Slammin' Chilli

I make this recipe once and a while in the winter time when it's really cold. Put away 2 hours of your time for this one, mostly because of the simmering time.

Ingredients

• 1 kg of lean Beef or Buffalo
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of tomato soup
• 1 can of tomato paste
• 1 can of black or red kidney beans
• Chilli paste ( the heat )
• 2 Peppers
• 1 Large Onion
• 3 Garlic Cloves
• Fresh Cilantro
• 1/3 package of bacon
• 1/4 cup of wine
• Spices as pictured below 
• Chilli powder 3 Tbs
• Chilli Flakes 1 Tbs
• Cumin 1 Tbs
• Paprika 1 Tbs
• Garam Masala 1 Tbs
• Oregano 2 Tbs
• Cinnamon 1 Tbs ( optional )

Instructions
1. Chop bacon into slices and add into the pot with 2-3 Tbs of water. The water helps the bacon crisp very quickly.

2. Chop/dice Onions, peppers and garlic.( Can keep veggie leftovers to make vegetable broth at a later time )

3. Sweat onions, peppers and garlic while browning meat in another pan.

4. Combine diced tomatoes, tomato soup, tomato paste, chilli paste, black beans and beef in the pot and simmer for about 45 minutes. Add spices at this stage. ( you can add a bit when sweating the peppers and onions as well as to the meat when it's browning )

 5. Before serving chop Cilantro and add to chilli, serve with bread and a beefy wine.

Quick and Easy Carrot Cake

I stumbled on this carrot cake recipe surfing the web one night and i decided to try it out. It's not as greasy as the usual carrot cakes since it contains no butter and only 2 eggs but believe me, it's just as good as any other carrot cake you could find.

Ingredients

• 1 can of crushed pineapple ( 175 ml )
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1/3 cup of vegetable oil ( preferably organic )
• 1/4 cup applesauce ( i used apple raspberry)
• 1 tsp Vanilla 
• 1 - 1/4 cup of flour
• 1 tsp Cinnamon ( add various spices here, nutmeg, cardamom, etc )
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 - 1/2 cup of grated carrots ( about 2 medium sized carrots )
• 1 medium bag of walnuts

Instructions
1. Strain the juices from the crushed pineapple and set aside the juice.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until slightly frothy.

3. Add vegetable oil, apple sauce and vanilla to the mix and mix for 30 seconds.

 4. In a separate bowl mix the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Then add the dry to the wet and mix for a minute or so.
5. Add grated carrots, pineapple chunks and walnuts to the mix.

6. Add mix to a 9'' buttered pan, or you can use parchment paper instead of butter. ( I prefer the parchment paper method )

7. Bake the carrot cake in the over for 30-40 mins, until you can stick a toothpick in and it comes out clean.
8. While the cake is baking combine these ingredients to make the frosting.

• 1 Pkg. Cream cheese ( must be softened )
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla
• 1 cup icing sugar

 9. After cake is done, set it on a cooling rack for 30 mins.
10. After cake is cooled, add frosting and top with a handfull of wallnuts and then have a piece or two...or three.

Enjoy!

Ragu alla Bolognese

This is my *favorite* pasta sauce! It's quite intensive to make, prepping the ingredients take me about 2 hours, though my knife skills aren't quite up to par. Unlike what other bloggers suggests, do NOT substitute the prosciutto with bacon; it's what makes this dish. Serve with your favorite type of pasta, though I prefer Fusilli for this chunky "sauce"!

Ingredients

• 2 carrots
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup Italian parsley
• 2 pounds plum tomatoes
• 1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes
• 1/2 pounds prosciutto
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
• 6 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 teaspoon salt/pepper
• Pinch of sugar

Instructions

1. Cut carrots into more manageable pieces (2-3 inches).
2. Cut carrots lengthwise.
3. Cut carrots into small slabs.

4. Cut slabs into strips.
5. Dice carrots.

6. Follow a similar procedure to finely dice celery stalks.
7. Mince onions.

8. Finely mince garlic.
9. Chop the parsley.

10. Roll prosciutto (see picture).
11. Cut into small slabs.

12. Put a slab on its side, and dice. Do this for each slabs.

13. Blanch the fresh tomatoes. To do this, put them in a pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes, until the skin starts to break.
14. Rinse tomatoes in cold water for 5 minutes, then peel of the skin with your fingers.
15. Finely dice the tomatoes and put them in a bowl.

16. Drain the canned tomatoes.
17. Roughly chop the canned tomatoes, then put it in the same bowl as the fresh tomatoes.

18. Heat the oil over medium heat.
19. Fry the carrots for about 5 minutes.

20. Stir in onions and cook until golden brown.

21. Stir in celery and parsley, and cook until all vegetables are soft (5-10 minutes depending on how thick you chopped the veggies)

This smells as good as it looks, trust me.

22.  Stir in the ground beef and cook until fully browned.

23. Stir in the prosciutto and cook for 5 minutes

24. Stir in half the butter.
25. Stir in the tomatoes. Simmer briefly.
26. Stir in the tomato paste, and simmer briefly again to evaporate any excess liquid.
27. Add the beef broth, salt and pepper. Stir thoroughly.

28. Cover with the lid slightly ajar, and simmer on low heat for 1 hour.
29. Add sugar, simmer for another 30 minutes.
30. Add the rest of the butter, check the seasoning (though I never need to add any, the prosciutto carries enough salt) and simmer for another hour.
31. Take the pot off the heat, and let the sauce cool down for 10 minutes.

32. Serve over your favorite pasta.

Double Chocolate Cookies OF DOOM

     So i first got the recipe for these from a quick search using google. After cooking a few batches i noticed that the cookies we're a bit dry, so i tried changing a few things and taking a bit of flour out of the recipe. What i got after about 15 batches was the most delicious cookies iv'e ever tasted. They stay soft in the middle for days and have a nice outer crust.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of butter ( 1 stick of butter )
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1 egg
• pure vanilla extract ( i have my own that i make pictured above)
• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• level teaspoon baking powder and baking soda
• pinch salt
• chocolate or mint chips ( mint chips kinda make this recipe taste like mint girl scout cookies : P

 Instructions
1. Cream sugar, egg vanilla and butter in a mixing bowl or stand mixer.

2. add dry ingredients ( everything else besides chocolate chips ) and mix slowly until creamy then add chocolate chips and mix em in for a few seconds.

 3. Place batter in fridge for an hour, DO NOT skip this step. I have found that when you do not refrigerate a bit before cooking they do not stay as moist in the middle.

4. place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 deg for 8-10 mins!

5. Cool em off and serve.

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!

Makes about 16 cookies, but you can easily double the recipe if you want more for the week. I sometimes make these when i have people over and their usually gone real quick!