Fighting Chilly with Chili

Winter rages on here in Indiana, so we decided to try out a new recipe (number four for this year!) and make a big pot of chili. This was a good way to feed everyone when we took a break from working on installing light fixtures this past weekend. I made a few changes (including adapting it to a crock pot), but mostly kept the original recipe, found here on Allrecipes, intact.

The Recipe

Boilermaker Tailgate Chili

2 lbs Ground Beef

1 lb Ground Sausage

3 Cans Chili Beans, Drained - 15 oz. Each

1 Can Chili Beans in Spicy Sauce - 15 oz.

2 Cans Diced Tomatoes with Juice - 28 oz. Each

1 Can Tomato Paste - 6 oz.

1 Large Yellow Onion

3 Stalks Celery

1 Green Bell Pepper

1 Red Bell Pepper

2 Green Chile Peppers

1 Tablespoon Bacon Bits

4 Cubes Beef Bouillon

1/2 Cup Beer

3 Tablespoons Chili Powder

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

3 Cloves Garlic

1 Tablespoon Dried Oregano

2 Teaspoons Ground Cumin

2 Teaspoons Hot Sauce

1 Teaspoon Dried Basil

1 Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

1 Teaspoon Paprika

1 Teaspoon White Sugar

Start by prepping all your vegetables - chop your onion and celery; seed and chop your bell peppers and chile peppers; mince your garlic. Once you're done with that brown your meat (ground beef and sausage) in a pan on the stove until cooked through. Now take your meat out of the pan, leaving a little bit of the juices from the meat. Turn up the heat a little and saute your veggies (all but the garlic) in the meat juices, seasoning with salt and pepper. Then add your garlic in for the last minute or so of cooking. Once they're done add them, along with the meat, to your crock pot and add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for at least two hours before serving.

End Results and Final Thoughts

This turned out well, but I don't think I'll make it quite the same way again. I dialed down the spice because I wasn't sure how spicy everyone would want it. The original recipe calls for an added tablespoon of chili powder, but instead I just had chili powder on the side so people could add more if they wanted. Next time I would up the spice. I'd use a spicy sausage, add the full amount of chili powder, use more potent chiles (maybe a habanero or two instead of jalapenos), and add more hot sauce (I used Sriracha instead of something like Tabasco because that's what was on hand). Also, real bacon would be a welcomed addition. In one of the reviews on the original recipe someone said they fried up bacon and then sauteed the veggies in some of the bacon fat - sounds like a good plan to me.

Another thing I did differently was that, after combining everything in the crock pot, I didn't simmer it but instead stuck it in the fridge and then put it on the heat the next day while we worked on light fixtures. I let it simmer for about six hours, which gave the flavors plenty of time to develop. We served this with chopped onions, cheddar cheese, hot sauce, corn chips, and chili powder on the side so people could add per their tastes. Leslie also made a pan of cornbread that goes great with chili, especially when drizzled with some fine maple syrup or honey. It really hit the spot and was a good break from working for us all. We will be making this again, but probably with some of the changes I mentioned.

Let There Be Lights!

Switch outlets... convenient sometimes, but usually just silly. One of the fun quirks of our house is that there were no overhead light fixtures in any of the bedrooms. They had instead wired a receptacle in each room to a switch. This is useful to turn on a lamp upon entering the room, but not so great when you have to plug an alarm clock into that same outlet. Or if you want a little more light in the room than a small lamp can provide. The solution to this problem? Add overhead light fixtures! So I called in the dream team (my dad and grandpa) for support and we got to work.

I took a half day off work on Friday and they came down around 11:00 to start work. Luckily for us, the way the house was wired had the power coming first to the switch instead of going to the outlet. It wouldn't have been a huge deal had it been different, but this did make it a little easier to wire. We basically only had to mess with the wires in the switch box instead of both there and at the receptacle. (Take a look at these diagrams if you're wondering how that all works.)

We started by laying out where we wanted the fixtures (this was, of course, the center of the bedrooms... what do you think we are, animals?), finding all the necessary locations in the attic (where the wires to the switches entered the walls, mainly), and picking up supplies from the Lowe's down the street. The next part of the process was drilling holes in the headers above the switch locations and running wire (we matched the exiting 14-2 Romex) down to the switch boxes. This wire would then be tied into the switch and ran over to the location of the soon to be installed fixture boxes. To install the fixture boxes we stuck a screwdriver through the ceiling where we had marked the center of the rooms and then found that location in the attic. We then cleared the insulation from the area, traced the fixture box on the ceiling, cut out the opening with a drywall saw, and then installed the box with a 2x4 and screws. Amazingly enough we didn't really have any trouble with our proposed locations ending up right under ceiling joists or anything like that. We made really good time and got all the boxes installed, with wire pulled to them and everything, before dinner (but more on dinner later... that's another post).

Wire through the header down to the switch

New fixture box installed

Wire pulled through the new fixture box (hasn't been trimmed yet)

But wait, there's more! We have four bedrooms, but installed five boxes... why's that? We added a special light over the stairs too! After dinner on Friday we worked on getting that fun thing installed. This meant more fun times on ladder for me (I don't like ladders... I had a bad experience). The setup on this was a little different than the others. The fixture box was basically like the others, but instead of running wire down to one of the switches, we just connected in an existing fixture box already in the hall. This worked because we just wanted the light to come on with the other hall lights. But while that part was easier, the light fixture install itself was also a little more challenging, mainly because it's heavy and I was standing on a ladder. Love it. But hey, we got it installed and it looks glorious! (This really does add a lot of light to the stairs, it's not as dark as the pictures look - I just took them that way so you could see the fixture better. Also, the cords are a little crimped right now, but they'll straighten out from the weight of the lights.)

My dad and grandpa stayed over that night and we continued work the next day (after a nice breakfast and a trip to Sam's Club). We got all the fixtures installed in no time - we bought a ceiling fan for our bedroom and then three of the same fixture for the other bedrooms - and my dad and grandpa headed home around 11:00am. That means we installed five new overhead lights where there were no lights before in less that 24 hours. Plus we took a nice break for dinner, went out for breakfast, went shopping, and did a few other small tasks. Talk about a productive day! (I did go back later with a can of spray foam and seal things up a bit, along with spreading the insulation back into the areas we had cleared it from. Definitely a good thing to do.)

The lights look great and we love being able to flip a switch to light up the rooms. It was a lot of work, and definitely not something that I would dream of attempting alone, but everything went smoothly and it was well worth the results.

New Furniture

Jeremy and I purchased a few new big furniture items for the house that we are so excited about! We've been talking about getting a leather recliner and a new kitchen table for what seems like ages. This past weekend we took advantage of the President's Day sales and bought these two things! Miraculously, we were able to get them both delivered this week, which, along with the delivery of our repaired couch (Kittle's had to take it back to repair a defective back rail), made for quite an eventful week.

We are enjoying our (well, it's really Jeremy's) new chair a lot. It's so comfortable, and it's nice to have something that reclines for those Sunday afternoon naps. The cats also love it, which is a plus.

Our new table can seat up to eight! It's really exciting going from a four seats maximum all the way up to an eight seat maximum, with six seats full time. It has a leaf that folds into the table, which means we don't have to store random wooden boards around the house. This table came at the perfect time too - Jeremy's parents and grandpa are coming today to help us with our next project and we will all be able to sit everyone at the same table for dinner!

It starts with six chairs...

...then you open the middle...

...pull up the magic table leaf...

...get it set and push it back together...

...and now you have room for eight!

Laundry Room Update

Last week, I had a sudden "aha" moment - we could change out the hardware on the laundry room cabinets! We are hoping to change out the kitchen hardware this spring, and I had not thought about the laundry room. Thank you Pinterest for reminding me that weird antique bronze/rust hinges and pulls are not cool right now.

What seemed to me to be a simple project actually turned a little more crazy and involved a lot more new holes in our cabinets! We picked out new hinges and handles in a satin nickel finish to match what we have picked out for the kitchen. There were no pre-existing handles on these cabinets, so we made a template for the placement of the holes. Jeremy then predrilled holes (which is always a good idea so that the wood doesn't crack and it's easier to put in the new screws) and we attached the handles!

The complicated part came with the hinges. They are the same style as the old ones: a partial overlay; the hinge attaches on the inside of the door and cabinet, but part of it sticks outside of the door so you can see it. However, the existing holes didn't exactly line up with the new ones. Our old hinges attached with one screw, but the new ones attach with two.

We attached the hinges to the doors first, and then I held up the door against the cabinet so Jeremy could attach the hinge to the cabinet. This was more difficult than I thought it would be, as we had to make sure the door was going back in the same spot as before and the doors were all even. We got this done in about two hours and it looks so good! I am glad we tackled this small area before the kitchen as we have a better idea of all the work we'll have to do. It's definitely worth it though - even small changes dramatically change a space!

Freeeezer

Even though I just spend the last post talking about how cold it is outside, that doesn't mean it's silly for me to talk about bringing a device into our home that makes things cooler. Right?

We've been wanting a chest freezer for awhile. Our fridge is great, but the freezer drawer thingy isn't huge. I grew up accustomed to having - in addition to veggies, frozen pizzas, homemade applesauce, strawberries, and ice cream - a side of beef in the garage freezer. Steaks, hamburger, pot roast, you name it! And all so conveniently accessible. The meat was also usually raised by my grandparents, so we knew it was local and responsibly raised (aka hipster approved). So I'm a little spoiled because of all of this... but that doesn't mean it's wrong! And beyond the benefits of being able to store massive amounts of animal flesh close at hand, it will also be nice to keep premade meals, frozen fruit, ice cream, and ridiculous numbers of freeze pops. You know, the essentials.

Luckily for us, we managed to score a freezer for free from one of my coworkers. Somehow it came up in conversation at work that he had an old freezer that he didn't need and just wanted to get rid of. I offered to take it off his hands and ended up getting it for free. It's a little older and beat up, but you can't beat free! Plus we were looking for one anyway. If this one happens to die in a year it's not a big deal - we'll just buy a new one like we were planning on anyway.

This freezer had been sitting empty and unused for awhile, so we let it air out for a few days. Then we (and by that I mean Leslie because she's awesome) cleaned it out with some soap and water. And now it's good as new used!

Leslie has been looking through Pinterest and recipe books to find a bunch of recipes we can make and freeze. We'll hopefully have a weekend in the near future where we prepare a bunch of things and then freeze them for a rainy day. One of the things I'm most looking forward to is making pesto cubes this summer. But that's a different post.

Thanks for reading and have a happy Valentine's Day!

Surviving the Cold

I'm sure we aren't the only ones who are getting tired of the polar vortex wreaking havoc on us. But luckily, while temperatures continue to dip into the negative numbers with alarming regularity, we've been bundled up and cozy at home (we're also extremely happy to have an attached garage during weather like this). While we've spent many evenings cuddled up in front of the TV, we have managed to get out and do a few things in the past few weeks too. No cabin fever for us!

A few weekends ago we participated in Devour Downtown, the event Indianapolis hosts twice yearly. We went with some of our friends (one of the many couples whose wedding we have the privilege of attending this year) and enjoyed a nice evening of conversation and delicious food at BARcelona Tapas (yes, the same place Leslie and I went last time). It was a fun time - but really, how could it not be?

Earlier this week we decided to have a game night, just the two of us. We ate some leftover finger food from the previous weekend's Super Bowl party and played Pretty Pretty Princess and Disney Trivial Pursuit. Leslie won the Disney game, of course, but I did manage to be a princess at least once. We even let Ellie wear the crown for second. She wasn't a fan.

One of the things we've been missing lately is our weekly trivia night. We used to go to a little bar near our apartment with some friends for a few drinks and a trivia contest. Our team usually did pretty well and it was always a good time just hanging out. But since we've moved we really haven't made it back but for a handful of times, and it sounds like many of the others that used to go regularly no longer do so. We decided to see if we could find anything like that closer to our house, and sure enough, there's trivia offered at some of the nearby bars and restaurants. We decided to check one out this past week and, while we didn't too well, had a great time. I don't think we'll do this every week, but will hopefully make it somewhat of a thing.

We've also had some guests to the house recently. Leslie got a chance to catch up with one of her best friends this past Saturday. They talked for hours about weddings (Leslie is in her wedding this summer), work, and everything else. We then had Leslie's parents, sister, and niece visit on Sunday. It was nice to catch up with all of them, plus it's pretty entertaining to have a two-year-old running around.

All the animals have been doing well. Ellie continues to be her royal self - often sitting on top of the kitchen cabinets, surveying her subjects (meaning us) and passing judgement. But while she often seems aloof, as cats usually are, she's still very sweet to us and even friendly to strangers. I don't think a night goes by where she doesn't spend the majority her time snuggled up on the foot of our bed. She loves to look out the windows and play with fuzzy toy mice around the house. Of course that's all when she's not napping in the chair in our bedroom.

Frank is a funny little guy and he continues to amuse us with his antics. Around the time of our trip to Disney with Leslie's family, Frank was diagnosed with luxating patellas, making it painful for him to jump and run. Our vet suggested that we wait and see how things go - as he gets older it could potentially worsen and need surgery or improve and no longer be an issue. Well, we're very happy to report that Frank is much more active these days. We assume his condition has improved quite a lot - he's tons more playful and has started running and jumping and playing all on his own. He loves to play with his big sister, lay around in the sun, or curl up in any box he can get his paws on. He has also developed a love of TV and will often jump up on the TV stand to attack things on screen. Luckily for him the cuteness factor outweighs how annoying it is to have half the show blocked by a ball of fur.

Leo is as energetic a puppy as they come. He loves to chase his ball, squeeky toys, and even just run around the backyard with a stick in his mouth. We try to take him on walks when it's above zero out, but even a decent size loop does little to tire him out. Even with as hyperactive as he is, he is still a very sweet little boy. Most of the time he wants nothing more than to cuddle up on one of our laps while he chews a rawhide or toy. He's a very quick learner and already knows a few tricks (it took him all of three tries in about a minute to learn "shake"). Plus, he's even picked up on things like getting his paws dried off after coming in from outside. As soon as I get the towel and call him over he comes running, sits down, offers his front paws for cleaning, and once they're done turns around and extends his back legs to be done. There's no doubt that he will be a very smart and obedient dog, even if he's a bit wild right now. But hey, he's only three months old.

And that does it for our little family. Hopefully you've been staying warm in this wintery weather. Thanks for reading and we'll see you Friday!

Spicing Up Breakfast (Or Dinner)

At this rate I don't think we're going to have a problem hitting twenty new recipes this year. Behold, recipe number three! The basic idea came from Dash of Savory, but we put our own spin on it (as usual).

The Recipe

Spicy Breakfast Cups

1 Can Biscuits

8 Eggs

1 Pound Chorizo

1 Cup Diced Onion

2 Cloves Garlic

Chopped Cilantro

Salt and Pepper

Shredded Cheese

Preheat oven to 400. Saute the onions in a pan with oil until tender. Add the chorizo and cook until browned. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside. Next, flatten each of the biscuits from the can and place into greased ramekins (or muffin tins), forming them up the sides as much as possible to make a cup. Spoon your chorizo/onion mixture into the cups, top it with an egg, then some cilantro, salt and pepper, and cheese. Put these in the oven and bake until the biscuit is golden brown and the egg whites are set (about 15 mins). Remove from the ramekin and top with a dollop of sour cream and/or a spoon full of salsa.

End Results and Final Thoughts

This was delicious. But of course it was, just look at that recipe! So many fun things all together - how could it be bad? We used Grands! Original Biscuits, a spicy chorizo we found at the store, and a "Taco" cheese mix. Really though, this can be made using about any combination of ingredients you would care to try. We wanted to go more of a spicy / Mexican route, hence the chorizo and cilantro. But other combos? Well, off the top of my head: ground turkey, sauteed spinach, and mozzarella cheese; thin-sliced ham and cheddar cheese; bacon, diced tomatoes, and provolone cheese; and Italian sausage, green peppers, and Havarti cheese. (And now I'll have to give these combos a try - good ideas, self!) One thing that we would do differently is maybe fill them a little less full. We didn't even try to take them out of the ramekin since it would most likely have resulted in a mess. But eating out of the ramekin wasn't hard, so this isn't a big deal - just something to consider. The only other thing is that these ended up being reasonably spicy. This was fine by me, but Leslie probably could have stood to have the heat turned down a few degrees. As a result, this wasn't overly breakfasty. Not that I couldn't have eaten it for breakfast, but it didn't make me feel like I was eating brinner, just that I was having a somewhat nontraditional (albeit delicious) dinner. So maybe if we're preparing these for a breakfast in the future we'll stick to more traditional fillings. We served this with some hash browns we mixed with the leftover chorizo - and they were practically good enough to be a meal themselves! Definitely a good dinner (or brinner?) for us.