Edible Adventures III

"Next to jazz music, there is nothing that lifts the spirit and strengthens the soul more than a good bowl of chili." -Harry James




You know that feeling you get, on a rainy but comfortable Sunday afternoon, when you're just ready for some comfort food? That is the feeling I had on Sunday when I got the idea to make some homemade chili and cornbread. I'd never made chili before, and I'm always up for making new things. So -- we did! 



The chili recipe I found was beyond easy. (The hard part was the hour-long grocery store trip to get all of the ingredients.) We got home, threw everything back into the pot, and let it simmer for an hour and half or so. We did make a few changes: we added a little more tomato sauce, used only one can of kidney beams, and replaced garlic salt for garlic powder.  

As the chili simmered on the stove, I went to make the cornbread. Here's a hint: check your materials before going to the store. I pulled out the cornmeal, and let's just say, uh, it would have 'bugged' me to use it. (BLECH!) After I went to the store, I proceeded to make some homemade honey cornbread. Oh. My. Goodness. This dinner was so tasty! The chili had a wonderful blend of sweet and spicy (I thank the Chipotle Salsa we chose!) and the bread was divine. Aaron says, "This bread isn't good, it's downright delicious!" 

You can't have a wonderful dinner like this without a tasty dessert. We had a whole mess of left-over baby carrots, so I thought I could make carrot cupcakes. I decided I wanted to try a new and different carrot cake recipe, so I found a recipe for maple carrot cupcakes. The recipe was very simple, and I was very excited to have been able to yield far more than the 18 cupcakes suggested (including a few mini-cupcakes, aren't they cute?) My only change was that the frosting recipe included was not quite sweet enough... so I just added a little bit of powdered sugar to taste. Viola! Great tasting cupcakes.