Some Foodie Friday Thoughts

It's Friday!!! And it has been a long time since I last posted. Summer was busy of course, and it was really nice to get back into the school routine.

This past week has been a bit of an emotional one for me and all my friends at The Scrapping Turtle Pond. We lost one of our most beloved Turtles, the beautiful Laurie aka Elmo, passed away Monday night after a hard fought battle with liver cancer. I started my day Tuesday with a text from another dear friend about Laurie's passing. I knew it was coming, but still it was a shock, we all felt it was too soon, but it wasn't our choice. Laurie was ready and as she said, "I am good with it." The whole time she was sick she never complained, she never focused on the negative of her illness. She always had a smile or a hug for you. Tomorrow, Saturday, is her funeral, and I will be going along with a number of other Turtles. It is going to be a tough day for all of us, especially her family. I will post more later this weekend.

Now onto Foodie Friday. As most of my friends know I love food, I love to cook and try out new recipes and I am so lucky that Dave is the least picky eater that I know. He will eat pretty much anything. But he loves chili so I made a big batch Monday.

We usually get about 5 meals out of this and it freezes well, excellent for those days when you have a crazy day. This recipe I got years ago off the internet, I believe it was copykat.com. It makes a lot, I use a massive pot to make it in, but you can always cut the recipe in half. We like things with a kick here in our house, so you can adjust the seasoning to suit your taste, even cut out the cayenne completely if you can't handle any kind of spice. Also, mix it up a bit. Add more beans and less beef, or use ground turkey, chicken of veggie ground round. Make it your own.

WENDY'S CHILI

4 lbs ground beef

8 cups tomato juice (I use V8, gives a little extra flavour)

58 ounces Tomato puree

30 ounces canned Kidney beans, drained and rinsed

3 cups chopped onions

1 cup diced celery

1/2 cup diced green pepper

1/2 cup chili powder

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp garlic powder (I use a whole head of real minced garlic)

2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Brown the ground beef in a frying pan, drain. Put the drained beef and the remaining ingredients into a large pot. Cover the pot, let it simmer for 1 - 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes.

And then enjoy!!!