Lemon-Paprika Chicken with Chickpeas and Couscous

I made this for dinner and I think it's really good. I don't mean I think it's good but no one else does, I mean I think it's good - hard to know for sure because instead of fresh thyme I used dried and used waaaaaaay to much. Like the dish was so heavily thyme-seasoned it was hard to taste the other ingredients! But from what I can tell, minus too much thyme, I think the dish is really good! 

Other than overdoing the thyme, my changes are that I didn't have fresh lemon so I used bottled juice and didn't serve with wedges; I added garlic powder instead of cloves; I omitted the red pepper; and I made a box of pine nut couscous that I had on hand. 

• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 T. tomato paste
• 3 T. olive oil
• 2 t. paprika
• 2 t. chopped fresh thyme
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• salt and pepper
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (6-8 oz. each)
• 1 15 oz. can chickpeas (don't drain)
• 1 red bell pepper, chpped
• 3/4 cup couscous
• 2 T. chopped fresh parsley
• lemon wedges for serving

1. Preheat oven to 375'. Whisk the lemon juice, tomato paste, 2 T. olive oil, paprika, thyme, garlic and 1/2 t. each salt and pepper in a small bowl. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels; season with salt and pepper. Rub the chicken with 3 T. of the lemon-paprika mixture to evenly coat.
2. Heat the remaining 1 T. olive oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until browned on one side, about 5 minute. Meanwhile, remove 3 T. liquid from the can of chickpeas and transfer to a medium bowl. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Add to the bowl with the chickpea liquid and add the remaining lemon-paprika mixture and the bell pepper; toss. Flip the chicken and scatter the chickpea mixture around the chicken, scraping any liquid into the pan. Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast until the chicken is cooked through, 8 to 12 minutes. 
3. Meanwhile, cook the couscous as the label directs. Fluff the couscous with a fork.
4. Remove the chicken to a plate. Add the couscous to the chickpea mixture and stir together to absorb the pan sauce; season with salt and pepper. Slice the chicken and divide amount plates along with the couscous-chickpea mixture. Top with the parsley and serve with lemon wedges. 

4 servings. Per serving: calories 580; fat 18g; carb 47g; pro 55g; sugar 6g; fiber 8g.

from 3/21 Food Network Magazine

 4.12.20: 🔥week 15

4.12.19: dog in the blog - food bowl tip

4.12.18: one year old's birthday cake

4.12.17: granola cookies

4.12.16: tidying up

Crock Pot Country Ribs

This is just about the easiest recipe ever - and it's delicious. What's not to love about that hahaha?!

Put a package of boneless, pork country ribs in a large crockpot (I spray the crockpot with no-stick cooking spray first). Add 1 large can of cream of mushroom soup and 1 or 2 cans of mushrooms, including the juice. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-9 hours. If you don't want as much sauce just use a small can of soup, but I like to have extra to put over noodles or mashed potatoes as sort of a gravy. Yum. 

Note: country ribs aren't actually ribs, not sure why they're called that! Maybe because of the way they're cut? I've only ever made them in the crockpot - they are very moist, meaty, and flavorful. 

4.10.20: banana muffins

4.10.19: chocolate bunny cake

4.10.18: prosciutto-wrapped mozzarella sticks
4.10.17: how to make paper umbrellas

4.10.16: oven steamed salmon

(Skinny) Skillet Chicken Parmesan

 This is another delicious looking recipe from Macey - I love the idea of putting the chicken and sauce over vegetables and cauliflower rice instead of pasta. Good job Mae! Here's what she did, in her words:

In case the text is too small, here's help:

Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, oregano and brown them in an ovenproof skillet. Spread basil pesto, parmesan cheese, and marinara over the chicken and place the skillet in a hot 350' oven and cook until the chicken is done. Add more cheese, fresh basil, fresh tomatoes on top if you like. Serve the chicken and sauce over top of sautéed medley of veggies (she suggests onions, spinach, red peppers, tomatoes, basil, Rotel mild chile tomatoes, and cauliflower rice). 

Yum, this sounds and looks amazing - thanks for sharing Mace!

Dog Crochet Basket

A while back when I made the crocheted owl basket and small cat basket I sent a picture to the fam and Macey made the comment that if I made the cat one in black it would look like her dog Nahla - so I did. And it does hahaha. I added a bit of fringe at the ears this time to make it resemble a yorkie, isn't it cute? It's much bigger than it looks, it's about 10" wide and tall. 

I combined the pattern for the owl basket found at bhg.com, and the cat basket pattern found at woolstreeet.ca to come up with this dog basket. 

Lemon Honey Dijon Chicken

It's my self-proclaimed 'healthy week' - here's the first of the dishes I made this week. Dave and I both loved this recipe and will definitely make it again - easy and healthy! 

I served it with beans and kale but it wasn't necessary!

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest 
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 6 skinless bone-in chicken thighs 
• 3 sprigs rosemary
• 1 large fennel halved and sliced 
• 1/2 onion sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions:

• 1. In a large resealable bag, combine the honey, lemon zest, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, garlic powder and 1 teaspoon salt. Add the chicken thighs to the marinade. Seal the bag and massage the chicken with the marinade to coat well. Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes or up to 4 hours in the refrigerator.
• 2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking.
• 3. Add the rosemary, fennel and onion in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Drizzle with the oil and season with the remaining salt. Toss well to coat. Spread the vegetables evenly over the bottom of the pan. Place the chicken pieces on top of the vegetables allowing the marinade to drip off before adding to the pan. Bake for 50 minutes, basting with any remaining marinade every 10 minutes for the first 20 minutes. The chicken should be golden brown and cooked to 165 degrees F. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving topped with the softened vegetables.

my notes: I used skinless boneless chicken thighs. Omitted the onion. Baked for about 40 minutes. To serve I scooped the veggies with a piece of chicken on top, then drizzled with a little of the pan juices. Click here to see yesterday's post on how to work with fennel.

4 servings

318 calories per serving, 20g carb, 34g protein

click here for original source 

.20 - crocheted messy bun hat

.19 - 🔥week 2

.18 - lentil gravy

.17 - bath bombs

.16 - cover a side table

Loaded Cream Cheese Brownies

I made these for Halloween with an orange cream cheese layer (based on a recipe found here) but you could use any color you want or even just leave it white and they'll still be pretty! Love this idea, my only concern is how long they took to bake - recipe says 43-45 but it look much longer. I lost track of how long I left them in but I'd say 55 minutes and even then they looked extremely underdone. As they cooled they did set up a bit more, and if you like your brownies to be on the fudgey side you'll probably find these the perfect texture. The inspiration recipe used broken oreos and chocolate chips on top, I added more things including snow caps, mini oreos, thin chocolate wafer cookies, white chips, orange m&m's, candy eyes, and halloween sprinkles. 

Side note - did you know you can bake oreos on top of brownies? I would have said no, but it worked. What didn't work were the white chips and candy eyes, they turned brown after being in the oven so long - but there was so much going on on top of my brownies you didn't even realize the white chips were no longer white! To serve, in our Covid pandemic world, I cut them in very small bite sized pieces, about 1" squares, and put each one in a small cupcake liner. That way it made for individual single-sized portions and no one touched any other brownie except their own. I also added fresh candy eyes for presentation and a few more sprinkles to fill in any holes. I didn't take a picture of the presentation, use your imagination - bite sized brownies in individual cupcake/muffin liner cups looks just like it sounds :) 

I used a brownie mix (I like Ghirardelli's triple chocolate, but any box that makes an 8x8" pan will work), adding the ingredients called for on the box. Pour it into a foiled lined and sprayed with non-stick baking spray 8"x8" pan. 

For the cream cheese layer: 

• 8 oz. brick style cream cheese, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup sugar

Mix together with an electric mixture for 2 minutes. Add food coloring of your choice (optional, you could just leave it white) for this orange the recipe called for 10 drops yellow and 5 drops red but that wasn't near enough to get it bright orange. I stopped counting drops and just kept adding a mixture of yellow and red to get the desired color. Use your judgement. 

Add the cream cheese topping in big spoonfuls on top of the brownie dough, carefully spread it to about 1/2" of the edge. Add all the crazy toppings you want and bake in a 350' oven for 43-45 minutes or until set. Note it's hard to tell when the brownie layer is done since there's melty chips and the cream cheese layer to stick a tester thru. Mine were clearly underdone at the 45 minute mark without even having to test. Just keep an eye on them, maybe you'll have better luck with them being done around 45 minutes. 

Here's what it looked like when out of the oven - see how the white chips turned brown? Tasted fine and there's so much shizzle going on no one could even tell.

Tip-sy Tuesday: cast iron pan info

Yesterday I showed you how to make pizza in a cast iron skillet - the most delicious pizza by the way - so thought I'd share a couple tips to use and care for this (previously scary to me) pan:

The pan my mom bought me has already been 'seasoned' - honestly that was the intimidating part of owning a cast iron pan that made me never want one. It seemed like so much work, and that was before you could even use the pan! But having it pre-seasoned means it's good to go right off the bat, and the more I use it the better it will get.

Heat the dry skillet on medium heat for a couple minutes before adding a small amount of canola oil, then heat the oil until it shimmers and sizzles when you put a drop of water in the hot pan. If it sizzles you know it's ready to add ingredients. 

It's recommended to only use canola oil, my sister said she used vegetable oil once and didn't have the same results as canola - it seemed greasier to her. So stick with canola if you can.

Wash the pan with water, you can use a little soap but that might remove the seasoning; so far plain water has done it for me. Use a rubber scrapper or a brush meant for cast iron (not steel wool) if you have any bits stuck to the pan, I let water sit in the skillet for a couple minutes while doing other dishes but don't soak it too long or immersed in a sink of water - you don't want it to rust. You can rub in a little oil after the pan is clean, then buff it off. Dry it thoroughly before storing - moisture is not good for cast iron, the lady at the store told me she puts paper towel under and over her pans to help keep them dry while being stored (once again, they tend to rust if left wet too long).

I bought a fitted pot holder that slips over the skillet handle so it's a little easier to remove it from a hot oven or handle while on the stovetop. 

That's all I know so far - I'm going to experiment with other recipes for sure now that I know how much I like this new pan...I'll keep you posted!

Cast Iron Pizza

My mom bought me a 12" cast iron pan for my birthday, nice right? Except cast iron pans have always intimidated me and I've never wanted one hahaha!! But between my sister gushing about how fantastic her cast iron blackened salmon is, and my mom gushing about how her cast iron pizza tastes just like take-out pizza, I slowly warmed to the idea of owning a scary pan. (Although still secretly wondering if I could find a place to store said scary pan when I never use it LOL.) Cue this first attempt at making pizza and call me a convert!

I can't remember exactly how mom said she makes her pizza, but I do remember her wise advise to 'just google it, there's tons of recipes' so that's what I did. And read quite a few different ways to go about it, so I then did what I tend to do - yep, I winged it.

Preheat oven super hot - recipes say 500-550' but that scared me so I chickened out and turned it to 475'. 

Have the dough shaped and ready to go (I used store-bought, mom makes her own dough), I used the kind in the tube which makes a rectangle shaped crust so I just stretched it into a rough circle. Also have whatever toppings you are going to use on standby - I did pizza sauce, pepperoni, canned (drained) mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. 

Put the skillet on the stovetop over medium heat for a couple minutes, then add some canola oil and let it heat up. Turn off the burner and carefully add the crust, pat it down and press out the best you can without burning yourself (use a spoon if you want). Add the toppings. The heat of the cast iron should get a good crust on the bottom, lift it up a bit to check and if it's still doughy on the bottom turn on the burner for just a minute or two to get it a little golden brown. 

Transfer skillet to oven and bake pizza until crust is golden brown around the edges and cheese is browned and bubbling, about 10-14 minutes. Carefully remove from oven (remember the handle will be hot too!). 

I didn't take lots of pictures since I didn't really know what I was doing, but you guys - this is fantastic and I hope you'll get that intimidating cast iron pan out of the basement and give this a try! Thanks again mom for the pan (I've made blackened salmon twice now and we love it too, so at least I have 2 great things to make with this pan!). 

Pickled Red Onions

While on my pickling kick (along with cucumbers and green beans) I decided I'd like to try pickled red onions - very easy to do and I love them! You can add to sandwiches, chop up in chicken or tuna salad, put on salads or tacos, or just eat straight out of the jar hahahaha. Since I've never done it, and because Dave will not eat them, I didn't want to make too many jars for my first time - I found a small batch recipe and just made 2 small 8 ounce jars of them and I'm wishing I would have made more! Who cares if I have to eat them all by myself - I'm up for that challenge ;)

I changed the recipe a bit so am just going to tell you what I did:

• 1 large red onion, thinly sliced 
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 T. pickling salt
• 1 T. pickling spices (you can omit this, or add peppercorns or other spices)

                           

Follow standard canning methods, there is tons of info online for how to can - here's a couple basic things to know: 

*you want the jars sterilized and hot, either by running them in the dishwasher before starting to can (leave them in the hot dishwasher after the load has stopped so they stay warm) or immerse them in a large pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. I do this right in my big canning pot since you'll also need a hot water bath for processing the jars. 

*put the canning lids into a small saucepan with water and bring up to almost a boil. Turn off and leave covered so they are hot when time to seal the filled jars. 

*have a funnel, ladle, and a wet paper towel handy for filling the jars. 

1. Dissolve the vinegar, sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.

2. Add the onions and pickling spices or other spices if you're using to the saucepan and simmer on low for 5 minutes uncovered. Remove from heat. 

3. Using clean tongs, pack the onions into each jar. Add the spices from the pan if you're using.

4. Using a ladle, fill the space around the onions with the pickling brine, leaving about 1/2 inch head space.

5. Wipe the rim with a wet paper towel so it's clean, then add a lid from the hot water in the small saucepan. Screw in place with a ring.

6. Process for 10 minutes submerged in the large pot of hot water, make sure there's about an inch of water over top of the jars. Remove carefully with long tongs and set on the counter or a rack to cool - you'll know the jars have sealed when you hear my favorite canning sound, it's sort of a 'ping' or a popping sound. Cool completely.

Store for up to 1 year, once opened store in the fridge for up to a month. 

Coin Jar by Brooke

Hey guys! Today I was counting my coins in my big glass jar. And I thought it was so ugly and boring. So I decided to dress it up a little bit!! All I used was paper, hot glue, and glitter!! The first thing I did was pick out my paper and cut it to my Desired size to be a little bit lower than half on the jar. Then I put hot glue on the end and glued it to the jar. Then I went around the jar with the glue following it with the paper so I could get it as even as possible. Then I let that dry. After it dried I took the hot glue gun and used it around the top of the paper. After I did that I poured glitter on that glue on the top. Then I let it dry again! Then once it was fully dry I poured all my coins back in it and now it’s so pretty! This was so easy and it looks 10x cuter than it did!

Pine nut Pilaf

This recipe is on the inside cover of a pine nut clamshell container from great lakes international trading co (click here), I had all the ingredients on hand so made it as a side with grilled pork chops last night and it is great! I shouldn't be surprised since they bothered to put it on the cover hahaha, but I was surprised none-the-less. Pinenuts are expensive but sooooo worth it in this recipe - click here to see how to toast pine nuts to bring out even more fragrant nutty flavor. 

Apricot Pinenut Rice

 

Print

Author: Jill Wilkes

Ingredients

• 1 medium Onion, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 cup Long Grain or Basmati Rice
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1 14oz can Chicken Broth
• ¼ cup Water
• ½ cup Great Lakes’ Dried Apricots, diced
• ⅓ cup Great Lakes’ Pinenuts, toasted
• 1 Tablespoon Basil
• ½ teaspoon ground Cumin
• pepper

Instructions

1. Cook onion in olive oil over low heat.
2. Add rice, salt, broth and water. Bring to a boil. Cover, turn the heat down to simmer for 15 to 18 minutes (until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed).
3. Add apricots, cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
4. Stir in the pinenuts, basil and cumin.
5. Pepper to taste and serve.

note: I omitted the onion and it still has great flavor, and I used dried basil. Yum. 

Chessman Banana Pudding Dessert

Cat brought this dessert to a cookout a while ago and it's so pretty and such a good idea I knew I wanted to share it; I've been sitting on it though because I wanted to ask her more questions but I haven't been able to connect with her so I'm going to share what I know, and if there's questions we'll wing it together ;)

Basically she replaced the vanilla wafers traditionally used in banana cream desserts with chessman cookies (they come in a bag, I think they're Pepperidge Farms? Hold on, I'm going to google to verify...yep, Pepperidge Farms. And while I was googling I found a bunch of recipes for this online, here's one that looks good from Paula Dean titled 'not yo mama's banana pudding' - I don't know if that's the recipe Cat followed but this way we aren't having to guess). Put down a layer of chessman cookies in thee bottom of your dish, top with bananas and whatever filling you like for banana cream pudding, then top with more cookies. Isn't it pretty? 

Here's Paula's recipe ~

Ingredients:

• 1 (12-oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream
• 1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk 
• 1 (8-oz) package cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups milk 
• 1 (5-oz) box instant French vanilla pudding mix 
• 6 to 8 bananas, sliced
• 2 bags chessmen cookies 

Line the bottom of a 13x9x2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended.

 Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Tip-sy Tuesday: storage wrap tip

Brooke taught me this little tip and I can't believe I never questioned what the little tabs on the side of cling-wrap, aluminum foil, waxed paper, etc. boxes is for! Did you know this? Push the cut outs on either side of the box in and it holds the inside roll in place so it doesn't fall out of the box. Seriously, how did I not know this? And how did B know it?

Troll Costume

Yes, I get that Halloween was last week and we won't be needing costumes for a while (unless you want to just have a random costume party for something to do, hey that'd be fun - we should do that!), but I wanted to post this super easy, no-sew, lazy, quickie costume because let's face it, I will never remember a year from now that I made this! Now at least it'll be on the blog if you're searching for easy, no-sew, lazy, quickie costume ideas in the future :)

The pictures make it look really wrinkled, I did not notice that until seeing the photos - ignore that part hahaha. 

I took an extra-large t-shirt I had on hand for another project (actually I can't remember what I originally bought it for - it's in a bag with supplies to make a Snow White costume, did I think the shirt was going to be her dress somehow? I don't know so it's now a troll costume hahaha), cut the sleeves off, and hot glued felt shapes to the bottom. The t-shirt is long enough that I could wear it as a short shift dress but I did wear boy shorts underneath to cover my assets. Just in case. And thank goodness I did because naturally my sister made us do the limbo!

The arm holes are super big on the cut up t-shirt and since I was making this literally 2 hours before going to my sissy's I didn't have time to make this more flattering - the best and quickest thing I could think of was to thread ribbon thru the neck and arm holes and tie it in a bow on top of my shoulders. I used a piece of the same ribbon to tie a bow at the top of my hair - my hair is short right now so with a bunch of hair products and good ol' Aqua Net hairspray I was able to stand it straight up. It's maybe a little weird that my natural hair is also troll hair but whatever. If you have long hair and want to be a troll, I saw lots of ideas online to make a headband with tulle into troll hair. 

To finish I did colorful eyeshadow with fake lashes, bright lipstick, and stuck some gems to my face. Silly and easy, and for how last minute this came together I think it turned out pretty cute. 

Pickled Green Beans

My sister went with Ronda to her parent's house to make dilly beans a few weeks ago and she brought home a couple jars - and they are so so delicious we wanted to make more on our own...but do you think we could find a time to get together and make them? So I woke up this morning and decided to attempt it on my own! I don't have Ronda's family recipe but I googled and got tons of ideas, I went with this one but changed it a bit - I'll give you the original recipe and then my notes below. 

2 1/2 pounds fresh string beans
2 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
2 cups water
1/4 cup salt
1/2 pound garlic cloves, peeled
1 bunch fresh dill weed
1 pound small spicy red peppers
3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional

Sterilize 6 half-pint jars with rings and lids and keep hot. Cut string beans to 1/4 inch shorter than your jars.

In a large saucepan, stir together the vinegar, water, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. In each jar, place 1 garlic clove, 1 sprig of dill, 2 red peppers, and 1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Pack string beans into the jars so the are standing on their ends.

Ladle the boiling brine into the jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of the tops. Wipe top rim of the jar so no moisture gets captured under the lid. Seal the jars with lids and rings. Place in a hot water bath so the jars are covered by 1 inch of water. Simmer but do not boil (approximately 180 degrees) for 10 minutes to process. Remove from the pot. Cool to room temperature. Tests jars for a good seal by pressing on the center of the lid. It should not move. When jars are cooled you should hear a "pop" to signal the lids are sealed. Refrigerate any jars that do not seal properly. Let pickles ferment for 2 to 3 weeks before eating.

notes: 

*I bought a 2 pound bag of beans and made the brine according to the directions and didn't have enough so had to make more. Because the original brine cooled down while making the additional, I dumped what liquid I had poured over the beans in the jars back into the pan so it would all be hot at the same time. 

*I couldn't find small spicy red peppers so omitted them. 

*I put 2 garlic cloves in each jar, along with the fresh dill, a pinch of mustard seeds, and the red pepper flakes. I read somewhere to lay the jars on their sides and lay the dill along one side before adding the beans - it looks pretty in the jar that way instead of laying at the bottom. 

*I got 3 (12 ounce) jars and 3 (8 ounce) jars from 2 pounds of beans.

original recipe from 'The Book of Doing' by Allison Arden

Phone Cases by Brooke

I love this easy and economical idea from Brooke to decorate phone cases, here's what she did in her words:

Hi everyone! So today I wanted to show you how I make my phone cases! So some phone cases are very expensive and I don’t know about you but I don’t want to drop $35 on a phone case!! So my mom and I do ours like this and it makes them super cute and they’re super inexpensive! I just have a clear phone case and a pack of any stickers. And instead of peeling the stickers off and sticking them on the outside of the case, I keep the sticker backs on and just place them where I want them on the back of my phone, then put the phone case on! So cute and so easy and you can make it whatever you want it to look like!! :)

My Sis is Hungry: West Coast Chili

Guys I have a funny story to share, although it's about chili which really isn't that funny but a text exchange between me and my sis had me laughing out loud and I so have to share.

I made my regular ol' chili the other day and had a bunch leftover so took some out to Jen (not to review, just to share it); later she asked if I wanted her to review it because it's good and I said sure, I'll take a review even tho I've posted the recipe in the past. So she sends me this:

Some people like fall for Pumpkin Spice Latte.  Me?? I am in for the sweaters and the soup.  Does chili count as soup? I say yes.

My sister showed up to walk today with the unexpected gift of chili.  YAY! Lunch!! Covid working from home for 6 months has left me bored of bagged salad for lunch so I would have gladly eaten whatever anyone brings me… but today my sister raised the free lunch bar with this chili.  YUM.  Nothing weird or special. Probably won't win a chili cook off , but just good chili.  Big hunks of meat gave it substance, just enough spice to make it flavorful without turning off anyone who doesn’t like “hot”, just a good solid chili.  Loved it. 

If I was actually ever going make chili for myself I would give this one a try!

Sure, that's a fine review, although the 'probably won't win a chili cook off' annoyed me - so I went to my keepsake box of memento's, took a photo, and sent it to her: 😂

"Fogle Chili Bash 1st Place"

She wrote back: Touché. I hope you're gonna post that on the blog cuz it's hilarious.