Fall Comfort Food

Ahhhh….A crisp, windy autumn weekend calls for sweaters, scarves, hikes in the woods and comfort food! We wanted to share with you 2 of our favorite comfort food recipes. I use the term “recipe” loosely because neither Dave or I follow recipes exactly, but with this kind of food, it’s all good. You can add your own special touches to make it just the way you like it.

This first one was the chili recipe I made for the station chili cook-off. I got the recipe from my friend Karen and when company comes over, it’s super easy to throw in the crockpot. When I make it, I add whatever I feel like to it, because why wouldn’t I? Usually a can of black beans, extra sugar, another pound of ground turkey meat and some special seasoning – a sprinkle of McCormick’s smoked maple is nice on top after it’s simmered in the crockpot for a bit. I lost the station chili cook-off but I won my husband’s heart with this chili.

Tracey’s friend’s turkey chili recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey ( or 2 pounds)
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 cans of stewed tomatoes
• 2 cans kidney beans
• 1 can black beans
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder (or a lot more)

Brown the turkey and the onions, add the spices and then throw it all in the crockpot and cook nice and slow. Top with cheese and sour cream. Yummy!

Dave loves to make spaghetti for his family and apparently, he’s really good at it!  Dave’s daughter Emma calls him a “spaghetti genius”. Dave and Ava have 6 kids and 5 grandchildren( soon to be 6 grandchildren), and he is known as

Papa D. Catchy isn’t it? He could brand this recipe but Ragu might have issues with it. 

Papa D’s Spaghetti

 Ingredients:

• 1 pound of 80/20 ground beef
• 1 jar (smaller of two sizes on store shelf) of Ragu Spaghetti sauce (I use meat flavored)
• Some garlic or garlic salt
• Box of thin spaghetti (I use whatever’s on sale)

• Fry up the ground beef until there’s a little bit of “singe”. This is key!
• Add garlic or garlic salt to beef stirring it in. How much garlic depends on how much garlic flavor you like.
• Once the beef is done I add in the sauce and warm it up
• Boil the spaghetti and drain. I add a little olive oil to keep it from getting sticky
• Pour the meat laden sauce over the pasta

So from our homes to yours…Happy Autumn and happy cooking! Prepare your heart for lots of compliments…careful to deflect them so your head doesn’t get too large for the chef’s hat (or whatever it’s called).