. In large soup pot bring chicken stock and potatoes to a boil. Add onion mixture to soup pot and cook for one minute. Add heavy cream to soup pot and heat, do not boil. Thicken with roux (about 1 1/2 cups).
Ladle soup into bowls, add cheddar cheese, bacon and a dollop of sour cream on top.
Yield 8 servings (It made a huge bowl. I don't know how they figure out their servings. )

We got the invoice for the i.vf. 9200--covers all the procedures, icsi, and embryo freezing. The meds should be around 5k. I so wish that Pa would cover treatments. I know of two companies that pay for some treatments but I do not forsee myself quitting school and my jobs to work for them. Maybe a fairy godmother or a very generous tipper can come into play now.