The Food Brie Cooked and Baked

Recipe source: Allrecipes.com

Another good meal for a cool fall day.

I thought the flavor of the beer came through too strong, so next time I might use half beer and half chicken broth, or all broth. (I had a bottle of beer in the refrigerator that my dad left there a while back, and I was tired of it taking up space. Neither BP nor I actually drink beer, so I was glad to get rid of it.)

slow cooker chicken taco soup

Recipe source: Simple & Delicious, August/September 2010

(This recipe is very similar: Allrecipes.com. I did not use onion or green onion.)

Minimal ingredients, one-pot cooking and quick = perfect weeknight supper.

This was really good. You could add more spice to it if that’s your style. Mine was fairly mild.

taco soup

Recipe source: a coworker, back in the day

I realize it’s the middle of summer, but a good, hot bowl of cornbread covered with chili sounded delicious, and it was.

This is BP and my favorite chili recipe. Generally, I make it exactly as listed below. However, this time, I used half as much chili pepper and replaced the water, jalapenos and tomato soup with a jar of homemade spicy tomato juice that a friend gave to us. And, instead of a red onion, I used a fresh-from-our-garden yellow onion.

my favorite chili

Chili

Brown 1 lb. hamburger and 1 cup chopped red onion. Drain.

Add the following and heat through:

2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

basil and oregano to taste

3 small cans Campbell’s tomato soup

1/2 soup can of water

15-20 shakes Worcestershire sauce

1 lg. can drained Joan of Arc spicy chili beans

2 spoonfuls jalapenos plus jalapeno juice to taste

2 sticks Hormel pepperoni, sliced

We like ours served over cornbread with cheese sprinkled on top.

Recipe source: Allrecipes.com

Lately, I’ve had a hankerin’ for Mexican food, and I love me a quesadilla.

These were quick to put together and very fresh tasting with all the fresh veggies that went into them.

Instead of frying mine in a vat of oil, however, like the recipe suggests, I used a nonstick skillet and heated my quesadilla on both sides until the cheese was melted and the tortillas were crisp.

I cut my quesadilla into quarters and ate it with salsa. Yum!

bean quesadilla

Recipe source: MarthaStewart.com

The edamame kind of look like little bugs, don’t they?

This recipe had pretty good flavor. However, it wasn’t quite good enough that I’ll make it again.

I wanted to try this one because it contained two vegetables I had never cooked with: napa cabbage and edamame (baby soy beans in the pod). Now, what to do with that leftover cabbage …

chicken, edamame and noodle stir-fry

Recipe source: Simple & Delicious, January/February 2010

This was pretty good, though, it could have used a little more flavor. A little salt and pepper helped immensely.

I did try to reduce the amount of sodium in the recipe by using dried great northern beans, rather than canned. It was the first time I’d ever used dried beans, and I learned that the minimum 6-8 hours of soaking time is really not long enough. In the future, I will put them in water to soak overnight and during the day.

vegetable dumpling soup

Recipe source: Real Simple

This soup was simple and easy to put together (even though I did drop the chunk of pork on the floor and had to wash it off – ha!), but it was just okay on taste. It could have used some more flavor. I probably will not make this again.

beer-braised pork and black bean soup

Recipe source: Simple & Delicious, January/February 2010

This was a really good meal. It took me less than 15 minutes to put in the slow cooker before I left for work this morning, and maybe another 15 minutes to finish up the sauce before supper.

The sauce consisted of carrots, black beans, green enchilada sauce and cilantro all cooked in the slow cooker; the pork roast created the cooking juices for the sauce.

BP and I like Jasmine white rice, so that’s what we ate with the pork. The sauce was equally good spooned over the rice and the pork.

slow-cooked pork verde with white rice