"What the hell, Cleveland?"-Style Chili

Welcome back to Balls and Pie after our Holidays/January-sort-of-sucks hiatus. What can I say? January sort of sucked.

"Lake Effect Saab"

So, Cleveland. What the hell? This happening to my car between lunch and 3 PM is not cool. Yeah. 10 inches of snow overall in 6 hours. Don't bother looking in the National Weather Service archives for records, because according their official station at the airport, it didn't snow in Cleveland that day. True Story.

Fortunately, I had my go-to remedy for this weather non-event: Good, simple Chili. Despite today's title, there's actually nothing special about it. And besides, as you should well as know, the best chili in these parts comes from elsewhere in the Buckeye State.

This is a pretty straightforward recipe I've adapated from what Mom taught me years back. For those of you keeping track, it's from the "Hot, Brown, and lots of it" school of cooking.

Potato Latkes

Hope everybody had a fun Hannukah! While the festival of lights is probably less important holiday than Hallmark would have you believe, it's a favorite for many, and is notable for my favorite traditional jewish food: Potato Latkes. They're easy, and while everybody's grandmother has her own special recipe, they are uniformly delicious. Here's how made mine this year:

Andouille and Cornbread Stuffing

As promised, here's one of my all time thanksgiving favorites: Andouille and Cornbread Stuffing (provided by the good people at epicurious). Mom found this recipe about 15 years back, and I haven't let a thanksgiving go by without it. Even two days before Balls' wedding, when his mother-in-law was hosting most of the wedding party for a traditional thanksgiving dinner. It''s stuffing, and it has two kinds of pig in it, what's not to like?

Courtesy Wikicommons.

So, it's pretty straightforward. First of all, make sure you have good Andouille. Good Andouille is really important to me in general. It should be well spiced, heavily smoked (and you should be able to tell by looking at it), and coarsely ground. You should be able to see be able to see chunks of pork in the sausage. Look at the pretty picture to the right, and you'll see what I mean. I try to go to my local market for fresh Andouille made by local butchers, but in a pinch, Aidell's sausages are easy to find at supermarkets and makes decent tasting dishes.

The Thanksgiving that kept on giving.

The Balls and Pie family was fortunate to spend a nice, quiet Thanksgiving together in a cozy cabin outside of Hamilton, MT. We were more fortunate to sit back and have our Thanksgiving catered by Executive Chef Toby McCracken. It went something like this: At around 3:30 thanksgiving day, food starting showing up at our door. Enough salad for 10 people. Brocolini and squash for 10. Turkey for 15. And then for good measure, roast Ham for about 10. Similar quantities of cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, warm rolls, butter, gravy, stuffing. Then, the hors d'oeuvres show up: a cheese plate including brie, smoked bacon cheddar, and pepper jack, a sorpressata and prosciutto plate, vegetable crudités, and orzo with poached shrimp.

And pumpkin and pecan pies. 

There were five of us. And a baby.

Housekeeping

Just a couple odds and ends before the Balls and Pie family thanksgiving retreat:

First, thanks to everybody for checking us out and supporting us so far. More to come on our excellent friends.

Second, keep an eye out on the recipes pages, where copies/links of all the great (and not so great) things we make and like and come with will be cataloged. We'll get it cleaned up and cross referenced soon.

And lastly, I wanted to point you at a couple excellent places in particular:

Brussel Sprouts Can Be Good?

This is what I discovered when I was out at Avalon Restaurant last winter. Of course, the brussel sprouts were fried, which in my mind equals delicious, but still, I was surprised. Recently, I tried to make them at home with very tasty results. The recipe is simple enough that even Brian could handle it, without burning the house down this time. It has replaced asparagus as my go-to side vegetable. Seriously, check out how easy this recipe is below.

I know, I know, they look kinda ugly, but try them and you won't be sorry!

Thanks to Amanda for the Sweet Logo