Chili Makes Everything Better

DIDN'T YOU ALREADY POST A CHILI RECIPE?!?!?!?!

Yes, and it is so good that I am posting it again.

Every time I make chili on Sundays in the fall there is always a guarantee of winning. Sure, I am a Browns fan and my team is horrible. However, when you get a chance to cook up some chili on a cold day in October - it doesn't matter how bad your team is.

Here's the recipe,

1lb ground beef (cook until browned)
1 cup Green Bell Pepper chopped small
1 cup red onion chopped small
1-2 TBS Garlic Minced

Cook ingriedients together until onions and green peppers become tender then put into large pot.

28-30 of red kidney beans OR chili beans
28-30 oz of diced tomatoes
32 oz of tomato sauce
5-6 TBS Chili powder

pour above ingriedients into large pot with ground beef, peppers and onions.

Cook at medium heat for 40 minutes.

Add hot chili pepper sauce or any of you favorite spicey ingriedients to give it more heat.

Potato Soup - My Saturday Football Tradition

I don't make it every Saturday in the fall, but once college football starts and the temperature starts to dip into the 50s - you will see my favorite soup simmering on the stove.



Here's the recipe -

• 5-7 medium/large potatoes (peeled and cut into small, cookable pieces)


• 1 medium onion (red or white) - diced


• Combine potato and onion in one pot


• Fill pot with water only until potatos are just covered


• 6-9 Regular Chicken Boulion cubes (Drop in potato pot)

Rue/Cream (KEY TO THE SOUP)

• 2 Tablespoons Butter


• 2 Tablespoons Flour


• 2 Cups Milk

• I usually melt the butter first and then add the milk and flour. Make sure you use a small whisk to stir the cream until it thickens. Be careful not to burn the flour onto the bottom of the pan (constant slow stirring should prevent this).

Pour the cream into the soup pot and stir occasionally until potatoes are soft (this usually takes 45 minutes).

Add some shreded cojack cheese or pieces of french bread for more delicious caloric beauty.

Roast Beef Sandwich Is Better Coach Than Mangini

As a Browns fan, you can usually bet on finding my screaming at my television on Sunday afternoons in the fall. However, yesterday during a 31 point loss to Baltimore (34-3) I found myself laughing at the futility of my favorite team. I knew we were going to lose, it wasn't really a surprise... but 34-3?! For the first time in a long time (something like 19 years) I envy Bengals fans.

Cleveland's new coach, Eric Mangini has proven to be a disciplinarian without any proven positive result from said discipline. He has fined players thousands of dollars for parking in the wrong spot or having a phone ring during team meetings. How can anyone think that fining a professional athlete for that type of conduct will result in anything but animosity? His players make millions of dollars a year and he thinks that fining them for stupid things like this will make a difference? They probably give him a gratuity on top of their fine - I would. Then I would ask for a trade.

I wanted the Browns to hire Jon Gruden since they fired Romeo "I'm thinkin' Arbys' Crennel" after last season. Now I just want Mangini gone - replace him with a roast beef sandwich and the Browns will win more games.

*Rant Over*

Can't wait to talk about food next time.

Wheat Flour = More Water

Last night I made pizza from scratch. I decided early on in the process, "If I have wheat flour I am going to use it... why not?"

When I put the dry ingredients together (flour, salt, sugar and non-dissolving yeast) I started to wonder if 1.5 cups of water would be enough with 1 TBSP of olive oil to get the dough into pizza form.

Nope.

While I imagine white flour would have been fine with 1.5 cups, the wheat flour was simply too heavy. I have a feeling this is a universal quality of wheat flour, so next time you bake with it keep in mind that you may need to use a bit more water to get the desired consistency.

The special part about this pizza was that it wasn't just that it looked tasty. The pizza was downright delicious and good for you to boot! What were the toppings?

Sliced artichoke hearts, sliced tomatoes and black olives on mozzarella cheese and red sauce.

I wish I had taken a picture, simply because it looked that awesome.

Oh, and apparently there is a new type of yeast that doesn't require reacting/dissolving in water in order to make rising dough. It blew my mind.

And for the record, the pizza tasted great!

Football Fans Unite - 'Tis The Season!

After seeing both my Browns and Buckeyes go down in flames this weekend I realized one thing. I love football.

Not that I didn't know this before, but damn... the fans, the noise, the intensity, joy and pain all come together for a few hours every weekend during the fall.

The Browns and Buckeyes were both supposed to lose their respective games this weekend. So I wasn't really too disappointed when they performed as predicted.

My favorite play of Week 1 (of the NFL season) has to be the end of the Bengals/Broncos game.

After taking the lead with 38 seconds left in the game - Cincinnati pinned the Broncos 80 yards from the endzone and 40 yards from field goal range. This is what happened:

Even if you don't like football, you have to admit... This is amazing.

The Secret to Great Chili

Like every other person that cooks chili, I think mine is the best. Granted, it is an adaptation from a cookbook - this is what I do every couple weeks during the football season.

For the record, chili is for NFL Games (Sundays). College games (Saturdays) are specifically reserved for potato soup. You will all get a glimpse of that golden jewel of a recipe in one of my next entries.

My Gameday Chili

Part 1

1. Ground Beef - 1 lb
2. Red Onion - 1 medium/large minced
3. Green Pepper - 1 large minced
4. Garlic - 2 Tbsp minced

COOK THE ABOVE IN A LARGE PAN AFTER BROWNING THE MEAT

Part 2

1. Diced Tomatoes - 1 (one) 28 oz can
2. Chili/Kidney Beans - 2 (two)14 oz cans
3. Tomato Sauce - 2 (two) 14 oz cans
4. Chili Powder - 4 Tbsp (add more to your taste... I tend to add more) make sure it's enough to make your chili a shade darker.
   

Cook all of this to a quick boil and turn down the heat to simmer until you are ready to eat it.

If you are a big football fan, you should start this process around 11:30 am (EST) and it should be ready by 1 pm (kickoff).

Otherwise, just plan on about 60-90 minutes more or less if your meat is frozen.

Baseball Is Dead

It used to be the American Past-time. Now it is simply past it's time. Baseball was my favorite sport as a kid. While Ken Griffey Jr. is still my favorite athlete of all time, I am struck by the downfall of baseball as a whole.

Don't believe me?

1. Which team has the best record in baseball?
2. Who won the World Series last year?
3. Who leads the Major Leagues in home runs this season?

I think the saddest part about all of this is that it really makes the steroid era look like the best time in baseball.

Not that I wish steroids would make a come-back (it's not like they really left anyway). I just wish there was a reason to care about baseball. At least it's football season now, basketball starts in two months and baseball will be over in November.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the answers to my little quiz.

1. Yankees
2. Phillies
3. Albert Pujols (Probably the best pure hitter in baseball)

Hummus - I'm Not Scared Anymore

One of the most frightening foods in the world. It is also one of the most typical foods used to describe hippies or health nut women (other than granola).

My wife and I decided to partake in our local Mediterranean cuisine - Restaurant Salaam, in Athens, Ohio. I must say, it was one of the best dining experiences I have ever had. Our server/waiter, Matteo kicked ass, keeping up with my ridiculous water/tea consumption and describing the dishes he was bringing us.

The first thing we ordered was an appetizer platter that included hummus and baba ganousch with four dolmas (think egg roll with grape leaf replacing the egg).

Hummus had been on my 'to do' list for awhile. I decided to try some on the delicious house bread. As I spread the hummus on the bread I could almost feel my inner-ten year old soul screaming "It looks so gross!". Fortunately, I was able to keep focus and open my mind...and mouth to try this mysterious goo.

It was downright tasty. I would compare it to something in-between the texture of cream of wheat, with a taste that is all its own. I wish I could continue to describe the hummus for those of you that are scared to even look at it on a menu. If you have never had hummus, I highly suggest you cut some french bread into 1/2 inch slices and spread some hummus and get ready to experience food liberation!

Olive Oil, Hot Sauce and Sports - Three Things I Can't Live Without

As I was cooking spaghetti for dinner the other day, I realized that Olive Oil is one of the sole components of my cooking. Not that I put it in my morning cereal (although, I have been tempted... not really) but good lord, can you think of anything other than perhaps butter that can be so readily used in cooking almost anything? Next time you throw some pasta together, pour a tablespoon of Olive Oil in the water before you bring it to a boil. You can thank me later.

Tonight I realized that the other magical addition to food is hot sauce. Some people 'don't like' spicy food or anything 'too hot'. The problem is that they just don't know what they like. There are so many different types of hot sauce in the world that you are bound to find something that won't kill you or put hair on some strange part of your body (unless you actually want it there).

Here are some things to put hot sauce on -

• Hamburgers (combine it with your usual toppings and maybe even a little BBQ sauce)
  
• Hotdogs (Ketchup and Hot Sauce is amazing...don't use too much of either)
• Spaghetti
• Mexican food (green jalapeno hot sauce is usually my choice)
• Popcorn (don't use too much)
• Use your imagination... Pizza is also another good option for hot sauce

I grew up playing baseball, football and basketball. I was obsessed with reading the sports page by the age of 7. Say what you want about the value of sports, jocks and their usefulness in the world - there are a lot of people out there even crazier about sports than I am. Especially if you consider NASCAR a sport.
There is something about sports that brings people together and sets them apart at the same time. Ohio State and Michigan - one of the greatest if not the greatest rivalries in college football is evidence of how much sports means to people on a wider level than a simple 'sports thing'. It is regional, it is cultural and it is part of every nation in the world from soccer to curling and even... NASCAR.

Salsa and Pre-Season Football

When my wife and I drove up to my parents house for my dad's 50th birthday a few days ago it seemed like a simple enough task. Make some hot salsa, have a surprise party, watch Browns game on TV.
The party and the Browns game (finally) went well. The salsa was great for the most part.
The Salsa
My mom was awesome enough to hook us up with all the things we needed to make the salsa. I am a fan of spicy food, so I went ahead and started to cut up some jalapeno peppers for my salsa. The immediate reaction from my wife and mother was that I was putting perrhaps, too much jalapeno in my concoction. Since I was making enough salsa for 12 jars (we were canning it all, as well), I figured they knew better than I would, so I didn't add more peppers.
For the record, my salsa tastes good, it is a great consistency and there is plenty to go around. The problem is that it was not spicy enough with just 3-4 jalapenos. I suggest 7-10 jalapenos and 3-5 habenero peppers for those that love spicy salsa. Don't forget the lime juice, fresh cilantro and other great salsa ingredients.

The Game
Am I the only one that doesn't completely hate the NFL Pre-Season? Other than being a die-hard Cleveland Browns fan, the pain my team puts me through every year is nothing compared to the pain of no football.
Romeo Crennel is gone, Eric Mangini has taken over and the Browns actually scored an offensive touchdown, albeit against the Lions. Semantics!