White Bean Chili
I have never been the type of person to like the red-meat-and-pint0-beans chili flavored with an overabundance of taco seasoning. I think I’ve only had chili once in the last 15 years. Seriously. I don’t know if it’s the tomato-beef-pinto combination or the taco seasoning…although let the record show that I really don’t like taco seasoning. Several years ago my cooking mentor, Cozy, gave me this recipe for White Bean Chili; I ignored this recipe for quite a while. Then Cozy made White Bean Chili for dinner and didn’t tell me that “Chili” was in the title. Wowza, it was delicious! The chicken and the spices and the green chilies and the hint of sour cream. Goodness, I think I need another bowl of it, stat.
Gingerbread Mini-Cakes with Chocolate Glaze
It is no secret that I am addicted to all things gingerbread. I found this recipe in my “to make” stash of gingerbread recipes, which I am constantly adding to, and decided that today was the day for a little gingery-goodness. First of all, this cake is fairly spicy with both fresh ginger root and ginger powder. If you want to decrease the spice a bit use less of the fresh stuff and you’ll be good to go. This recipe makes 12 mini-cakes (baked in a cupcake tin) and is perfect for a dinner party, or, ya know, if you want to eat one or twelve all by yourself. Whatever.
Pomegranate-Balsamic Glazed Carrots
I love anything with balsamic vinegar, and when I saw this recipe for pomegranate juice and balsamic vinegar I felt compelled to make it as quickly as possible. At the grocery store I could only find pomegranate juice by the vat, so now I feel like I need to make 7 other dishes featuring pomegranate juice. Or I suppose I could just make this dish 27 times…yes, I think I’ll do that. I served the glazed carrots with chicken breasts drowned in balsamic glaze which was absolutely fantastic for a quick dinner.
Swedish Chocolate Balls
I found this recipe for “Kall Dem Vad Du Vill” Bollar on Pia’s blog and did a little math and a lot of experimenting to convert this traditional Swedish dessert/snack into American measurements. I have made these several time and love the not-super-sweet flavor and “healthy” components of oats and coconut. (Coconut is healthy, right? It’s like fruit, yes?)
Ratatouille with Italian Sausage
You’ve probably seen the movie with the cute little rat who dreams of being a chef, right? You’ve probably either seen Julie & Julia or read a book on Julia Child. If you are anything like me (and because you’re here reading this, I like to think that you are) I like to think you have a) done all of the above and b) those collective experiences made you want to start cooking more frequently. I never particularly loved squash flavored things growing up, but when I saw Ratatouille I suddenly had a craving for French countryside squashiness. After a little googling and a lot of tweaking I came up with this fantastic recipe for Ratatouille. Note: I add Italian Sausage to mine to mask a little of the extra squashy taste, however if you prefer it strictly vegetarian simply omit the sausage. Because you are slicing all the veggies, it is helpful to find similar sized eggplant, zucchini and squash…look for long and skinny eggplant (the Japanese variety are shaped perfectly for this) and a long and skinny red bell pepper.
heidikins cooks 