Happy Food Fun to You!

This week brought our first snow of the season.  It didn’t last but it did snow, so I had to follow my annual tradition of chili and cornbread for dinner.

I realized I can’t even stick to my own recipe and had to add a couple new ingredients this year.  I am still in a molasses obsession, so when I went into the pantry to get my spices I couldn’t resist the molasses.  And, to go along with it the cocoa was calling me.  I added about a tablespoon of each to the recipe.

My cornbread had another new ingredient; caramelized onions.  My intention was to top the chili with the cooked onions instead of raw.  Although, while I was cooking them the cornbread batter was sitting next to the stove,  I saw the two and had to mix them.  They were sweet onions, sauteed in lard and butter with garlic.  Then I topped them with the cornbread mix and baked. I am happy with how it turned out.

Chicken is always in the menu at some point during the week. This week, well it was twice.  First was an easy chicken alfredo with pasta. And yes, I made it really easy by using a jar of alfredo sauce.  I know, I know….  one of these weeks I will perfect my own recipe, this was not the week for that.  Of course I had to add garlic, fresh herbs and topped with parmesan cheese. Second dish was bbq chicken in the crock pot.  I sadly ran out of garlic, so I had to use powdered garlic with the bbq sauce. It still turned out good, if I had no garlic at all I think I would have had to come up with something else to make.  And yes, that is bbq sauce on the mac and cheese,  I can’t help it.

My food fun finale for the week – Pork Chops

Sadly this really is the finale for pork chops, at least for now since it was the last pack in the freezer.
My change up this week with the sauce was deglazing the pan with red wine instead of white.  I had fresh mushrooms, and the heavier base sounded good to me.  When I put the soup mix into the pan to mix with the reduced red wine sauce my mouth seriously started to water.  At that point I knew it would be good, although the torture of waiting another 30 minutes to eat would be difficult.  I like the flavor onions add when cooking, since my family likes the flavor, although not eating them I get them all.

Enjoy the fun of food!