i heart fall

I love most things about fall. The leaves changing, the temperature dropping, sweaters, my awesome boots... all of it. To clarify, by temperatures dropping I mean to fall temps, not to winter temps. I love the in between stage. It's also time for foods to change. And since it's been a while since I've had time to try something new, I used today make some fall food before snow falls.

Today was Butternut Squash Turkey Chili and Jalapeno Cornbread Muffins. I'll post what I did here for the chili because it was slightly different than the posted recipe. The muffins I followed exactly, so am just going to link to the recipe for that. With the cornbread muffins, I recommend the honey butter on the recipe, too - it was very good!

My notes on the cornbread:

• I used 1 c. fresh freezer corn rather than the canned corn the recipe calls for.
• It could have used a little more jalapeno, probably - I only used 1/2 of one, but could have probably used a whole one.

Butternut Squash Turkey Chili
1 sm/med onion, chopped
1/2 large red pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. ground turkey
1 lb. butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2 or 1 inch pieces
1 1/4 c. chicken broth
1 can chopped green chilies (4.5 oz)
2 cans diced tomatoes (14.5 oz each)
1 can chili beans
1 c. freezer corn
1 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. cumin
dash of garlic salt

Saute the onion, minced garlic, and red pepper in olive oil in your large pot for approx. 3 minutes. Add ground turkey and cook until browned. Stir in all remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes. I thickened it a little with cornstarch/water at the end, as well.
My notes on the chili:

• I used more garlic than the original recipe called for, so didn't use the full tablespoon of garlic salt the original recipe asked for.
• Adding the red pepper was good - I used half of a large one, but could have probably used the whole thing.
• I used fresh freezer corn (from the garden) instead of the hominy in the recipe for the chili.
• It was a little runnier than I would have liked at the end, so just thickened with cornstarch.

And this is what it ended up as (below). I really liked it - it tasted a lot like regular chili does, but liked having the squash in it. I may use this for our chili cook off at work in a couple of weeks. :) Wish me luck!