Barley

I recently cooked with barley for the first time. I'm not exactly sure why I never used it before, I guess I just never came across a recipe that called for it. Until a few weeks ago that is. A food blog I frequent is http://www.melskitchencafe.com/. I love this blog because most all the recipes are winners! I make at least one recipe from this blog each week, if not two or more. Recently two recipes calling for barley were featured: Split Pea Soup with Barley and Ham (you can find the recipe here), and Southwestern Chicken Barley Chili (find it here). They both sounded delicious so I made them both.

(sorry, no picture of the chili)

I LOVED the split pea soup! It's a slow cooker recipe and was very easy. The flavor and texture were phenomenal. My husband was skeptical but he loved it and even ate all the leftovers. The chili was alright but I thought it needed more salt and seasonings. It tasted more like taco soup rather than chili, but that's ok because taco soup is yummy! It isn't a slow cooker recipe, but it probably could be adapted to be one.

I really like the texture and flavor the barley added to both of these recipes. I would like to add more grains to my diet and barley is such an easy grain to cook with. If you've never cooked with barley, try one of these recipes! I know we're getting out of soup and chili season, but if you're like me you enjoy them all year round.

Chipotle Chocolate Chili

Here's another chili recipe. I found this one on Our Best Bites and saved it to my recipe collection (click here then you'll have to do a search for the recipe). I thought chocolate was strange, but you don't really taste it, it just adds nice depth to it! In my recipe notes I just said go easy on the chipotle, but if you really like chipotle, then don't hold back!

Chipotle Chocolate Chili

Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground turkey
1 large onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, minced
1-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can beef broth
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder (NOT Nesquick! That would be very bad!)
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
Chipotle sauce (from the can of chipotle chilies)
1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate (1/2 unsweetened baking cube), chopped (optional; use to taste as needed, too much will make your chili bitter)
3-4 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
light sour cream
chopped green onions
shredded cheddar cheese


Directions:
Heat some olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Saute onion, garlic, bell pepper, and ground turkey until meat is cooked through. Add salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, brown sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, tomatoes, kidney beans, and beef broth. Add all of the chipotle sauce from a small can of chipotle chilies. Heat to boiling and then reduce to a simmer (uncovered), stirring occasionally, until thickened as desired (about 30-40 minutes). If desired, add some chopped chipotle chilies. Add 3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar and a small amount of chopped chocolate at a time until desired richness is reached. If necessary, add more red wine vinegar to cut the sweetness of the chili. This is where you can play around a little with the flavors.
When thickened and seasoned as desired, serve with green onions, sour cream, and cheddar cheese

Sweet Potato Chili

I had this in a comment, but then I figured I'd just go ahead and post it. I think it's worth sharing with everyone.

Vegetarian Chili with Sweet Potato

I came across this recipe in Real Simple a few months ago maybe. It is not a traditional chili, but I loved it! Anything that has sweet potato in it catches my eye, and I was intrigued that cocoa powder was an ingredient. I don't know that I could really taste the cocoa, but this chili definitely has a unique taste. Max and I both really liked it. It's my new go-to chili.

The recipe says to cook it for several hours in a slow cooker, but I just made it on the stove. Well first, I roasted the sweet potatoes in the oven. Then I sauteed the other vegetables in a large pot; added the liquid, sweet potato, and spices; and let it simmer for maybe 30 minutes. Easy!

Good luck in your recipe search Maren!

Great Chili?

Greetings to all you makers of delicious food!

I could use some help getting a great chili recipe. I'm doing a family birthday party soon and need to feed 11 people dinner. I have some chili recipes that are fine but I'm still on a quest for a chili recipe I really resonate with.

Does anyone have a chili recipe they love that they'd be willing to share?

New Delish

Thank you guys so much for posting your opinions on the last post. I think we should go ahead and switch things up! Lets open it up as a general recipe blog. If you have a recipe that you love and are willing to share, please post it. I am fine if you want to use this as your "recipe book" to store all your favorite recipes for easy access.

Anyone can post whatever type of recipe they would like. There are labels that can be helpful in searching and I suggest you use them. For example: main dish, appetizer, drink, salad, soup, bread and dessert.

To keep in the spirit of delish I would like to encourage you to try other people's recipes and post about it. Along with that, try not to be offended if someone doesn't like the recipe you posted. You may end up with suggestions that would make your dish even more amazing. 

I would also like to encourage you to post a picture if you can. I am such a visual person I prefer to make recipes that I've seen a picture of.

So, lets do this! I'm excited to see what you've all been eating!

Catherine's Squash Revisited

This is another recipe I made a while ago but didn't post. I wanted to try acorn squash, so I decided to make stuffed squash. I cut the acorn squash in half and baked it until it was almost done (I don't remember now how long that took; probably half an hour). I stuffed it with sausage stuffing (this recipe, only I made it on the stovetop instead of in a crockpot), then drizzled melted butter and grated parmesan cheese on it and baked it again for another 10 minutes.

(I made a lot because I was visiting family in Utah.)

So, what did we think? Well, I got rave reviews from all my family, even the one who doesn't really like squash, and the one who doesn't like sausage. But... I didn't really like it. I guess I was expecting it to taste more like butternut squash, which is sweet. It didn't. My mom described it as an "earthy" taste, which I guess is pretty accurate, but I wanted a sweet contrast to the stuffing. So I tried it again after Christmas using butternut squash. Definitely tastier, although not nearly as cute. I do like that the acorn squash makes a perfect individual serving, which you don't get with the butternut.

Catherine's Poached Eggs

I made this a long time ago, but I'm finally getting around to posting it. I can't eat eggs, so I used my husband and daughter as taste testers. Both like eggs, and both are a little picky, so I figured they'd be good judges. I thought the texture was very interesting, like a mix between a hard-boiled and a fried egg. Both my judges liked them, although not enough for me to try it again except on special occasions. When they're perfectly happy with an easier egg, why change it up?

Posting Behind the Bird: Turkey Salad

Going to post regarding the turkey salad recipe in this episode later today. We had a roasted turkey breast last night so I thought this would be a good way to use some of it up.

I couldn't actually find the recipe on the food network website but this is the episode when the crew was "snowed in" and had to do what they could during that time. Here is the link to utube for the episode.

Here's the recipe:
1 lb Roasted Turkey meat
1/2 c mayonnaise
1/2 small lemon freshly squeezed
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 c pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
1/4 c dried cranberries, roughly chopped
2 TBSP fresh sage, chiffonade
1/4 tsp kosher salt
black pepper, to taste

Combine everything in a large airtight container. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving. Store in the fridge for 3 days.

I normally don't like fruit mixed with my meat. But this was great. I think the fresh sage really added a lot to this salad.

It is on page 163 if you have the book.

Next Rotation?

As we're entering our last week of this rotation I want to hear your thoughts on delish. So, if you could all just answer the following questions in the comment section, that would be great!

1. Do you want to continue choosing recipes from the Good Eats cookbook? What are your general thoughts about this book?

2. Do you like the structure of delish? Would you rather make it more or less formal? 

3. Danielle and I have been tossing around the idea of making delish more of a place where we all submit recipes we like and recommend from any cookbook. Do you like this idea?

4. Do you find it too hard to make the recipes in the one week time frame?

5. What is your favorite and least favorite part of delish?

Thanks a bunch! I'll post my thoughts down there later in the week, but I would love to know what you guys have to say!

Cami's Yogurt

This was a total flop for me. I have heard of people making yogurt in their crockpots and I thought this would be a good idea. I used the Good Eats recipe but changed the cook times to the crockpot recipe. This resulted in thicker milk like substance, but not quite yogurt. It just didn't thicken up. So, I tried cooking it a little longer which resulted in a tan colored mess that didn't look or taste like yogurt. It was more like spoiled milk. A total flop. I do want to try again, but if anyone has tips for making yogurt, please pass them along!