Superbowl Chili

Chili. It's a staple of this great American holiday - the Superbowl. Food, beer, football. The three essentials in life. Just kidding-ish. Let's be honest, all I care about is the food. Last year I got ambitious and made like a 12 lb pork shoulder for BBQ pulled pork. It was glorious, don't get me wrong, but it was kind of a lot of work. This year it was just me and my roommates taking it easy.... chili was a natural choice. This particular one has just a touch of heat, and is really filling and toasty. It's a big hit and really easy to bring together.

You'll need:
-1 small onion
-1 bell pepper (I used yellow but it doesn't really matter) - interesting fact, people in Australia call bell pepper capsicum. I was confused the entire time.
-1 lb ground beef
-2 cloves of garlic
-1 tablespoon of cumin
-1 tablespoon of chili powder
-1/2 tablespoon paprika (optional, but I love the flavor)
-1/4 teaspoon black pepper
-1 can tomato sauce (recipe calls for 1 regular sized can, but I used almost all of a big sized can. Tomatoes are awesome, what can I say.)
-1 can of Rotel (or just diced tomatoes if you have that on hand)
-1 can of kidney beans
-1 can of black beans
-1 can of northern white beans

Ok! First, you'll want to dice up the onion and pepper.


While you're dicing, get a big dutch oven pot and start heating it up on medium to medium high heat. Throw in the pepper, onion, beef, and 2 cloves of minced garlic.


You'll want to cook this mixture until all the meat browns, and the onions and peppers are tender.


Almost done with the meat browning at this point! This should take about 6-8 minutes.

Bring the heat down to medium and add in the cumin, paprika, chili powder and black pepper. Be slightly alarmed at the ginormous amount of seasoning that is. Mix it together and cook for another minute or so. Might want to start opening all of your cans while this is melding together, my hand got a cramp when I did it.


Now, add in the Rotel, tomato sauce, and all of the beans. Ah the beans! They're so glorious.


Give it all a big stir and bring the whole mixture to a boil. Once it's bubblin', bring the chili back down to a simmer and let it hang out with the occasional stir for about 45 minutes. Gives it a chance to thicken up and all the spices just start making beautiful music together. Whoo it's so good.



That's literally it! Serve it up in a big bowl with some cheese and sour cream, and oh man you're in for a treat!



I ate two bowls. Don't tell anyone.

Enjoy! (And Geaux Saints! What a great game!)

<3

Courtzilla

French Onion Soup

Have you ever smelled heaven? How about love?

No? Well get ready to experience it, all you have to do is make a big pot of French Onion Soup. I got this recipe from my girl, Pioneer Woman. Holy cow. HOLY. COW. Make some. Your lives will be changed. Your nose will rejoice. Your roommate Drew will walk in and ask who made Hamburger Helper.

...er...

Ok, that really happened, but then he tried the soup. AND THEN HE FELL IN LOVE. He fell in love with the soup, not me. Don't get too excited.

Let's get 'er started.


You will need:
- 3/4 stick of butter
- 6 small onions, or 4 bigguns
- 1 cup of dry white wine
- 4 cups of chicken broth
- 4 cups of beef broth
- pack of onion soup mix (optional)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce (interesting fact, I still can not say that word)
- salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large oven-safe pot. You may recognize my glorious pot from it's roast beef days. Ahhh those were the days.

While the pan/butter/oven is heating up, slice your onions very thinly. Basically you'll want to cut the onions from root to tip, then cut off the tips from the onion halves. Place them flat side down, and slice thinly in the same direction you used to cut off the tip of the onion. Discard the root at the end. The onion's natural shape will break it apart further when it starts cooking.


Phew I'm out of breath. Just learn how to cut onions, okay? PLEASE?

Alrighty, now throw the onions in your pot with the butter, and cook them with the lid on for about 20 minutes.


Make sure you stir every so often so they don't get stuck to the bottom. They'll look soft, like this when they're done:


It means they're full of buttery love.

Now here's a trick ol' Pioneer Woman taught me. Put your pot in the oven, with the lid slightly cracked open. Leave it in there for about an hour, stiring once or twice to move around the onions. This makes them brown a lot nicer. Seriously, this is what it looks like after a half hour:


And now an hour.


UHHH YUM.

Don't worry about the black bits either, that just translates to flavor in the end product.

Ok, stir around the onions, scraping the brown and black bits off the side. Pour in your cup of wine and stir for 5 minutes. This is called deglazing the pan.

Once your flavor has been sucked up from the pan, add the beef broth, chicken broth, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce.


Let that simmer at a medium to medium low heat for about 40 minutes.

End product will look like this.


Wam, bam, thank you 'mam.

Load up a bowl with some of this fragrant, delicious, hearty stuff.


Drunk a parmesan roll into it.


And all is right with the world. Seriously, try this. SO GOOD.

Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla

Easy Parmesan Rolls

First off, let me apologize for my absence. In the beginning I was saving money for Australia, then I was in Australia for three weeks, then I was in Canada for a week, then I was broke off of Australia and the holidays in Canada. In a nutshell, I'm still broke, but I'm starting to get sick of sandwiches so I've been cooking again! Quite a bit actually. I've got a few posts planned out, so no extended breaks are in my future. I know, you are SO lucky.

Have you ever wanted to show off in front of your friends? Make them think you've been slaving over a stove all day making artisan rolls? Well I would recommend these suckers. Knotted parmesan rolls. Great in soups or with a hearty salad! Check out how easy these are.

Let me go ahead now and apologize, I forgot to take pictures of the first couple steps. I could have SWORN I had... I will blame Roommate Rob. I don't know how he's to blame, but I'm sure it's his fault.

So, you will need:
- 1 can of 8 grands biscuits (not the flaky kind)
- about 2 tablespoons of melted margarine or butter
- about 4 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese

Yup, that's it.

First, get all the biscuits out of the container and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. You'll want to roll the buscuits on a flat surface or cutting board, so they look like a long rope, about 6-8 inches long.

Then, just pretend you're working at Annie's Pretzels and tie them in a basic knot. They should look kinda like this.


Skillz my friends, skillz. Mad shoe tying skillz.

Plop the buns onto a pan, no need to spray it or anything.


Now, brush your melted butter over the buns. I don't have a brush, so I poured.




And by poured, I mean got crazy with the butter. What? It's winter, sue me.

Go ahead and sprinkle the butter loaded buns with your parmesan cheese.


Hello, lover.

You'll want to put these in the oven until they get browned on top, about 15 minutes or so. Keep your eye on them though, my oven likes to play with my head sometimes. You should have seen the angel food cake disaster of '10.

They should look something like this:


Hello, lover. Come closer. Come swim in my pool. What pool you ask? This pool.



AKA My next post. You really ARE so lucky.

Then, should you feel inclined, gang up on the only other girl roommate and electric tape her ankles together Dexter style.



Troublemakers.

Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla