Yeah it's Saturday - Chicken Chili

The weather is crappy today in Michigan; cold and rainy, but hey I'm not working, so it's a great day! Tarzan and my 15 year old nephew Reed are at the U of M versus MSU football game. They route for MSU, but I'm a graduate of UM so our family is split. haha. Anyway it's not looking too promising for my team at the moment.

I did some shopping this morning and I just finished putting the ingredients to White Chicken Chili in the crockpot. It should be done by the time they get home. Reed is staying the night tonight. I love having company over! I'm going to make some pumpkin muffins shortly - we can have those for breakfast tomorrow. Yummy!

White Chicken Chili - Crockpot Version
1 onion chopped
1 celery chopped
2 carrots chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
28 ounces of chicken broth
3 or 4 15 oz. cans of white cannellini beans or white northern beans
1 4 oz. can of chopped green chiles
2 pounds ground chicken or ground turkey (can use chicken breasts or thighs too)
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper (optional)
3-4 squirts of tabasco or chili sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown chicken or turkey. Put all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Great on a cold, rainy day!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

I love making pumpkin cookies in the fall. The recipe didn't call for chocolate chips, I threw those in for fun. They are delicious!

2.5 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

.5 tsp nutmeg

.5 tsp salt

1.5 cups sugar

1 stick butter (.5 cup)

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in bowl and set aside. Beat sugar and butter until smooth. Beat in pumpkin, egg and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add in flour and beat. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto baking sheets. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until edges are firmed.

If you don't want to add the chocolate chips you could drizzle with a glaze instead. Glaze recipe would be 2 cups sifted powdered sugar, 3 tblsp milk, 1 tblsp melted butter and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Mix until smooth.

P.S. - not my picture. I found it on the web. My camera is arriving today as Tarzan picks his parents up from the airport after 6 weeks in Italy. They borrowed my camera and I'm dying to get it back!

Gazpacho recipe - this one turned out great!

6-10 ripe tomatoes
1/2 of a large cucumber - remove seeds
1 green pepper
1 small onion
2-4 garlic cloves minced (depends how you like it)
1/3 cup oil
2 tbls sherry vinegar
1 cup water
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp cilantro

Chop up raw tomatoes (deseed if you want), cucumber, onion and pepper and put into blender with water, oil, garlic, cilantro, vinegar, and salt. Grind up in blender. Taste to see if you need to add salt. How long you blend it is up to you - you can make it as chunky or as smooth as you want. Chill for at least 4 hours before serving. Delicioso!!