Tag Archives: texas chili

My Pot Roast

Posted on September 17, 2015 | Leave a comment

Yesterday I bought this 3″ thick gorgeous chuck steak. Salt and pepper, a large can of crushed tomatoes, one Vidalia onion, chopped. I covered it with foil and baked for 3 1/2 hours. It was served over egg noodles. Yum. I have more left for tomorrow for lunch.

Dinner will have to be vegetarian or light, like chicken. Why? Because Friday morning my butchers have a one-day sale on grass-fed beef. It comes in coarsely ground and they re-grind it to sell. I’ve pre-ordered four pounds of coarsely ground beef for my Texas Chili. I pride myself on grinding my own meat for chili but if my butchers say they’ll save me an hour on prep and washing my meat grinder I’ll trust them as they’ve served me well for years.

Fall has been in the air even though it’ll be warm today. A brief summer is not the time for stews, pot roasts or chili. Ah, what the heck. Chili and corn bread. Lime, cheese, onion toppings. Maybe a few guests. We’ll see.

I took Mom’s recipes to a new level and now they’re mine, pot roast, chicken saltimbocca (on the blog) and others. At the core is the 50’s use a can of this, a packet of that. I even took Lady Bird Johnson’s quintessential Pedernales chili recipe from 1962 where she fed JFK and 5,000 guests at their ranch outside of Austin TX and made it my own. I don’t buy chili powder. I buy from Penzey’s Spices, available online though I seem to always move to a neighborhood with a Penzey’s and Whole Foods within a mile radius. Imagine that! Ancho, chipotle, and others, plus cumin.

It’s a good chili. My Swedish neighbor taught me kottsbullar (Swedish meatballs) so I taught him Texas chili. All is right in the world. Enjoy the day. Dee

We Agreed

Posted on August 13, 2015 | 2 comments

I’ve been greeting my Swedish neighbor G more often. We decided that he was not to test me on my Kottsbullar, or Swedish meatballs. I will not test him on my Texas chili. We had a great time making both for family.

We will get together here with other fare. Fair. I believe. I just checked my stats and there’s someone from Sweden and I know it’s his dad. We had a great time touring last summer and I say hello and wish you well!

Hej hur mår du

It was a healthy cooking competition and learning exercise. It’s great to be neighbors and share dinners from time to time. Find a neighbor with a different cooking style. Friends are to be met, nurtured and cherished. Dee

2 Comments

Posted in Editorial

Tagged Kottsbullar, texas chili

To Better Times

Posted on April 17, 2015 | 2 comments

My husband’s flight is scheduled to come in 1/2 hour early tonight. That’s for now. He should be home by 10:00, 10:30.

Everything is a scramble here as they’ve been resurfacing/eliminating damaging calcium deposit leaks that ruin the paint of our cars. It ruined mine and they wish to fix it. First there was valet service. Now we’re out in the open and have a shuttle bus. Most of the valets treated me well, as did the shuttle driver after I finally found out where to park my car. Our vehicles are viewable with binoculars. If there is actually security there our greatest danger may be bird poop from the seagulls, ducks and geese.

So, my husband has found a way to actually be home for an entire two-day weekend, beginning next week. I may be able to cook dinner three nights and his favorite breakfasts for two days (cereal Monday morning) and I’ll try to get everything done here so he can relax and perhaps walk the dog once or twice.

For someone who dislikes enforced change I espouse it at work and throughout life. Dog Zoe has taught me much (I trained her) over the past 11 years. I am a creature of habit. If I desire to change my job or city I’ll do it. Tell me to do it, as my family did many times, and I’ll dig in my heels, especially if there is no rational reason to do so.

I do what my dog tells me. She’s old so when she wants to go out I take her right away, even at 2:00 a.m. When she wants something, that’s different. I can usually discern between the two. Sometimes she only wants to get up on the couch or have her precious toy.

A dinner for four and cooking lesson is on deck for tomorrow. Perhaps six, no way to know. I’ll be prepared. I’m teaching Texas Chili a la Lady Bird Johnson 1962 at hers and LBJ’s Pedernales Ranch for 5,000 guests including President Kennedy.

I’m changing up the recipe once again roasting a poblano and a couple of finger chilis (don’t know what the Scoville scale will say on the latter). Now I have to finish cleaning up the house, the dog and finally, me. Have a great weekend! Dee

2 Comments

Posted in Editorial

Tagged cars, change, dinner, flights, Lady Bird Johnson, texas chili, weekends

Cloudy. Meatballs Anyone?

Posted on March 20, 2015 | Leave a comment

It is cloudy and the sun is still perfuming the clouds with its light. Planes are flying by to land about 20 miles south and at night I love to see the lights. The sound is fine from a couple of miles away. Every year I look forward to the Air Show where we have cheap seats from the balcony. Our balcony.

Our Swedish neighbor has taught me Kottsbullar, Swedish Meatballs. I’m preparing for my final exam (I get to teach him true Texas Chili and test him as well) I’m working out new versions.

I made turkey meatballs for my husband last night. No, you can’t have any, as he finished them off. OK, I gave the dog two, only because she stayed out of the kitchen while I was preparing them and they went directly into her dinner bowl with less dinner.

Dee’s Turkey Meatballs

1 # ground turkey, I prefer dark meat for this for flavor

Fresh ground bread crumbs in milk or Panko in milk to soak and soften (with Panko you’ll have to check and add more milk to make a paste, not a soup)

One large egg, lightly beaten

One scallion, chopped with 1T flat Italian parsley

Dash of Worcestershire

1/4 cup freshly ground Parmigiano Reggiano

Salt and pepper, perhaps a pinch of chili of your choice, perhaps 1/2 tsp basil or oregano, whatever seasoning you prefer.

Break up the meat lightly with a fork, I like to combine ingredients so they get into the meat mixture. Add everything. I like to use a fork to start as to not compress the meat. Then it’s hands on. Add more bread crumbs if it’s too wet to roll but leave it wet because it’s turkey and needs the fat.

350 oven, for about 25 minutes. I use a cookie pan lined with foil and sprayed with non-stick stuff on which to place the meatballs. Roll them and bake them and then take them off and place in a pan with your tomato sauce of choice, homemade or otherwise, simmer gently for about 20 minutes while you’re cooking your pasta, serve in bowls with more grated Parm. Voila, dinner! Cheers from Dee

ps My husband is home for an entire week! Never mind that most of the time I was his nurse, trying to get him over a nasty flu and to eat again. I started bland then moved on and now he’s eating steak and spaghetti and meatballs and perhaps pot roast tonight. What a great idea! Thanks for that.

I Don’t Know

Posted on September 30, 2014 | 1 comment

`It’s a phrase one may never utter but as long as I now have light and glasses I’ll tell you why I believe it’s important.

Saying I don’t know does not make one impotent, it is merely a challenge to learn something new. I have the greatest luck to live a door away from a Swede who is coming over to teach me his meatball recipe with his old girlfriend who is visiting from the homeland.

I can say aloud that I do not know how to make his sweet, silky Swedish meatballs (Kottbullar, he brought me some frozen ones from Sweden) but he is willing to teach me something I do not know.

In turn, I will teach him real Texas chili. LBJ, actually his wife in 1962 with JFK and 5,000 on the Ranch at Pedernales. Texans call it perdenales. Texas chili has no beans. Here’s to good eatin’ Dee

1 Comment

Posted in Editorial, Education, Family

Tagged Swedish meatballs, texas chili

New Tastes

Posted on August 5, 2014 | Leave a comment

Experience and creativity have created the following to learn from taste memories and make my own.

I’ve a beef carbonnade I make on the fly, that’s seared bacon, seared beef cubes, caramelized onions (once you take the beef out) then add some thyme, salt and pepper and 1.5 bottles of beer. Even though this is a French dish I get an English Brown Ale. So sue me. But not ’til after you simmer it on the stove for a minimum of 1.5 hours or place it in the oven at 325. Purchase or make your own egg noodles, I prefer pappardelle, and serve. I like something fresh and green on the side.

You can get my Chicken Saltimbocca recipe on this site.

Lady Bird Johnson was a lady and I hope to do justice to her chili recipe from 1962 when the Vice President and Lady Bird served Texas chili to 5,000 guests including President JFK. The recipe was the most sought White House document for a year.

I had to re-do this recipe as it is comfort food and the recipe is vague so I have to add my own meats and spices and grind the meat Texas-style. Yes, I choose my own cuts and break them down and grind them myself. Perhaps I’ll have to write a book about it and then give you a recipe. There is no recipe. If you look at the original, available to download at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin TX you’ll see it calls for “chili meat” and “chili powder.” I’ve my own mix and serve it with lime, sour cream, cheddar cheese for individual tastes add homemade cornbread and a salad. While I never had this as comfort food as a child, I did live in Texas for years and created my own.

There’s a Swedish neighbor who wants to teach me how to make meatballs and his special sauce which my husband and I were lucky to eat at his place next door. Since we’ve had dinner here and there, he will teach me meatballs and I will teach him Texas chili. We’ve an agreement. No, there are no beans in Texas chili. Don’t bother to argue.

As part of my family came from Montreal I would like to try to make poutine, which I never wanted to taste but is french fries with beef gravy and cheese curds. One of my first AHA moments was eating a smoked meat sandwich on rye at Ben’s in Montreal. Thank you David Sax for Save the Deli, sorry you took me off your blogroll. I bought another copy after a waiter stole the first copy from me as they grossly insulted pastrami and bread with what they served.

Perhaps the local holier than thou market will agree to make a poutine. They have potatoes, beef and cheese curds. What better marketing ploy can I grant? Dee

Frito Pie

Posted on November 28, 2012 | 4 comments

Finally just short of ten years of marriage, I learned about Frito Pie, a staple in my husband’s extended family.

They were shocked that the last time I had a Frito was when I was ten. I remember it and where I was living when I ate it.

This thinly veiled Thanksgiving secret has eluded me over the years. I’m popping in to see Nanny and Frito Pie is en route to the table or some such thing.

So, you take a handful of Fritos and place them in a bowl, top with chili and cheese and voila, Frito Pie! It’s quite tasty. Just as one would have corn bread with chili, the corn is there with lots of crunch.

The kids just love it and so do I. Now I have to get down to the nitty gritty of our chili cookoff. I tied my hands by limiting myself to Lady Bird Johnson’s Pedernales Chili because they didn’t have quite the Latino section in grocery stores in the 1950’s.

I’m headed to Penzeys and have decided to keep with powder, though I’ve no problem roasting fresh chiles or re-hydrating dried ones to get the flavor I want. I’ll get ancho and cascabel chiles in freshly powdered form. The recipe calls for “chili powder” and “ground beef.”

I’ve also ordered a meat grinder for my stand mixer to coarsely grind (Texas-style) some chuck steak and some New Jersey (boneless) short rib steak for a test this weekend.

I’d also like to meet my competitor and arrange for guests and sides. I think it’s fair for us to share garnishes like scallions, lime, cheddar cheese and sour cream. There may also be corn bread or polenta to sample as well. And some single gals, as that’s the purpose of this endeavor, to get him to know people here and hopefully find the right girl.

The contest isn’t like wrestling with a pre-determined outcome. He’s got the world on a string and I’m tied to a fifty year-old recipe. You do know that Texas chili never contains beans, right? I am the purist version and he can go all over the map; I think he’s doing bison.

We do need another judge. And we’re not using our community room because that’s $300 even though one of our judges is on staff here. So it’ll be here with a maximum of 20 people, and I’m short a few chairs but will look to neighbors for those.

Nervous, yes. I only made chili once, a turkey chili where I used fresh Thai bird chiles and they rendered the dish inedible no matter what I threw into it to tame it’s beastly heat. It’s for a good cause, camaraderie and future happiness. Cheers! Dee

p.s. I know who to get as the other judge! Now we need Bobby Flay for judging criteria.

4 Comments

Posted in Cooking Utensils

Tagged cascabel chiles, chili cookoff, Frito Pie, meat grinder, texas chili