Black Bean & Butternut Chili

The chili recipe below was adapted from another blogger's recipe, which was adapted from a Cooking Light recipe.  I didn't want to change much, except for omitting the meat and making it in the slow cooker instead of on the stove.  I looked for instructions on how to adapt a recipe for the slow cooker and then modified the directions so that I could just toss it in the slow cooker.  It came out great - I think one of the reasons I really liked it was the red wine, which gave it a really unique flavor compared to other chili recipes I have made.   I stashed a bit of this in the freezer, but I'll probably make it again.  By the way - you can use any winter squash, and I'm sure different types of beans would work well too.  I'd like to try the original version with meat and red kidney beans sometime this winter.  (Note: do NOT cook dried red kidney beans in the slow cooker or you might die.)

Ingredients:

• A splash of olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic 
• 1 small chipotle pepper in adobo, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ancho chile pepper 
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup dry red wine
• 1 (28-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (28-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained 
• 2 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash or other winter squash 
• 1/2 cup water

Method: 

1. Add 2 teaspoons oil to pan. Add onion; sauté 8 minutes until the onions are a deep golden brown. Add tomato paste, garlic, chipotle and spices; sauté 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add wine; bring to a boil, scraping pan. Cook until wine has reduced a little, a few minutes. 

2. Add onion mixture to slow cooker.  Stir in tomatoes, beans, butternut squash, and water.  Cook on high for 4 hours.

Turkey Soup with Lime and Chile

I made this soup with the turkey stock I made from our leftover turkey.  Before we made stock, we salvaged the meat from the bones to include in the soup and got a surprising amount out of it.  The long and short of it is that this soup was awesome - turkey broth flavored with mirepoix and a bit of chile, used to make a soup with turkey, cilantro, scallions, lime, avocado, and some crispy tortilla strips.  (I made these in the oven instead of frying them on the stove.)  Ken brought some to work for lunch and sent me a text saying how amazing it was that turkey soup could be this good - and it wasn't the first time he was eating it.  We froze some turkey and broth to have this soup again later in the winter.  I can get the toppings anytime.  I'm looking forward to it already.

Sausage and Cheese Omelette (Dark Days 1)

The Dark Days Challenge is a challenge to use sustainable, organic, local, and ethically produced ingredients in your meals in the "dark days" of winter, when fruits and veggies are not widely available.  (That's why it's a challenge!)  Since this is my first year participating, I'm using an approximately 200 mile radius and will probably be making plenty of exceptions as I go along.  For now, I'm counting as exceptions: olive oil, salt and pepper, spices, chocolate.

For my first meal, I went for an easy "breakfast for dinner" option.  I used eggs, breakfast sausage, and Herdsman cheese, all from Cherry Grove Farm in Lawrenceville.  I added in a bit of cilantro - it's surprisingly still good from our last CSA pickup in mid-November.  We went a little overboard on the sausage, as you can see from the picture.  It was pretty tasty and it actually gave me a few ideas for future meals.  As you can see, I'm set with meat, eggs, and cheese... it's the veggies that will be a challenge.