Tequila White Chicken Chili

LIke spicy? Add an extra jalapeño to the pot.

Next to my reading chair I typically keep a big, messy stack of books and magazines; sometimes the Sunday NEW YORK TIMES rests there until the next Sunday rolls around. In the pile are that month’s book club books (I try and keep up with three book clubs plus a cookbook club, though I often don’t succeed) along with another new one or two someone’s told me about or loaned me. If I’m really lucky, and I often am, I also keep a precious something I can read piecemeal, a tiny bit at a time when I need to get off my feet or have an extra 10 minutes before needing to stir a pot or leave for an appointment.

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Green Chile Pimento Cheese

A love affair with Pimento Cheese begins, ends, and begins again at will in my house. Sometimes it’s months or a year or two in between dalliances. And then it’s over and over and over again plain old, plain old just like it always tastily was or sometimes it arrives in new captivating disguises like CHICKEN-PIMENTO CHEESE PATTY MELTS with Grilled Broccoli with Sriracha Sour Cream from the summer of 2017 here on More Time at the Table.

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Colorado Green Chile Chicken on Cheese Grits with Garlicky Spinach

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Cinco de Mayo, which celebrates Mexico’s victory over France at the Battle of Puebla, might have gotten out of hand once in a while in U.S. celebrations.  A margarita or two many (sic) along with endless bowls of tortilla chips and salsa sounds great in the short run, but not in the long.  Why not skip the tequila hangover (it is, after all, a work night) and invite a few friends over for my chicken and green chili with cheese grits– a supper full of freshly layered happiness? Continue reading

Grilled Cheese Peppers — Sweet or Hot–with Brown Rice and Avocado Salad

IMG_2864While we were in Santa Fe for the opera a couple of weeks ago, we were kindly invited for dinner with nearby family of old friends. While we love eating anywhere in Santa Fe, it’s usually a restaurant. We not only saw Santa Fe in a whole new light by breaking bread in a home, but made new friends who then next day took us for a picnic and hiking in the Santa Fe National Forest (do it, do it, do it).

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Colorado Two-Potato Stew with Roasted Chiles and Cheese

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In late summer in Colorado and New Mexico, there are chile roasters on busy street corners and if you haven’t the time or inclination to buy and roast your own chiles, this is the place you stop for our homegrown goodness. The aromas wafting around the intersections will call you even if you haven’t seen a roaster in years. Can’t eat them all right away–just warmed and layered with cheese, eaten with tortillas or tortilla chips?  Then it’s time to gently tuck the chiles into small or large containers and freeze them for winter cooking.

Come cold weather, I like to pile up a big slow cooker full of sliced fresh salted and peppered pork loin, chopped onions and garlic, sliced or canned tomatoes, and the thawed or still frozen roasted chiles.  At the end of  a snowy day, we hit a fresh tortilla place on the way home and walk into the house full of blasting hot southwest aromas hitting us in the face. Tortillas go in the oven and a big bowl of pork and chiles is ladled out for each person.  Time to sit down to summer complete with a cold beer.  Meanwhile, we watch the wind whip down out of the mountains, screaming cold, cold, cold. Yes, it’s rather heavenly-sounding, isn’t it? Continue reading

Meatless Mondays–Green Chile-Vegetable Crock Pot Soup

Vegan and Gluten-Free
 
 
On Monday mornings, I read the Sunday New York Times. (Read Mark Bittman’s article on bread in yesterday’s NYT magazine–beautiful.)  I’m totally perverse.  Occasionally I snuggle up on the couch for a Sunday afternoon with it, but I work Sundays…

 

and after I eat a late lunch that I never cook, I typically read something a wee bit ephemeral like the current book club book, a Diana Gabaldan novel, a P.D. James or a Dorothy Sayers (I’m re-reading all of her mysteries this winter).  Right now I’m stuck, really stuck on a book called, FROM HERE, YOU CAN’T SEE PARIS, by Michael S. Sanders (2002, Harper Collins)  I’ve read a lot of books about living in France (Isn’t there a plethora?), and enjoy them all, but this guy describes things so vividly I feel not only like I’m right there, but perhaps I’m the one writing or maybe participating in some way.  Quite touching, quite moving, quite arms-open-wide-here’s-how-it-feels.

There are times on Sunday that we go for a long walk with the doggies; we live near the Mississippi River and there’s a beautiful, miles’ long parkway with walking-bike trails.  In the winter, it’s the only time we go to The Mall of America, despite the fact that it’s ten minutes away.  Great place to walk in bad weather if it’s not too crowded; I seldom buy anything but lunch.

  
Anyway, that’s why I read the NYT on Monday after I do my power walk (which now includes four minutes of running a day–I keep edging it up–go bones) and have breakfast.  (Breakfast today is a chopped Minnesota Honey Crisp Apple with 1/2 cup Fage No-Fat Plain Yogurt and a tablespoon of my own granola, which is terribly good for you!)  Dave’s back in his home office or traveling, and I rarely blog on Mondays…except today…so I can just sit and enjoy the paper at my leisure while I catch up on laundry.
 
Today’s a little different…when I just had to share a simple, flexible, 0-1 Point WW chile vegetable crock pot soup on a meatless Monday. I would easily say this is 0 Points, but I’ve put in a sweet potato and it may make the second cup count as a point; I’m no Weight Watchers expert.  I’ve had such good responses to my 0-Point Vegetable Soup a la Provence, that it spurred me to make another soup to keep me on my fitness program and to have at-the-ready …
 

LUNCH FOR THE WEEK.

 
Whether or not it’s cold where you live, this is a warm-up; the chiles and hint of chile powder take the vegetables out for a run while you do whatever all day long.  You then have lunches–no temptation to go for take-out– or can freeze this in one or two-quart containers so that you don’t get bored with it.  If you’re not watching every calorie P and Q, you might have a few tortilla chips and a little grated cheddar on top.  Feeding a family or an individual who likes a larger, heartier meal? Serve two cups of  the soup ladled over a half or whole cup of hot brown rice– or even 1/2 cup each pinto or black beans and rice.  I like to blend just part of this soup and return it to the crock pot so that it has a thicker appearance and texture.  Try this:

 

 
slow cooker green chile-vegetable soup
     8-10 servings
 
Cook’s Note:   Switch the vegetables around to accommodate what you have or like.  Be sure any purchased or canned ingredients are labeled “gluten-free,” if needed. If you’d like a vegan version, just leave out the cheese garnish.
 
  • 1/2 cup white wine or water
  • 2-quarts vegetable stock, gluten-free
  • 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 7-ounce can chopped chiles, undrained
  • 3-4 drops hot sauce (I like Tabasco)
  • 2 celery stalks, chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 sweet potato peeled, large dice
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 each yellow squash and zucchini, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
  • 1 parsnip, peeled, sliced thinly
  • Handful of chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 cup corn, frozen or fresh
  • 1 teaspoon each kosher salt and ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon each:  fresh ground black pepper and chili powder (or to taste)
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • tortilla chips (gluten-free) or grated cheddar cheese, if desired for garnish
 
 Add all ingredients to a 6-7-quart crock pot.  Set on high and cook four  hours or set on low and cook 7-8 hours. Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.  Remove about 1/3 of the soup to a deep pot or large bowl and puree using an immersible blender (or in batches in the food processor or blender) and return blended portion to crock pot. Stir well.  Serve hot as is or garnish with grated cheese or tortilla chips, if you like.  If desired, serve over hot brown rice.   Cool and refrigerate leftovers within two hours for up to three days in tightly-covered containers or freeze as long as 4-6 months
 
Stove-top soup:  Bring all ingredients to a boil in a 10-quart soup kettle.  Lower heat to a healthy simmer and let cook 30-40 minutes or until vegetables are tender.    Follow rest of directions above.
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Interested in more crock pot/slow cooker or soup recipes? Check out Kalyn’s Kitchen Slow Cooker from Scratch    or Lydia Walshin’s Soup Chick dot com. Enjoy!
 
Disclaimer:  While this recipe appears to easily be both vegan (without the cheese garnish) and gluten-free, I am not a dietary expert.  Please be sure of your ingredients if you are on a special diet and consult a dietician with any questions.

50 Women Game-Changers – # 45 – Diana Kennedy- Fresh Salsa Mexicana from Jerez

Wake up and smell the salsa.
This is not salsa made in New York City.
Nor in San Antonio.
This salsa is made in your house. On your cutting board. 
And not in your Cuisinart.

Plant your gardens and sharpen your knives.
This salsa is worth the time it takes to  grow the ingredients and make it by hand.  But you can make it in its glorious Mexican-flag colors this weekend in honor of Cinco de Mayo if you’d like!

If you’ve not been part of this journey thus far, welcome to my addition to a great group of food bloggers who are, week by week, cooking dishes from the 50 Women Game-Changers in Food from Gourmet Live.  This Friday we feature Mexican chef, teacher, and cookbook author, Diana Kennedy, a Brit (b. 1923)  who ended up in Mexico in love with Mexican food for more than fifty years.  Intent on sharing her passion, Kennedy wrote many cookbooks, (I count about twenty, though some are in English and some in Spanish.) but has remained most intent on passing on information about the culture of ingredients, agriculture,  and cuisine all over the country.
“I’m a very active person,” she said. “I want to spend the rest of my days doing what I know best and that’s identifying what people are using in the culture.”   Read more
Want to check out a recent interview?   Read a  2011 interview with 88 year-old Diana Kennedy here.
But let’s get to the good stuff.  How do you make this salsa?  And what’s it good for?
fresh salsa mexicana from jerez 
  1. 1 poblano chile—stems, seeds, and veins removed and flesh finely chopped
  2. 1 red jalapeño chile—stems, seeds, and veins removed and flesh finely chopped
  3. 2 yellow chiles—stems, seeds and veins removed and flesh finely chopped  *
  4. 2 serrano chiles, finely chopped
  5. 3 tablespoons finely chopped white onion
  6. 1 ripe medium tomato (about 4 ounces), finely chopped
  7. 1/2 cup water
  8. 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  9. 1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried oregano
  10. Salt
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl; season with salt to taste. Set aside to macerate for about 1 hour.
*Not wanting an overly-hot salsa, I substituted red  bell pepper for these chiles.  My salsa was quite mild.  For a hotter salsa, try adding first one and then another yellow chile.

Recipe courtesy FOOD & WINE.

This salsa was really tasty with eggs, and while I’m not a chip-eater, I did try it with some tortilla chips and would have eaten more if I weren’t saving some for a Friday night movie.   I think it would make a great veggie dip; I’m always looking for vegetable-based dips.  You could ladle this sauce over simple greens or plain steamed vegetables.  I thought I’d try it with some plain grilled chicken and then in a chicken taco salad over the weekend.  My guess is it won’t keep more than a couple of days, but who would want it to?

I just loved the colors and intrinsic beauty of the ingredients and kept taking photographs of the greens and the reds…. 

And just to tease you:
Eggs traded for cookies with a St. Paul pianist who has a backyard full of chickens.

Please take some time and visit more of our great food bloggers:

Val – More Than Burnt Toast, Taryn – Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan – The Spice Garden
Heather – girlichef, Miranda – Mangoes and Chutney, Amrita – Beetles Kitchen Escapades
Mary – One Perfect Bite, Sue – The View from Great Island, Barbara – Movable Feasts
Linda A – There and Back Again, Nancy – Picadillo, Mireya – My Healthy Eating Habits
Veronica – My Catholic Kitchen, Annie – Most Lovely Things, Jeanette – Healthy Living
Claudia – Journey of an Italian Cook, Alyce – More Time at the Table
Kathy – Bakeaway with Me, Martha – Simple Nourished Living, Jill – Saucy Cooks
Sara – Everything in the Kitchen Sink

If you liked this, you might like Boiled Eggs on English Muffins with Asparagus and Cheese Sauce on my Dinner Place  blog:

Cooking for One – It’s Fun!

 Sing a new song,
Alyce