Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

Now that Thanksgiving is over, the holiday crunch is probably beginning to set in. You know what I'm talking about: Rushing around buying presents, slaving (or not) over a hot stove creating delicious meals, planning Christmas dinner, decorating your house for Christmas--the whole holiday crunch. This time of year, while wonderful and beautiful, filled with lights and love, peace on earth, and all that other good stuff, can also make you crazy, trying to find a minute or two for yourself to just relax. I have the antidote for you: Coffee.

Yes, you heard me right. I said coffee. You might think I'm crazy for suggesting that coffee can calm your nerves and bring you peace of mind, but hear me out. There IS a way that coffee can do that. You just have to look at coffee differently--from a Zen frame of mind. But first, I want to show you some new coffees I found: instant coffees--really, really good coffees you can make in a minute in the microwave, about how long it would take you to mindfully meditate to achieve peace of mind by drinking a cup of coffee.

Instant coffee equals instant Zen: a profound sense of calm and peacefulness. By simply allowing yourself to make a hot cup of coffee and stirring in a few spoonfuls of instant coffee, you can create a peaceful frame of mind as you sip your coffee. Which brings me to the "how-to" or the recipe for a peaceful frame of mind: Zen Coffee.

Zen Coffee: A Guide to Mindful Meditation is my newest book that was published last month. Inside are all the secrets to tuning into your inner self to find your peaceful essence, and ways to bring your peaceful inner nature into all your experiences. (Besides that, there are lots of recipes for coffee drinks--not the instant kind; the kind you'd find at a coffee house.)

If you'd like to read more about the book and how coffee puts the caffeine calm of Zen into your life, please visit my Zen Coffee blog. If you'd like to see what's inside the book and read a chapter, please visit the book page on Mystical Mindscapes. If you don't need to read about the book because you KNOW that coffee is what you need to find peace in your life, it's available at Amazon.

While this post is obviously a HUGE plug for my new book, and I do want to mention that it will make a wonderful Christmas present for anyone who's a coffee drinker who also wants a whole lot of calm in their life, it's also a Christmas present for you. I'm giving away a copy of Zen Coffee. Just leave me a comment by December 10th, saying how you think coffee can bring you calm.

Talking Turkey

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Too Busy to Blog

Just got the final edits from my publisher yesterday for Foods and Flavors of San Antonio. They're only giving me ten days
to go through the cookbook and make
sure it's perfect so I won't be posting
for a while. Just wanted to let you guys
know so you wouldn't think I disappeared
into the blogosphere. :)

What Are You Thankful For?

One of our Thanksgiving traditions is to say what we are thankful
for while sitting at the table eating our delicious Thanksgiving feast. There are 1 billion people who can't enjoy a fabulous meal and say what they are thankful for because they are literally starving. 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. Nick, aka The Peanut Butter Boy decided to do something about this to help feed the hungry.

For every comment you leave on his post, he will donate a nickel to The Hunger Site. You can also help by visiting The Hunger Site and clicking. It costs you nothing and by simply clicking once a day, every day, you are giving the equivalent of 1.1 cups of food to starving people. There are other foodies who are helping to feed the hungry and to raise awareness. There is a Feeding the Hungry lens on Squidoo and Life by Chocolate is also donating a nickel for every comment.

What are you thankful for? I'm thankful for my family--my daughters and my grandchildren. I'm also very, very thankful that we are able
to buy food. There was a time when my children were just babies (Jennifer was 2 years old and Jaime was 6 months old), and we were homeless and had no food. We were fortunate to find a community outreach program that provided shelter for us and gave us food from the food bank to tide us over until I got back on my feet. It was an experience I will never forget.

I'm joining with Nick's efforts and the other wonderful bloggers who are taking action to help feed the hungry. For every comment on this post, I will also donate a nickel to The Hunger Site and I will click to give free food every day to help provide food for starving people. (I've added the button to my sidebar.) I know a nickel doesn't sound like much, but those nickels really add up. Please join me. Together, we can help prevent 24,000 deaths every day from hunger and we can help the 1 billion people who are hungry or malnourished to be thankful for the food that we can help to put on their table.

Baked Chicken Parmesan

While browsing the foodie blogosphere, I found this recipe for Baked Chicken Parmesan at Aggie's Kitchen. Not being a stranger to this recipe, I was intrigued because she used pine nuts as part of the coating. I'd never done this before, so of course I had to try it. I did change the recipe a bit, adding a "secret" ingredient and some fresh Mozzarella cheese. I copied her recipe exactly as she wrote it. My changes are in blue.

1.5 lbs. chicken breasts, pounded
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (I omitted the salt.)
1/2 - 3/4 cup pine nuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 tsp. Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning
small palm full of garlic powder (After I started making the recipe, I realized I was out of garlic powder, so I substituted 1-1/2 T. Tone's Garlic & Herb Seasoning--see my previous post.)
1 or 2 cans of Italian seasoned diced tomatoes (depending on how saucy you want your chicken) (I used 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano.)
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1-1/2 T. Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning
freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I used 1/2 cup)
shredded part skim Mozzarella cheese (I used 1/3 cup plus 1/3 cup fresh Mozzarella, cut into small cubes from a Mozzarella ball.)
drizzle of olive oil (I used olive oil flavored nonstick cooking spray.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Take chicken and place between saran wrap and pound into thin cutlets, about 1/4-1/2" thick. Season both sides of chicken with
salt and pepper and set aside.

In a baking dish (I used a dinner-size plate), mix together bread crumbs, 2 tsp. Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning, chopped pine nuts, garlic powder (I used 1-1/2 T. Tone's Garlic & Herb Seasoning) and salt and pepper. Press chicken cutlets into bread crumb mixture until coated.

Drizzle olive oil (nonstick cooking spray) onto baking sheet. Place coated chicken cutlets onto baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil
(I spritzed mine with the nonstick spray) before placing in oven.
Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Top with diced tomatoes and mozzarella cheese and bake for another 5-8 minutes
or until cheese is bubbly and golden. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese. I added additional fresh mozzarella and placed the baking sheet under the broiler for 3 - 4 minutes to brown the cheese. I garnished the dish with a sprig of fresh parsley.

While the chicken was baking, I sprayed a medium-size saucepan with olive oil flavored nonstick cooking spray, then heated it over medium-high heat. When the pan was hot, I added the onions and sauteed them for 3 - 4 minutes until they were limp and starting to brown. Then I added the garlic and sauteed it with the onions for
one more minute. I added the tomatoes and the 1-1/2 T. Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning, stirred, and brought the mixture to a
boil. Then I reduced the heat, covered the pan, and let it simmer until the chicken was ready to come out of the oven.

I served my Baked Chicken Parmesan with a baked potato and steamed broccoli. Yumm! Dinner was delicious.

A Culinary Quest

A few weeks ago I went on a culinary quest to
find a secret ingredient. I knew what it was--that was the easy part. Buying it proved to be a bit difficult. I've never used Tone's Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning before, in fact, never heard of it until last month when I was cooking dinner for my cousin in Florida.

His daughter, Kim, and I went into the kitchen to see what we could throw together for dinner and we came up with a delicious dinner created from scratch with what we could find in the pantry and the fridge--Kielbasa sausage, cut at an angle, one yellow crookneck squash, sliced and quartered, one onion, chopped, 2 stalks celery, chopped, 2 carrots, sliced into pennies (which I steamed in a bowl with a little water in the microwave to soften before adding to the skillet because carrots take so long to cook), 2 cloves garlic, chopped, salt and pepper to taste, 1 head of broccoli--chopped some of the stems and added them to the saute, then steamed the florets. We boiled some multi-colored rotini noodes al dente and put warmed-up Classico alfredo sauce on top of everything.

I asked for oregano (which I put in everything) and my cousin,
Art, who can't cook to save his soul, sauntered into the kitchen
and offered us this seasoning, saying that he put it in everything.
So we tossed it into the mix and it was really good. (Sorry about
the blurry picture. I'm still learning how to use my new camera.)

Back to the culinary quest: After searching here at home for it in three grocery stores, I sent Art an email asking where he bought it. Turns out it's only available in Sam's Club. Not a problem. We have a bunch of them here in San Antonio. So I called the closest one to see if it was in stock since I was a little tired of running around looking for it. Yes! They had it on their shelf. Only problem was the person who answered the phone said it would cost me $40.00 to get in the door so I could buy it. She said I wouldn't be allowed in the store unless I bought a membership to Sam's Club which is where the $40.00 comes in.

As much as I wanted it, I was NOT going to pay $40.00 just for the privilege of walking in the door. Not being one to be easily deterred from my culinary quest, I did what any foodie would do: I politely asked to talk to the manager. I explained very nicely that I just had to have this seasoning for a recipe and he replied that I was more than welcome to come over and buy it. Apparently, Sam's Club will offer you a one-day guest pass but you have to jump through hoops for it.

After jumping through the aforementioned hoops, I achieved my goal: I bought the seasoning mix and now have a great big jar of it
to use in lots of recipes. While I was there, I also bought a huge jar of Garlic & Herb Seasoning, which actually saved a recipe from being rather tasteless because I didn't have any garlic powder and used this instead. I'm mentioning my culinary quest here because I'll be posting a recipe tomorrow for Baked Chicken Parmesan and these seasonings are the "secret" ingredients.

Much More Than Toast

I've been thinking about buying a toaster oven because first, they're so cute and second, because I have a gas stove and when I cook anything in the oven, it really heats up the house -- much more so than an electric one.

I was pricing them yesterday and looking at the features. Some have a convection option and others will let you broil. Do any of you have a toaster oven? Do you like it? Hate it? I'm wondering if it cooks just as well as a regular oven. If you have a toaster oven, what do you cook in it and are you happy with the results? And what product would you recommend?

Bad Bad Brussels

For the first round-up of Tyler Florence Fridays, I decided to do something easy since I'd only heard about the event the day before. I looked through some of his recipes at Food Network and chose Bacon-Braised Brussels Sprouts because I really love Brussels sprouts. Since I usually boil these babies with some Cheddarwurst sausage, the idea of braising them with bacon appealed to me. Thinking about what to serve with them, I decided to make oven-roasted potatoes and, lo and behold, Tyler has a recipe for them: Crunchy Roasted Rosemary Potatoes. To make the meal complete, I decided to make a chopped beefsteak--a fancy term for a hamburger. If you've been reading my blog, you know that I love hamburgers and I make the best beefsteak for miles around.

Not being one to follow a recipe to the letter, of course I had to make changes. I can never resist playing with a recipe to suit my tastes. I only made a few changes to the Brussels sprouts recipe, but I did a complete overhaul on the oven-roasted potatoes. I've marked my changes in blue.

Bacon-Braised Brussels Sprouts

1-1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, washed and cut in half (I'm assuming he means fresh; I used frozen and thawed them before cooking.)
4 ounces (about 1/2 cup) bacon, cut into small squares. (I used turkey bacon.)
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed, plus 2 cloves, roughly chopped
4 sprigs thyme, plus 2 sprigs thyme, leaves only, chopped (I used dried thyme.)
2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
Kosher salt (I used regular table salt.)
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 cup panko bread crumbs (I used Italian-seasoned bread crumbs; I had some leftover from the Baked Chicken Parmesan I made earlier in the week.)
2 sprigs rosemary, leaves only, chopped (I used dried rosemary.)
Extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Take a large pan and set over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook until fat renders 2 to 3 minutes. Add the smashed garlic clove, thyme sprigs and Brussels sprouts and cook gently until slightly caramelized. Add stock and reduce heat to a simmer. Season with salt and a little pepper, cover and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes until tender. Remove lid and add a splash of vinegar and reduce until syrupy, 2 to 3 minutes.

After Brussels sprouts are done cooking, put them in oven safe dish. In sheet tray and toss bread crumbs with rosemary, thyme leaves and chopped garlic, then drizzle with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Sprinkle bread crumb mixture and Parmigiano over Brussels sprouts and bake in a hot oven until golden and crispy.

Okay, did the way the recipe was written (I copied it word-for-word) make sense to you? Not to me. Tyler can really cook but whoever wrote this recipe is in serious need of grammatical and recipe-writing help. For example, in the first paragraph, you're supposed to 'take a large pan and set over medium-high heat.' What size is a large pan?
I have a turkey roaster which is a large pan. Should I use that? I have
a large Dutch oven. Should I use that? I have a large skillet. Should
I use that? By now I'm getting aggravated reading the recipe and cooking is supposed to be something I enjoy, something that relaxes me. I read through the ingredients again that are going to go into this 'large pan' and decide to use my deep, 12-inch chef's saute pan. Why couldn't the recipe-writer say this in the first place? And wouldn't it be better to heat the pan rather than set it over the heat? Grrr!

Oh, and another thing: The recipe lists Brussels sprouts as the first ingredient, but the first ingredient used in the directions is bacon. This is just wrong. The ingredient list should be written in the order that the ingredients are used in the recipe. There's another error in the way the ingredients are listed: The bread crumbs are used before the Parmigiano-Reggiano, but they're not listed that way. Thyme is used twice in this recipe but only shown once--without the word 'divided.' So just reading the recipe, you'd throw in the thyme along with the smashed garlic to the bacon along with the Brussels sprouts. Then you get to the end of the recipe and discover you're supposed to put some thyme in along with the rosemary.

In the second paragraph, you're supposed to put the Brussels sprouts in an oven safe dish, which by the way is supposed to be hyphenated, like this: oven-safe. And what size oven-safe dish are you supposed to use? I chose my 13 x 9 inch glass baking dish. Then 'in sheet tray and toss' ... would read much better as: In a sheet tray, toss the bread crumbs ... Sorry to be critical, but poorly-written recipes are
a HUGE pet peeve of mine. And how many of us have sheet trays? I used a 9-inch pie pan to toss my crumbs. When I read a recipe, I'd like the directions to be clear and make sense. I don't like to have to read through the directions several times because they're confusing. Now, on to the potatoes.

Crunchy Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

3 large Yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed clean, cut in 1/2 (I used russets.)
4 sprigs fresh rosemary (I used dried rosemary.)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (I used regular table salt.)
Sprinkle or two of dried minced garlic (I added this because I love garlic and thought this would complement the garlic in the Brussels sprouts.)
1/2 onion, finely chopped (I added this because I thought onions would add a nice flavor.)
Extra-virgin olive oil

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Slice the potatoes and put on a baking sheet. Roughly tear the rosemary and scatter it over the potatoes; season them with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Toss the potatoes well to mix all the flavors and put them in the oven. Remove them after 30 minutes and toss them again. Continue to roast them until they are browned and cooked through. Serve immediately.

I have to gripe about the way the potato recipe was written: In the ingredient list, you're supposed to cut the potatoes in half. Do you
cut them lengthwise or sideways? Then in the directions, you're told
to slice the potatoes you've already cut in half. The prep for the potatoes would make more sense if you were told in the ingredient list to slice the potatoes. And how thick or thin are you supposed to slice them? I quartered mine, then cut them into medium-size chunks.

Since the potatoes were going to take longer to cook, and at a higher temperature, I got them cooking before I began making the Brussels sprouts. I thought my timing would be nearly perfect on this but the potatoes didn't want to brown. It took an hour, not 30 minutes, like the recipe said, and they still didn't get nice and brown, even though I tossed them again, like the recipe said to do. The recipe also promised 'crunchy' which never happened.

The extra half hour they took turned out to be okay, only because I got distracted by my dog hassling the holy heck out of one of my cats and I had to create peace between them. Besides that, the Brussels sprouts were only supposed to simmer for 12 to 15 minutes, covered, but the broth wasn't reducing. So I uncovered the pan. By the time I was ready to put the Brussels sprouts in the oven, I shuffled the potatoes around and finished them in the reduced heat.

After I put the Brussels sprouts in the oven, I made my beefsteak, I mean my hamburger. I shaped an oblong patty (96% lean) and seared it on both sides in an 8-inch nonstick skillet which I preheated over high heat. I like a nice char on the outside, plus this leaves flavorful browning in the pan. After my burger was finished, I put about 1-1/2 tablespoons of water in the hot skillet to deglaze it and made a nice, rich, syrupy coating which I poured on my hamburger.

Dinner was... well, besides being kind of brown and unattractive, it was a total disaster. The only saving grace was my hamburger, which turned out beautifully. After the first bite of the Brussels sprouts and potatoes, I did something that I haven't done in 40 years of cooking. I threw the food away. It was really that awful.

Top Chef Tonight

I'm so excited. I can hardly wait. Top Chef airs tonight on Bravo TV
at 9:00 PM central time. Check out Blogging Top Chef for a preview
of the first show and a colorful commentary by Chef Biatch.

After the show, visit the Washingtonian for a live chat with Spike, previous Top Chef contender, as he dishes on the new chefs.

Fun With Food

Do you play with your food? I'm not talking about when you were
a little kid and playing with food was more fun than eating it.
I'm talking about playing with your food to make it beautiful and appealing. I was browsing the foodie blogosphere last week and was completely blown away by the two following posts. These ladies have taken playing with their food to a whole new level--a totally awesome art form. Check them out:

Nazarina at Giddy Gastronome plays with salad.
That palm tree is made from a carrot and a green bell pepper.

Prudence at the Glass Slipper Cakery gets to have her cake
and eat it, too. That's a real cake, folks--completely edible!

Chipotle-Mole Chili

Have I mentioned before that I love chili? And that I'm always playing around with it? Chili is such a versatile recipe; you can pretty much make a different dish each time; that's what I've done with my Chipotle-Mole Chili for the Chili Cook-Off Challenge. This is my best chili so far, but then I say that every time I make chili. It just keeps getting better and better.

• 1 pound lean stew meat, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3 slices turkey bacon, coarsely chopped (The turkey bacon doesn't render much fat; it just adds a nice hint of smokiness which complements the chipotle and works well with the cinnamon and chocolate.)
• 3 T. Mexene chili powder or more to taste, divided (This is the first time I've used this; I read that most of the winning recipes at the Terlingua chili cook-off use this.)
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 1 - 2 T. Mexican oregano, divided
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 1 large green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
• Pinch or two of salt
• 2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 T. ground dry roasted peanuts (I had a small bag that Southwest Airlines gave me on my trip to Florida so I took a meat mallet and pounded the holy heck out of them; there were still a few small chunks left.)
• 1 tsp. fajita seasoning
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can chipotle petite diced tomatoes, with juice (If this isn't available where you live; substitute 1 (14.5 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes and 1 chipotle pepper, finely chopped, from a 7 oz. can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce--also add some of the sauce.)
• 1 T. cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp. dry mustard
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes, with juice
• 1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
• 2 T. tomato paste
• Water, if you want to
• 2 (15.5 oz.) cans dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed (I drain and rinse mine in a colander.)
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 square Mexican chocolate, very finely chopped
• Green onions, chopped
• Sour cream (I use fat free because it tastes just as good and isn't as fattening.)
• Mexican blend cheese (This is a shredded mix of Monterey Jack, Cheddar, Queso Quesadilla, and Asadero cheeses. It's also called Fiesta cheese.)

Before we get to the directions, let me say that I don't really measure anything so the amounts in the ingredient list are approximate to the best of my ability to calculate them by sight. I toss in a little of this, more of that, add a few pinches of something else, then put in some dashes of whatever I think will go well in the recipe just for good measure. I cooked this in my all-time favorite pan: my 12-inch, deep chef saute pan, which I got on sale for $20.00.

Heat the pan over medium-high heat. Rinse the stew beef cubes
in cold water, then toss them into the pan. You should hear a nice sizzle. (The water will evaporate quickly and the beef will brown in
its own juices and make a nice, rich glaze. You also save calories because you're not using butter or oil to brown the meat.) Sprinkle some chili powder on the meat.

After a minute or so of letting your meat brown, give it a stir, then add the chopped bacon. Add a little bit more chili powder. Grate some fresh black pepper over it. Stir it again, then season with some of the oregano. (Turkey bacon doesn't take very long to cook; it will be nice and crisp by the time the stew beef cubes are browned.) Stir when the meat and bacon looks like it wants to be stirred or if your smoke detector goes off, whichever happens first.

When the meat and bacon are nicely browned, remove them and set them aside in a bowl, which will collect the flavorful juices that you'll be adding back to the chili.

Add the chopped onions and green bell pepper to the pan. Sprinkle with just a little salt to help the onions release their liquid. Saute until they get limp. (It's okay; you're not hurting them; this is what they're supposed to do.) Give them a little oregano and some freshly ground black pepper and they'll be just fine.

After they begin to soften, add the garlic. (If you add the garlic too soon, it will burn and taste bitter, so better later than sooner.)

When the garlic begins to turn a really pretty shade of beige-to-
brown, add the ground beef and stir it into the vegetable mixture. Now, for some serious fun and this is what chili is all about! Sprinkle as much of the chili powder as you want on the meat. This helps to season the meat and adds another layer of flavor to the chili. Stir it in, then sprinkle the ground beef with some oregano and black pepper.

When the ground beef has been stirred, add the peanuts and stir again.

When the ground beef is browned and the veggies are limp and your kitchen is starting to smell wonderful, return the stew beef cubes, with the accumulated juices, to the pan. Give them all a nice stir together and turn up the heat. Sprinkle on some fajita seasoning, just to get the meat and veggies in the mood to start making chili.

When everything starts sizzling together, pour in the chipotle flavored tomatoes. (This won't dampen their spirits; it just makes them happier because now you've added a little more zip to them.) Stir.

Add the cumin powder and dry mustard. Stir again. If you feel like it, at this time, you may also give them some more chili powder.

Add the petite diced tomatoes. Stir. Season with more chili powder, black pepper, and oregano.

Add the tomato sauce and the tomato paste. Stir. You know the drill by now--season with more chili powder, black pepper, and oregano. At this time you can add some water if you want to, depending on how thick or thin you want your sauce.

Now your chili is really starting to get happy and probably a bit bubbly, but also a little greedy: It wants more, more, more! So give your chili what it wants.

Add the beans. (I know that being a Texan, beans are a big no-no, but I'm from Chicago, so that's my excuse. Besides, I really like beans and they're very good for you.) Stir the beans into everything else that's cooking. By now, your chili is really starting to like you.

And for the final touch of sweetness, just to let your chili know that you love it already, add the cinnamon and chocolate. Stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and let your chili do its own thing.

Let it cook about four hours, stirring occasionally and taking taste tests. Don't worry if at first (after your chili has been cooking ten minutes or so and you just can't resist taking a taste) your chili tastes a little sweet. The flavors will all cook together, the spices
will kick in, and produce the best bowl of red you've ever eaten.

A note about taste testing your chili: When my daughters were young and we made chili, we'd always have to take a taste test to be sure
it was seasoned properly, then we'd add more spices, take another taste, add more ingredients, etc. By the time dinner was served--if there was any chili left to serve--we weren't hungry anymore because we'd totally pigged out on the chili tastings.

After it's been cooking about three hours (and probably after many more taste tests), now is the time to adjust the seasonings to suit your taste because the flavors are more fully developed. My chef instructor in culinary school offered me these words of wisdom: You can always put more seasonings in, but you can never take them out. I ended up adding more chili powder, fajita seasoning, cumin, and black pepper. It also needed a little more garlic, so I added a sprinkle or two of dried minced garlic.

I know you're hungry and you're ready to eat NOW, but let it cook for at least one more hour. It's worth the wait.

Spoon your chili into a bowl and top with chopped green onions, Mexican cheese, and sour cream--or whatever you want. Serve with cheese quesadillas or tortilla chips.

I'd love to see your chili recipes. Come on over to my new blog to sign up for the once-a-month chili cook-off. The cook-off rules are easy and there are prizes for the winner: A copy of my new cookbook, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, and
a chile pepper refrigerator magnet. Plus, you'll get this really hot badge to put on your blog.

A Random Meme

Camille, at Croque-Camille, has tagged me with a Six-Random-Things-About-Me meme. I thought about listing six silly things that would probably be meaningless and hopefully humorous, but decided that I would really open up and share six things about me that show you a look into who I am. But before I do that, here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

So here are six things you may or may not want to know about me.

1. My favorite color is purple. I really, really love purple. My bedroom is purple and I drove a purple car for ten years. My granddaughter calls me the "Purple Grandma."

2. I was a hippie back in the 60s. Peace.

3. My favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz.

4. I won the San Diego Spelling Bee when I was in fifth grade. (I was a writer and a wordie even back then!)

5. My little brother was adopted from Korea. He passed away on Monday. My trip to Florida last month was to visit him--to say goodbye and to let him know that I love him. I will be forever thankful that we got to spend that time together. Family is so very important and it's really important to let the people you love know that you love them. Love is the only thing you get to take with you.

6. I believe in reincarnation--I've written several books about it--so
I know I'll get to be with my brother again.

And now I get to tag six people to find out six random things about them:

1. Teresa, at Mexican American Border Cooking.
2. Meg, at Megan's Munchies.
3. Reeni, at Cinnamon, Spice, and Everything Nice.
4. Joan, at Foodalogue.
5. Arlene, at The Food of Love.
6. Megan, at Megan's Cookin.

If you weren't tagged, feel free to share six random things about yourself, either in the comments or on your blog. I love getting to know foodies. :)

Is My Blog Burning?

Is your foodie blog hot? Burning? Do you have a cooking challenge or event you want the foodie blogosphere to know about? I posted about my Chili Cook-Off Challenge a few days ago that I'm hosting at my new blog, Foods and Flavors of San Antonio, and was hoping to get lots of foodies to sign up for the challenge. So far only three have signed up. I started a new thread at The Leftover Queen forum and have had a lot of views, but no more takers.

Yesterday, Joan at Foodalogue posted her entry for the chili cook-off
and blogged about it, then sent me an email and we talked about how
to promote the event. BTW, go and check out her gorgeous picture.
She suggested that I announce the cook-off on Is My Blog Burning.
I'd never heard of this site so I checked it out. It's a cool site--hot, actually--where you can announce and promote your food events. You can also post foodie links and foodie stories, and participate in the forums.

Go and check out the site; it's worth looking into, then please visit Foods and Flavors of San Antonio and sign up for the Chili Cook-Off Challenge.

Top Chef, Season 5, Premiers November 12th

I totally love Top Chef. I'm glued to the TV, just waiting to see what happens and what the chefs come up with. On the first show, I always try to guess who will be Top Chef. But this time, I thought it would be fun to guess before the show starts. Check out their bios and a brief video at the Bravo TV site, then leave a comment saying who you think will win. I've got my money on Hosea, though Richard looks to be a close contender. Here's another site--Blogging Top Chef--where you can find out more about the chefs. The first show of Season Five airs next Wednesday, November 12th.

Did I Mention I'm Having a Chili Cook-Off?

Please come over to Foods and Flavors of San Antonio to sign up for the November Chili Cook-Off Challenge.