Most Beloved Family Dish: NaBloPoMo Day 1

Here I go again. I feel like I'm always trying so hard to keep up with this and then I don't do well. So my goal will be to post today. There. If I make it to tomorrow great. If not, that's ok too. I'm always trying to do the full month of blogging and then when I miss a day I feel like "well I may as well give up now" and that's not any good. So we'll start with today and see how it goes tomorrow!

I'm talking of course about Blogtober. But I've bitten off maybe more than I can chew this year. Not only do I now have an almost 3 year old, but I also have (as of today) a 9 month old baby AND I decided I wanted to Vlog every day in October too. So clearly I've lost my mind.

All that being said, I'm going to try anyway. And why...I have to ask myself why. I think it's because I truly do love writing. I do. I'm not sure I'm any good at it. It's not like I write these epic blog posts that send hundreds (or even tens) of people racing to my page to see what I've written each day. But I guess in all honesty that's not why I write here anyway. I like documenting my life, our lives, I like writing and this seems like a good way to do it. I never am good at picking up a paper and pen to write. I talk fast, I think fast and my fingers move faster above a keyboard than they do pushing a pen across paper.

I'd like to write a book someday. I've had so many ideas on great books. But that will have to wait. I don't even know where to begin.

Onto the prompt. "What is your most beloved family dish?"

I've had to really think about this one. I don't have one. The first thing that comes to mind is some really yummy chili that I started making after my husband and I got married. It came out of a Better Homes Breast Cancer Awareness huge, pink, cook book. The first time I made it we really enjoyed it. And then I started changing up the recipe pretty much every time I made it after that. I'm sure I've made it 20 times in the last 5 years. See...that's not a lot. Is that a "beloved" family dish? What constitutes "beloved"?

It's the only dish my husband has ever asked me to make repeatedly. Not that I don't make other food that tastes good haha, but he seems to really like it. We used to put in super hot peppers. As hot as we could get it...but now that we have Alivia (who's about to turn 3) we can't add those peppers. I'm excited to see if she'll like spicy foods someday. I fed her curry two night ago and, well, lets just say she wasn't very full by the end of her meal.

Looking back at my own family prior to having children and being married, I'm having a difficult time remembering one specific dish that my mother made. She did cook a lot when she was home to make dinner, as did my step-father, but I just can't really pinpoint ONE that always stood out. I should add that I tend to have a terrible memory at times. It's very possible that I could ask my mother this question and she'd say "Oh of COURSE! Don't you rememeber xyz..." but right now I can't think of anything. She makes great food, they both do. Maybe I'm just hung up on the word "beloved" :-)

I'm sticking with my chili. I do believe I even blogged about it once here...I'll see if I can find the link.

There. Day 1. Done. My goal is complete. And I have my video uploading as I type this to YouTube so 2 goals complete today. 2/2 that's pretty good.

Now lets see if I can make it to tomorrow! 

P.S. What do ya know...there it is White Chicken Chili

White Chicken Chili ~ Crock pot

A friend asked me for the chili recipe I use yesterday and it made me want to make it tonight. That and hubby asking me to make it haha. I made enough for all four of us to have some. It must have been good because not much was left! At the end of this post I'll list the recipe and then what I changed about it. This is my third time making it and each time I've played around with it a little to decide what we really like in it. This was a great dinner for tonight since it's 2 degrees out! Oh, and the red cutting board wasn't a great idea for pics lol

Yellow and red bell peppers. One each.

Three medium sized tomatoes, chopped. This I added to the recipe.

lol, just a pretty picture of the peppers in the pot.

We used one jalapeno pepper and one little habanero pepper. Dustin and I like it hot but his parents don't. This make it just right for all of us. You have to take ALL the seeds out of both peppers. I chopped the habanero (orange) VERY small. Warning : it is a VERY good idea to use gloves while working with both of these peppers. Some day I'll use that advice. I cut these at 1:30 today...it's 9:28 and my fingers still have the oil on them.

 

 My wonderful husband helping me with the chicken cutting!

 Chop the chicken however thick you want. This time we used bigger pieces and it was perfect!!

 The recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups chopped chicken. This ended up being only 2 cups. We used 4 frozen chicken breasts. Should have used another one.

 Just some pics of it all coming together. As you might be able to see I also added tomato paste. 12 oz. 

We used two cans of pinto beans and one can of red kidney beans. We used white kidney beans once and they were so soft they broke apart in the chili and it was too mushy for me.

 Gently mix it all together. You don't want to ruin the beans. The last thing you should add is the Chicken Broth. Then mix gently again. This is little hard to do because the pot is SOOOO full!

  Pre-cooked

 The finished product! We like to add cheese and sour cream! 

•  3, 15 5o 15.5-ounce cans Great Northern pinto or Cannellini (white kidney) beans, rinsed and drained. Any beans you want to use are fine. As I said above the White Kidney beans don't do so well in this. They tend to get really mushy and mess up the chili. Red kidney beans are great however.
  
• 2 1/2 cups chopped chicken
  
• 1 cup chopped onion We don't like onion so we skip this part, but it still tastes great
  
• 1 1/2 cups chopped red, green and/or yellow sweet pepper (about two medium)
• 2 frech jalapeno chile peppers, seeded and chopped Depending on how hot you like it play with different peppers. Make sure to read the warning above, working with hot peppers! lol
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced We just use the pre-minced bottle. SO much easier!!! 2 Teaspoons = one clove garlic
  
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
• 3 1/2 cups chicken broth Since we add 12 oz of tomato paste and 3 chopped tomatoes we only use 2 1/2 cups of the chicken broth. Doing this makes the chili thicker.

Combine all of your ingredients leaving the chicken broth for last. Before adding the Chicken Broth gently mix every thing together. Be careful not to smash your beans up in there. Add the chicken broth and then stir again. Your crock pot is going to be REALLY full. Put the lid on and cook on low-heat for 8-10 hours, or high-heat 4-6 hours.

You can add sour cream, cheese, broken up tortilla chips, crackers or get really creative and carve out bread bowls to serve the chili in. Enjoy!