Easy Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

I unfortunately don't have a picture of the recent batch I made but I got this recipe from good ol' allrecipes.com


(picture credited to allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 pound ground turkey

2 (10.75 ounce) cans low sodium tomato soup (I use a box of the Smoked Roasted Tomato soup from TJ's)

2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon ground cumin

1 pinch ground black pepper

1 pinch ground allspice (never have this onhand, so I just throw in some cinnamon as a sub)

salt to taste

Instructions:

1.	Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Place turkey in the skillet, and cook until evenly brown; drain.
2.	Coat the inside of a slow cooker with cooking spray, and mix in turkey, tomato soup, kidney beans, black beans and onion. Season with chili powder, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, cumin, black pepper, allspice and salt.
3.	Cover, and cook 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on High. OPTIONAL: Near the end, I sometimes will cut up some fresh veggies and add it in (like zucchini, or peppers. I've also added canned corn in before with the beans to add some other veggies).

Chum Cioppino & Friend Fondue

This past weekend nothing really went as planned. It was the weekend epitome of "life is what happens when you are making plans." Planned to go to Tahoe...bowed out of that. Planned to go to the MOMA and get Irish Coffee in SF...weather ruined that. Overall, though, the weekend turned out quite nice, even though nothing was according to plan. Sometimes the best things happen when being spontaneous, which was exactly this meal. Again, I "planned" to have a girls sleepover, but friends ended up being sick or just being able to make dinner. So I decided to invite a few girlfriends over for a bit o'chatting (aka gossiping) and sharing a wonderful meal.

I've never had cioppino but I've seen friends order it at restaurants and it looked quite scrumptious. Plus, the appeal of a one-pot meal with minimal preparation was quite enticing. Ok, I take that back, the minimal preparation is ONLY true if you buy peeled and deveined shrimp (which I HIGHLY recommend). Too bad I didn't. I admit, at first it was pretty gross

to literally extract the poop from shrimp, but you get the hang of it after while or an hour...agh.

This dish was really yummy and even more so the next day after the flavors married. It makes a TON, so definitely use it for a multi-person meal.

Comrade Cioppino

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

• 3/4 cup butter (next time I would use EVOO just to a little healthier)
• 2 onions, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 1/2 cups white wine (I used Vermouth - do not use a sweet white wine).

1/4 cup of fish stock or a bottle of clam juice

• 1 pounds large shrimp - peeled and deveined
• 18 small clams
• 18 mussels, cleaned and debearded
• 1 pounds cod fillets, cubed
• 
  

1) Over medium-low heat melt butter or heat EVOO in a large stockpot. Add onion, garlic and parsley and cook, stirring occasionally until onion is soft and translucent.

2) Add tomatoes and break down with spoon. Add chicken broth, bay leaves, basil, thyme, oregano and wine and fish stock or clam juice. Mix well. Cover and simmer for an hour.

3) Stir in clams, cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until clams open.

4) Stir in mussels, shrimp and cod and simmer for another 5 minutes until shrimp are cooked through and the mussels open. The shrimp are cooked when their color turns pink and they curl.

5) Ladle into bowls and serve immediately. Discard any clams and mussels that did not open.

For dessert I stuck with the "one-pot" theme and made a simple, yet delicious chocolate fondue. You do not need a fondue pot in order to make fondue or a mini-burner to keep it warm. The great thing about this recipe is that it makes SO much that the fondue stays warm and liquidy long after taking it off the stove-top.

I ended up with about 4 cups of leftover fondue and this is AFTER four girls made a huge dent in the fondue. So I recommend either cutting the recipe in half or using the leftovers to make

chocolate truffles, which I ended up doing.

Friend Fondue

Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com

32 ounces of semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 1/3 cup of brewed coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I didn't have any on hand so I substituted a little less than 1 tsp of almond extract).
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/3 cup hot water

1) In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the chocolate with the heavy cream. Mix in the coffee, vanilla extract, sugar, and hot water. Continue to heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth.

2) We used the following goodies to dip in the fondue: strawberries, bananas, apples, pound cake

and pretzels

Chocolate Truffles from Fondue Leftovers:

If like me, you have a ton of fondue left over, then refrigerate overnight.

1) Take cold leftovers and form into truffle balls using a teaspoon. I recommend lightly flowering your hands and working quickly with the truffles so there isn't a sticky and chocolaty mess.

2) After forming your truffles, place back into refrigerator for another hour. Because the fondue had a lot of cream, the truffles will always be a bit soft. I coated my truffles in cocoa powder and toasted coconut. I stored them in a large tupperware, separating each layer with wax paper.

Soup for the Sick

I've been home for the past couple of days trying to get over whatever sickness I have caught. Nevertheless, being ill will not thwart my cooking efforts. I'm a big proponent for feeding your illness, so I decided to concoct a hearty and healthy soup for the sick. It's a slightly different take on chicken noodle soup, which many Jewish grandmothers and mothers recommend for the ill. I like this recipe because any cook can adapt it to their tastes by taking out or throwing in additional ingredients. Enjoy!

Please don't let the long list of ingredients deter you from making this soup. It has a rich flavor and a nice kick from the pepper flakes.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 glugs of olive oil
• 2 pinches of salt
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 2 large carrots, halved and quartered
• 2 celery stalks, halved and chopped
• 2 tsp of dried oregano
• 1 tsp of paprika
• 1/2 tsp of dried red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp of dried thyme
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 cups of vegetable broth (low sodium)
• 6 cups of chicken broth (low sodium)
• 1 cup of grilled chicken breasts, chopped into small pieces (I used pre-grilled chicken breasts pieces from Costco and then chopped them into small bites)
• half of a head of cauliflower, chopped into small florets
• 1 head of broccoli, chopped in to small florets
• 2 handfuls of small spinach.
• 6 oz of partially cooked egg noodles (for 5-6 minutes so they don't get overcooked once you add them to the soup)
• handful of green onions, chopped for garnish (optional)

Method

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large saucepan on the stove top and add the salt. Once the oil is hot (but not steaming), add the onion, carrot, and celery to the pot and saute for 10 minutes. Then add the oregano, paprika, red pepper flakes, thyme and garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the vegetable and chicken broth, and cook until a boil and then reduce heat to medium low, so that it simmers. Let soup simmer for 15 minutes. After it simmers, add the chicken, cauliflower, and broccoli and let simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Taste the broth and add whatever additional spices you desire. Right before you think the soup is done, stir in the spinach for a minute until wilted, and then add the noodles. Make sure to cook the noodles for only a minute or two in the soup and then turn down the heat to low or off in order to not over cook the noodles. Ladle into soup bowls and add green onions for garnish. ENJOY! =)

My name is Yelena and I want to learn to cook

Hi everyone, I'm Yelena and I am a novice at cooking. However, I have made it my New Years Resolution to cook more so this is a perfect blog to help me stick to it! I have a feeling I will mostly be reading about all of your masterpieces, but I will try to not be shy and submit my cooking attempts as well. In fact, I started off my resolution last week by making Beef Barley Mushroom Soup


I grew up on Jewish/Russian cooking which tends to be mild and characterized by slow cooking on the stove. I'm always telling people I cook for that they are going to want to add their own salt and pepper because apparently the amount of salt I put in isn't enough, but that is just the Russian way. This soup is an elementary version that my grandmother might make, but hey, I'm just starting out! The soup was yummy, but it would have been better had I not put too much barley in there (I ended up putting in like 3 times the amount the recipe called for because it didn't seem like enough). It was a good lesson to stick to the recipe, at least while I'm starting out. In the cold weeks we've been having though, this was a perfect way to get a hardy meal and warm up at the same time. I look forward to trying new things and getting ideas from you guys!

This recipe was from Allrecipes.com :


Ingredients:

• 1 pound cubed beef stew meat
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons margarine
• 3 large carrots, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 6 cups water
• 3 cubes beef bouillon cube
• 1/4 cup pearl barley
• 1/4 cup sour cream

1. Brown small cubes of stew meat in vegetable oil over medium heat until juices become a rich brown color. Add 2 cups water, and simmer meat while preparing the vegetables.
2. In a large soup pot, melt butter or margarine over medium heat. Saute carrots, onion, garlic, celery, and mushrooms.
3. Add meat, 6 cups water, bouillon cubes, and barley to vegetable mixture. Cook until barley is soft. Adjust liquid and seasoning as desired. Remove from heat, and stir in sour cream. Serve immediately.