Recipe of the Week Blog Hop - Creamy White Chili

This week's recipe was made by my sister in law, Aimee. We take turns meeting at each other's houses on Friday night for supper and Sabbath worship. This past Friday, Aimee made this Creamy White Chili soup. I am going to share the original recipe and then put what Aimee changed to it. She made it all vegan, so if you are vegan or trying to become vegan, this will be perfect for you to try!

Creamy White Chili
Cookbook: A Taste of Home

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (Aimee left this out to be completely vegetarian)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs  canola oil
2 cans of northern beans, rinsed and drained (Aimee added 3 cans)
1 can of chicken broth (Aimee used 2 cans of vegan/vegetarian chicken flavored seasoning in water)
2 cans of chopped chilies (Aimee just used 1 can, we have people who don't like spicy food)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup sour cream (Aimee used Tofutti vegan sour cream)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (Aimee used a combination of tofu and rice milk, see below for recipe)

In a large saucepan, saute the chicken, onion and garlic powder in oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add the beans, broth, chilies and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in sour cream and cream.

Vegan Heavy Cream
1 pkg of silken soft tofu
1/4 rice milk

Combine both ingredients in a blender and blend until thick, like a heavy cream. If you need to add more rice milk to get the desired consistency, you can.

Now it's your turn to link up! Share your recipes below. Please include a button or a link back to my blog. Please only link up if you are posting a recipe, all other blogs will be deleted if they do not include a recipe. The link up will be open until Tuesday evening at 11:59pm. Looking forward to seeing some delicious recipes!

Happy cooking!

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Jaded?

My daughter had a great tryout for her club soccer team this morning. Her grade school team won round 1 of their playoffs with the semifinals and championship tomorrow. This morning, Newcastle lost to Everton, 2-1, but the game was thrilling right up to the last.

I just perused my favorite political blogs. Meh. Driving around, I listened to the first 25 minutes of the Ricochet podcast before turning it off to listen to Journey to the Center of the Earth.

My conclusion: Real life is more fun than politics.

The Sonoma Cookbook Club

In the last week I have had two evenings of great food fun. Both are great ideas which need to be shared and passed around—as all good ideas should be. They originated with Kristin Viguerie of Sonoma’s Junipero and Company, a store that specializes in antique kitchen equipment, new and used cookbooks and food products from around the Napa and Sonoma Wine Country. The first is the Sonoma Cookbook Club and the second (in the blog to follow) is the Junipero Cooking Club.

Last Saturday night eight of us gathered at the Sonoma home of two of our members for a southern-inspired meal based on our cookbook of the month Frank Stitt’s Southern Table, a gorgeous coffee table-sized book which offers up mouth-watering recipes. This group has been getting together once a month for the last four months at each other’s houses for dinner and discussion of the chosen book, among other things. So far we’ve used Anne Willan’s Country Cooking of France, Christine Hanna’s The Winemaker Cooks, and The Silver Spoon, a comprehensive book of Italian cooking. For March I’ve suggested the three cookbooks of Indian food by Raghavan Iyer which I mentioned in a blog a while back.

The host or hostess chooses the cookbook and cooks the main dish and the rest of us chime in with what we would like to contribute. We try to encourage some balance in the dinner, which worked particularly well this last time.

All of our dinners have been fantastic and Saturday night was no exception.

We began with Miss Verba’s Pimiento Cheese with celery sticks, Tapenade, and Spiced Pecans.

Our composed first course was Asparagus with Farm Eggs, and Ham Hock Vinaigrette.

A second course was Fish with Citrus Vinaigrette on a bed of rice.

Our main course was Basque-Style Chicken with Peppers and a lovely Spoonbread, prepared, as is our custom, by the host or hostess.

Autumn Salad with Spiced Pecans, Pears, and Gorgonzola Cheese followed.

Our dessert was Bourbon Panna Cotta with Pecan Sandies. I chose this recipe partially because it required me to caramelize sugar, a cooking trick that I have shied away from. Boiling hot syrup scares me to death. But I did it, survived and was quite pleased by my accomplishment.

We each carried home a small wax paper bag of Macaroons and Oatmeal Cookies.

Eight is about the right number. The group’s only “rule” is that everyone who comes to the meal has to make something to contribute. If more people were involved, the number of dishes would be overwhelming and we would end up stuffed like little piglets. We each bring a bottle of wine but fortunately don’t consume them all. If we did, we would be tipsy and stuffed little piglets.

So isn’t this a great way to try new cookbooks, experiment with cooking recipes or exploring new cuisines, and then have a wonderful dinner with old and new friends?

Little Nathan

A glimpse as to what our future child might look like. My husband is still that cute!

Blogging Will Be Light Today

Coffee and Newcastle v. Everton (Go Newcastle!) on the telly this morning followed by club soccer tryouts for my daughter this morning and a soccer playoff game for her grade school this afternoon. It's a very football day!