Slow Cooker Chili

Have you noticed I've been slightly MIA again? I hang my head in shame because already I haven't been able to keep up enough with my blog, editing it A LOT of work. More than even writing a book perhaps and to top it off, I decided to start another blog for my writing to keep my hopefully soon to be readers up to date on me. There's not much going on over there yet, but feel free to check it out here and please feel free to drop me a line saying so. I love hearing from all of you.

But let's get back to the important stuff...like food or better yet like that delicious bowl of chili I have pictured above. Truth be told a few years ago chili was not my thing, but it gradually grew on me. I was ultimately sold on chili when the husband and I had chili at Robinson's Tea Room, this unbelievable quaint and cute tea house in my area. I even got to do a restaurant review for them through Patch, a company I occasionally freelance for. It was a great experience and the owners there are just lovely, wonderful people. (See drinking tea brings out a new side of me using words like lovely and quaint!). Anyway, there chili is top notch, they have huge (tender) chunks of flank steak mixed in with chopped meat, jalapenos and beans making for an amazing bowl of chili. I wanted to replicate it and though mine was nowhere close to theirs, it was pretty darn good and we had leftovers for days!

Meatball Spiedini & PW's Mashed Potatoes

Have I mentioned how amazing The Pioneer Woman's recipes are? Seriously. If you want fool proof delicious down home cooking, PW is where it's at. Her stuff is amazing and after I made her mashed potatoes my husband looked at me and said not only were they the best mashed potatoes I've made ever, but that this was the only recipe I would be following from here on out. Let me state here that while I did use PW's recipe I made a bunch of changes to cut down on the fat, I'm sure her's were amazing but my waistline just couldn't justify that much butter.

I saw PW make this on her show and decided that I just had to make them, so I decided to pair them with another one of my favorite recipes - meatball spiedini. For those who are not familiar with spiedini and want to tell me that they look just like a meatball, I tell you that's pretty much what they are. Chicken spiedini, which is a recipe I will put up soon is essentially small pieces of chicken bread and skewered and then baked, meatball spiedini however at the end of the day still look like a meatball though they are a far cry from your grandmothers meatballs in sauce.

The taste however, is what sets them apart. They are delicious and paired with PW's mashed potatoes this is a recipe to celebrate. So much so that I forgot to make a vegetable that night or add a little color to my plate....but hey potatoes count..right?

Fried Tacos

I'm a big fan of tacos so I don't make the claim that this is the best taco you'll ever eat lightly. I found this recipe in a magazine my grandma subscribes to, thought it sounded interesting and tried it out and then something interesting happened....I was never able to look at tacos the same way ever again.

This recipe is simple but takes some time on the assembly and cooking portions of it. It is definitely worth the effort because the outcome is just delicious. In fact, whenever I tell my husband I am making tacos for dinner he always responds with "the good ones?" So I know he'll be thrilled to find out I am making them tonight.