Friday's Fave Foods***Easy Chili

We have launched right into Autumn, thankfully, and I cooked last week-end. The weather has cooled to VERY NICE and as opposed to unbearable, pretty much in the blink of an eye***as is normal for this region.

This chili is easy, also easy to modify for my oldest son who is a vegan, and it tastes GREAT!

*Quick Chili*

Carroll Shelby's Texas Chili Kit

olive oil

1 medium onion

1 lb of lean ground beef, chicken, turkey or venison (I've used them all!)

2 15 oz cans of dark red kidney beans, rinsed

1 28 oz can of whole tomatoes with juice

Heat dutch oven on medium heat with 1/2 teas. olive oil

Add diced onion and saute until slightly soft and caramelized, about 8 minutes

Add ground meat and brown, about 10 minutes. If you accumulate any extra fat from meat, drain

From chili kit add chili mix and chili peppers and stir into ground meat

Add tomatoes, and using a large metal spoon, cut whole tomatoes into half's or quarters, while in pot

Add beans

Add salt from chili kit, and toss lightly

Turn up heat to medium high until it starts to simmer.

Put lid on dutch oven, turn heat to low and allow chili to simmer for about 20 minutes.

DONE!

Notes: I do not use the masa mix in this chili kit because I get exactly the right consistency with this recipe and do not need a thickener. If you have more liquid you may want to use it. Also, you can cook this and refrigerate for the next day. It's always better on day two!

Make fun of my harvest gold dutch oven if you must. I bought it for $5.00 at a roadside flea market, and it is

'Le Creuset'. Based on the color, probably the first one they ever made, but it cooks GREAT!

Friday's Fave Foods***Tailgate Southwestern Style

The Georgia Bulldogs travel to Arizona this week to take them on in Tempe. Speaking from experience I can say that for fans especially, there is going to be some culture shock involved for the travelers. Chick-fil-a, an Atlanta based corporation, is trying to take the edge off.

Chick-fil-A Offers Taste of Home to UGA Football Fans
in Phoenix for the ASU Game

WHAT: The Phoenix-area Chick-fil-A restaurant franchise Operators would like to welcome University of Georgia football fans that will be traveling to Arizona for the Bulldogs’ match-up versus the Arizona
State Devils. Fans in town for the game can enjoy “home-cooking” by eating Chick-fil-A prior to the
game at the Devil’s Lair tailgating area beginning at 2 p.m. on game day, Sept. 20. The Chick-fil-A
“Eat Mor Chikin®” Cow will be on-hand to welcome fans to the game.

“We enjoy serving our great food to football fans during the pre-game festivities and
throughout the football season at our 15 Valley locations,” said Kimberly Caballero, franchise
Operator of the Chick-fil-A at SanTan Village. “We thought it would be fun to serve fans
traveling from our chain’s home state of Georgia. We couldn’t think of a better way to make
the Georgia football fans feel at home than with a pre-game meal from Chick-fil-A.”

You can make them yourself. Probably do not want to try this at your tail-gate tent, but you could make them ahead of time, wrap in foil lined paper, and hold in insulated coolers.

Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich

Yield :4 servings

Measure Ingredients:

3 cup Peanut oil

1 Egg

1 cup Flour

1 cup Milk

2½ tablespoon Powdered sugar

½ teaspoon Pepper

2 tablespoon Salt

Skinless,boneless chicken breasts-halved

Plain hamburger buns

2 tablespoon Melted butter

Dill pickle chips/slices

1) Heat oil in a pressure cooker over med. heat to about 400 F. 2) In small bowl, beat egg and stir in milk. 3) In separate bowl, combine dry ingreds.-mix well. 4) Dip each piece of chicken in milk until it is fully moistened. 5) Roll moistened chicken in flour mixture untill completely coated. 6) Drop all 4 chicken pcs. into hot oil and close pressure cooker. When steam starts shooting through the pressure release, set timer for 3 1/2 min. 7) While chicken is cooking, spread a coating of melted butter on face of each bun. 8) When chicken is done, remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Place two pickles on each bottom bun; add a chicken breast, then the top bun. Yield: 4 sandwiches It is very important that oil be hot for this recipe. Test the temperature by dropping some of the flour coating into the oil. If it bubbles rapidly, your oil is probably hot enough. It should take abt. 20 min. to heat up. To make a "deluxe" chicken sandwich, simply add two tomato slices and a leaf of lettuce. Mayonaise also goes well on this sandwich--it is a side order at the restaurant. Source: "Top Secret Recipes" by Todd Wilbur

Notes: Chick-fil-A did not publish this recipe. It used to be on Top Secret Recipes and is no longer available there.

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MORE ABOUT THE GAME SATURDAY

Georgia Bulldogs Travel To Face Arizona State Sun Devils Georgia Bulldogs FootballSeptember 17, 2008


This Saturday, the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0) will travel to face the Arizona State Sun Devils in Tempe. The trip will be the longest for UGA since they played USC in Los Angeles in 1960. The Bulldogs are coming off of a 14-7 win at South Carolina while the Sun Devils were upset 23-20 in overtime by UNLV.
Georgia and Arizona State have never met in football. Saturday's game will be the first, and next year will be the second when the Sun Devils travel to Athens on September 26, 2009. The Bulldogs hold an 8-4-1 record all-time against PAC-10 teams.

The game will be televised by ABC at 8:00 p.m. Plenty of tickets are available for the game through Stubhub.
For some good tailgating and bar information, check out Matt's post titled Lunch Links: Welcome To The Desert Dawgs. His Arizona State blog is called Echo From The Buttes.

The blog links here are a good read too!

Autumn Joy

I missed my Friday post. Feeling a little blue about that, but I was just too exhausted. Looking out in the yard this evening to see what is going on, aside from the need to cut my grass!



I'm so grateful I planted a little of this and a little of that as the years went by. This sedum, "Autumn Joy" was just a (tough) little thing when I put it in the ground 3 or 4 years ago. I expected it to take off fairly quickly and give an impressive show the next year. It grew taller and it bloomed but it was not that impressive. It looked kind of lanky and lonely there by itself in the front of the border. But it's improved every year, and finally this year it is starting to fill some space, and the color is very striking.

I kind of expected it to act like this sedum, which was another native I found a spot of in the far corner my front border. Talk about lonely. The original plant for this thing were just a few lanky seedlings, trying to survive, almost out of sight, certainly out of mind. I spotted a few flowers on it in the early fall that first year, and surmised it must be something, and the next spring I dug it up and put it in the sun. It grew enormously the first year, and did really well. I was able to divide it and use it as an anchor in the upper border. Eventually I divided it into four plants and they are all doing great except when the deer get ahold of them. Deer think this plant is TASTY. This plant is tough, but not that tough!

I'm waiting for my order from Michigan Bulb. Not bulbs, perennials. In the South you have to plant spring or fall. Otherwise, you are pretty much wasting your money. Except for Knock-out Roses. Those things don't care! Mine have grown at least 3 times their size since I planted them in July! I ordered more white coneflower and daylilies for my new flower bed. I'm also going to plant a Japanese Maple***Georgia's own "Glowing Embers"***in that bed too. If I ever get it properly weeded and mulched I'll take a picture! For the upper border, which is long and boasts a micro climate of deep shade (hosta, azalea) part shade (hydrangea) part sun (gardenia) and full sun (buddelhia) I ordered a white butterfly bush. Ordered in July, ship in September. I can't remember if I ordered one or two.

Sadly, I have somehow killed my Oakleaf Hydrangea. It was looking so good the last few years. I actually think I must have let it get too dry. I really can't imagine what else, unless it got a disease, but nothing else around it is affected. A sad mystery. I'm really looking forward to working in my yard this fall. Summer is dreadful around here!

Friday's Fave Foods***Blazing Burgers

Yes, it's that time of year again...NCAA Football ! Living in a university community, and working at said university...well, it's all pretty much unavoidable. So I have chosen to embrace the experience!

Tailgating is a big deal for folks. We are busy working, but it's fun to see everyone partying, and sometimes we get to break away...people are always very proud of their recipes and food. It is a whole lot of fun! And obviously, you can try this at home!

Blazin' Bulldawg Burgers***Travis from Marietta

*1 lb. of ground chicken *Moore's Buffalo Wing Sauce or substitute your favorite wing sauce

*Kens Chunky Blue Cheese Salad Dressing

*Provolone Cheese

*Hamburger buns

*Lettuce, tomato, onion to dress if desired

Make ground chicken into 4-5 burger patties. Pour wing sauce over burger patties before cooking and brush while grilling. When burgers are cooked thoroughly, place dab of blue cheese on top of burger. Melt provolone cheese over blue cheese dressing. Enjoy with family and friends. Go Dawgs!

Late Summer Window Box

I love the way this window box fills out by the end of the summer. This is a shady corner, so this color really pops!