texas is right

so it turns out all those texans who vilify "with beans" chili and instead wax poetic about true chile con carne (note: chile with an e) may be on to something. i had been craving chile con carne, which may have been my stomach's way of getting my brain to decide on eating some of bryan's fantastic chile sauce. as making chile paste is a rather labor intensive process (toast dried chiles, reconstitute dried chiles, blend dried chiles, strain dried chiles to obtain paste, reduce paste with or without water/stock and onions if you're making sauce), bryan tends to make very large batches, freezing it off in one or two cup ziplocs for easy use later. we resurrected some on sunday for chile con carne. p-freaking-nomenal. i grew up with northern chili (with an i), which includes ground beef, beans, tomatoes, and even sometimes (gasp!) pasta or (blasphemy!) carrots. i have nothing against "with beans" (and tomatoes, et. al.) chili; it can be delicious and comforting on a cold night. but true chile con carne is in a league of its own.

we had some beef stew meat from peapod which bryan seasoned and seared in the cast iron. he added some shredded onion, stock, and the chile paste. this simmered for four hours or so, resulting in beef so tender as to be nearly indecent, and a thick, rich, silky chile sauce which could convert any "with beans" die hard. no other chile stands a chance. topped with shredded cheddar, sour cream, and sliced green onion (all of which is not needed - the chile does beautifully on its own), it far outshone my sweet cornbread (no small feat - that cornbread usually kicks the pants off whatever it's served with).

i'm savoring the only bowl of leftovers for lunch today, along with some el rey tortilla chips, lemon flavor (seriously, try them). the short story is: you win, texas.

of course, i'm pretty spoiled to have homemade chile paste at my disposal. reason #9 Why I Love Bryan (that is not to suggest that there are only 9 reasons; chile paste is just pretty high up on the list ;).

other than that, we're boring as always. oliver did not nap or sleep well all weekend due to his cold, which resulted in a Seriously Cracked Mommy. i worked from home yesterday so i could get in a few naps, and was actually able to have a sane conversation by dinner. he did MUCH better sleeping last night as well, so hopefully we're on the up side of this virus. poor little munchkin. i submitted a new peapod order this morning, for delivery tomorrow, which gives me no small amount of pleasure. something about delicious produce delivered right to my door makes me blush with gastronomical pleasure. i don't believe we have any fun plans for the weekend, which is a relief.

WFD: carne asada, black beans, yellow rice. we had bought a beef tenderloin which bryan sliced into filets, so we'll toss those on the cast iron grill pan. the black beans will be interesting, since we're not big fans. :) i think bryan was inspired by shannon's cuban pork roast dinner. ;)

peapod part 2: pre-made dinner

last night for dinner we heated up the pre-made salmon dinner from peapod. it did appear to be pre-cooked, but that wasn't a deal breaker. the "rice pilaf" was really fake yellow rice. the salmon was advertised as "teriyaki salmon" but i tasted no teriyaki. it had diced green onions and red peppers on top. it wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly what i was expecting.

bryan took moose to the vet while i sat home and entertained ollie. turns out the lump in his neck is a benign liquid filled cyst. while we'll get the full lab results tomorrow, they are confident it's fine. they drained it and moose is just fine. :)

WFD: cornish hens, buttered peas, roast potatoes. peapod had a great deal on cornish hens, so we snatched some of those up. haven't decided exactly what to do with them to make them interesting. maybe i can talk bryan into smoking them. if that doesn't work out for me, we'll probably just glaze them. or maybe i'll get wild and open a bottle of red wine to have a glass with dinner. look at me go now.

3 experiments

Peapod
bryan and i ordered groceries from peapod on sunday. we had a coupon in the mail for $20 off, and we had been pleased with the now defunct webvan service years back in atlanta, so we though we'd give it a whirl. our ordering experience went rather well; the site is easy to use and has some nice "list" type features. they also accept manufacturer's coupons, which is pretty rockin' since i'm a coupon queen. :) while bryan and i enjoy shopping outside the home, as it's winter (and thus cold), we have a baby (who we prefer to keep on his schedule rather than dragging him all over town), plus we haven't had a chance to hunt down specialty markets to shop at, peapod seemed like a good option. in the past, we had been very pleased with the quality of the food we received from webvan. the meat was always very nice, and the produce outstanding. some of it may cost more than what is at the grocery store, but it's definitely a trade off for quality.

our order was scheduled to arrive anywhere between 3:30pm and 9pm monday. i can see how this wide time frame might be a turn off to some customers, but as bryan works from home, this was no problem for us. you may choose a narrower (2 hour) delivery window, but choosing this gave us a $2 coupon off the order (hey, a buck's a buck). the delivery man arrived around 5:30pm, and unloaded all the shopping bags directly into our kitchen. we were pleased with the service and the quality of the food we received. we're looking forward to eating it (see next post for some details on that)!

The Great Rice Krispie Treat Project
i love to bake. i love making sweets which can entice even the strictest gastronomic masochist to derail their diet plans. i am the cupcake queen. i am a cookie goddess. i can, apparently, make cake so good you eat half of it in one sitting (i'm not naming any names). unfortunately, my current co-workers have not been exposed to such delicious treats, and thus do not understand my baking. they do, however, LOVE rice krispie treats. so i am breaking them in slowly. i started a few weeks ago with cocoa rice krispie treats, and monday i brought in treats made with fruity pebbles (teeth jarringly sweet and technicolor bright). big hits, both of them. i am thinking of using chocolate marshmallows with cocoa rice krispies; strawberry marshmallow fluff with those new rice krispies with strawberrites; toasted coconut marshmallows; eventually using homemade marshmallows (an experiment i've been wanting to try anyways). so i'll continue to proceed, making them slightly more exciting each time, until they are ready for the glory that are my cupcakes. until then, i'm not going to waste 2 hours (which i don't have anyways) baking them. :)

Corned Beef
it's that time again folks! this one isn't so much an experiment (as we've done it before) as an exciting and delicious project - homemade corned beef! we picked up a big fat brisket at sam's club and cut it into 2. both are submerged in brine and will be until st. patrick's day, when we will boil and roast one for dinner, and smoke the other for pastrami sandwiches. oh the excitement.