This quick dish was a staple around my house when my mom was too busy with school. It's great when you need to throw together something warm in almost no time at all, and it works with ingredients you can keep around forever. It even works in the summer, so long as it's not too hot to use the stove.
The last weekend before we got married we had recently bought all sorts of fun beans and spices. Debbie had been stressing out, and wasn't as hungry as a proper adult should be on a weekend. So I did my best to sneak some food past her lack of appetite; she still wanted to fit in her dress.
When I was moving into my own apartment at college, my mom gave me a few of her recipes to not only ensure I didn't starve, but also that I could have a bit of home with me. I'm glad she did. This chili recipe was a wonderfully easy recipe to start with, and one I've modified over the years to suit my changing tastes. Everyone who makes chili has their own favorite recipe for their own favorite reasons. Here's the one I grew up with.
Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, my family would often get a yummy treat from Lou Malniti's. After learning to cook during my time at college, I decided to expand my horizons from mostly stir-fry to include some baking. At first I tried to bake this one at a time on our gas grill. It's possible, and I'll talk about it a bit below. But I eventually settled on waiting for the cool of autumn, or the chill of winter, and baking two of these at a time in the oven.
The first night of summer the year we got engaged, Debbie and I ate dinner with my dad and his girlfriend at Seasons 52. It's an upscale joint with some marvelous seasonal dishes. Along with dinner, we had a small vegetable dish called Organic Tomato Tapenade. The aromas and flavors of this dish stuck with us long enough that we had to try making our own.
Have you ever tried quinoa? It's a low-carb, grain-like alternative to rice, packed with complete protein (meaning that it contains all nine essential amino acids) and nutrients. We've used both red and the traditional white before. For this dish, we used equal parts red and white for a fun mix.
You might notice a trend among our recipes this summer. We bought a share in a CSA, and we've continued to get interesting combinations of vegetables and fruit every week since sometime back in May. This week we received some corn and some ripe peaches and decided to make a quick salad out of them.
This is a quick lunch salad we threw together one early afternoon. We were getting hungry in Trader Joe's and happened across a package of ready-to-eat steamed lentils in the produce section. It has some salt, so we didn't add any to the dish ourselves. If you steam lentils from scratch, you may want to season them.
Serves 2-3 as a main dish, 4-6 as a side.
