Killer Crock Pot Chili

Have I mentioned that I love fall? Here's a recipe to warm your bones as the cool weather rolls in.

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef
1 can tomato paste
1 can black beans
1 can browned beans in tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup corn, frozen or canned
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 medium Spanish onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 jalapeño, seeds removed, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
1 large portabella mushroom, cut into chunks
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin seed
2 tbsp chili powder
Salt and cracked pepper to taste
2 bay leaves
3 cloves of garlic, minced
¼ cup combined, cider and malt vinegars
¼ cup brown sugar, not packed
1 tsp Tabasco
Vegetable oil

Method
Turn on the crock pot to high and add the diced tomatoes, corn, beans and mushrooms. Sauté the beef, onions, peppers, celery, zucchini and garlic until they are half way cooked, then add them to the crock pot. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, spices and Tabasco. Stir the mixture into the crock pot along with the bay leaves. Cover and bring the pot to a bubble. Then reduce to low and let cook for at least 6 hours, stirring occasionally. Serve in bowls and garnish with extra old, shredded cheddar cheese.

~ you're welcome ;o)

Jambalaya

Dinner tonight. The beautiful thing about cooking is that there is so much room for interpretation. Jambalaya is as diverse as chili, soup, casserole or stew. So go with the flow. If you only have one pepper and it's green, who cares. Chop it up and toss it in. It always helps to refer to a few recipes when making something at home. Don't rely too much on exact ingredients. There are always perfectly acceptable substitutions. If you don't like sausage, try shrimp. If peppers aren't your thing, try zucchini. You get me. So here we go.

Peppers, onion and garlic.

4 garlic links, simmering until cooked.

4 tsp louisiana hot sauce, several shakes of the tobasco, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato paste, 1 cup chicken broth and 1 cup water.

1 tsp thyme, 3 bay leaves, salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste.

While the sausage simmers cut the peppers into chunks and dice the onion.

Remove the cooked sausage and add a tbsp of oil to the skillet. Saute your veg on high heat just to soften.

In a preheated crockpot add the sauces and seasonings, sliced cooked sausages and 1/2 cup of rice. Once the veggies are done add them in too. Cover and let cook for atleast 2 hrs or at least until the rice is cooked. Taste and correct the seasonings before serving.

My corrections

1. I didn't have any celery which I find pretty standard so I added celery seed for extra flavour.
2. I have a sick obsession with onion and garlic powder...so in they went.
3. I would have really liked to have added some big juicy shrimp, but alas I don't just keep those expensive buggers on hand.
4. I like extra spicy so I added cayenne pepper and the hubby's special spicy blend*.

* the hubby loves to garden which is probably just a means to feed his obsession with anything hot. 2 years ago he grew enough peppers, to make enough dried spice to last a lifetime. It consists of habeneros, cayenne, fish peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, cherry hot, hungarian wax and probably 10 more I can't remember. It's damn good stuff. Unfortunately the jars of sauces and salsas he made have long since been eaten.