SCRUMPDILLYICIOUS!!!

We had planned to go out for dinner today (Yeah!) but the way the day was developing we decided to postpone for a day or two.  So what to serve for dinner?

Yesterday I was responsible for lunch for Shirl's Girls quilting group and that could be anywhere from four women to twelve women.  So it has to be flexible.  To me that says "Chilli"  or better yet "Texas Chilli."  Now, I don't know if this is a bona fide Texas Chilli, but this is what we were introduced to when we lived in Oregon.

Bottom layer in your bowl or plate: broken tortilla chips.  Then ladle on a good bit of home made chilli (recipe follows).  Layer on grated cheddar, shredded lettuce, cut up tomatoes, onions and green peppers.  Top off with sour cream.  On Wednesday I prepared about 7 quarts of chilli.  I might as well make lots when I'm doing that, because it's so handy to have in the freezer.

It was a big hit, but we were a small group: just six women.  So I had lots of those ingredients left over.  I packed up one quart container and a larger, about 2 1/2 quart container of left over chilli and put that in the freezer.  The other extra ingredients went into the fridge.  For dessert: cherry/chocolate cake (recipe follows).

Also in the fridge was half of a family-sized package of lean ground beef.  Half of that went on the stove to be fried up loose.  Usually I have some seasonings on hand, but not today.  I went to the internet and got a recipe for taco seasoning and another for refried beans.  Two 14 oz. cans of kidney beans went into a skillet with the seasonings for the refried beans.  The lean ground beef got about half the mixture of taco seasoning.

Here's the taco on the plate:

Could it even be folded?  Yes:

Held together with a large wooden tooth pick.  DELICIOUS!!!

VEGETARIAN CHILLI (a recipe found in the newspaper many years ago)

2 TB olive oil

1 1/2 chopped onions (more or less)

3 large carrots, cut up

2 green peppers, diced

1 red pepper, diced

5 cups sliced mushrooms

1 medium zucchini (I used shredded zucchini from the freezer)

1 1/2 cups black beans

2 - 28 oz. cans red kidney beans

(I add some pinto beans and white kidney beans also)

2 - 28 oz. cans plum tomatoes

1 - 13 oz. can tomato paste

2 cups corn kernels

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 TB ground ginger

1 TB garlic powder

2 TB Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup red cooking wine

2 TB cumin

1 tsp chilli powder

1 TB coriander

1 TB paprika

1 TB oregano

1 TB basil

1 TB dill

1 tsp dry mustard

2 bay leaves (remove when cooked)

Put all ingredients in a large pot or crockpot and simmer for several hours until the veggies are tender--especially the carrots.

I always add a good amount of loose fried lean ground beef.

Best made a day ahead.  Freezes and thaws well.

CHERRY/CHOCOLATE CAKE

1 pkg. chocolate cake mix

1 can cherry pie filling

3 eggs

2 tsp almond extract.

Mix all ingredients together.  Bake in a parchment lined 9" x 13" pan following directions on cake box.  Cool and frost with chocolate icing.

Quick, Easy, and always moist and delicious!

                                               *   *   *   *   *   *   *

UFO count.  After cleaning and organizing my fabric closet I started tackling the UFO's.  I didn't count how many there were.  That would be too intimidating!  UFO #1 was a denim bag with a chenille inset that didn't turn out very "fluffy".  That got thrown in the burning bin.  All done #1.  

UFO #2 was the children's single bed-sized quilt.  That's finished and sprucing up the futon in the solar space.  

UFO #3 -- there were 5 1/2 finished blocks of a Jacob's Ladder quilt.  I finished the 1/2 block, made three more and was going to put it together in a 3 block x 3 block quilt.  Sad discovery: the blocks were not all the same size.  I wondered what to do and solved the problem by dumping that UFO (nearing 20 years in the making) in the burning barrel! 

Here's UFO #4.  This is not SO old.  I think it was just last summer that I taught this "Split Nine Patch" at the Local Quilting Store.  This is the completion (well the blocks are all finished) of the blocks I made as samples demonstrating the method.  I had to finish up three more blocks to make the 4 x 3 setting.  This was the project yesterday at Shirl's Girls.  At the end of the afternoon I laid it out for inspection.  BIG SURPRISE!  I had made 13 blocks.  I guess the 13th block is the beginning of another quilt.  This needs to be sewed together and a border added.  Then layered and quilted and it will be finished.  Hope to do that by the end of next week.  Should work since the town quilting groups meets on Tuesday.

One last thing to show for the past week: a sock and 2/3:

These are the socks promised at the quilting group Christmas party.  The woman who received the certificate chose the yarn.  The picture is a little dark, but my iPhoto is iffy so I don't dare fuss with it.  I'll finish the second sock by Tuesday when the group meets and Lola receives her "made to measure" socks.