this week

This week has been busy - in and out of home.  I was excited that I tied for 2nd place in our chili cook-off at work!  I made the butternut squash turkey chili I had first tried a couple of weeks ago.  For the cook-off, I used a little less cumin (because I ran out) and added a little bit of Frank's Red Hot, but probably not enough to make much of a difference.  We also had a cake walk so I brought in some red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, courtesy of Duncan Hines.

Yesterday, Keith made a Rum Cake that was really good. For those of you who will see us at Thanksgiving, he is thinking about making it to bring there.  The interesting thing was that he made it yesterday and it was good... but today it's so much better!  The flavors of the rum have set it and it's super yummy.  Apparently sometimes old cake is yummier than fresh. :) 

I'm posting the recipe here, but must give credit because the one he found online was used almost exactly.  He cut the oil in about 1/2 or 3/4 of the original recipe. The original is posted, so feel free to do that, as well. 



Rum Cake

Cake
1 c. chopped walnuts
1 (18.25 oz.) package yellow cake mix
1/2 c. dark rum
4 eggs
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 (3.5 oz.) package instant vanilla pudding mix

Glaze
1/2 c. butter
1/8 c. water
1/2 c. white sugar
1/4 c. rum

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10 inch tube or Bundt pan (note: we used the bundt pan but didn't grease or flour it... we forgot but it turned out fine). Sprinkle nuts over the bottom of the pan.

Mix together the cake mix, 1/2 cup dark rum, eggs, 1/2 cup water, oil, and vanilla pudding mix. Pour batter over the nuts in the pan.

Bake for 1 hour. Cool, and invert cake on a serving plate. Prick the top of the cake.

To Make The Glaze: Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in 1/8 cup water and the 1/2 cup sugar. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove glaze from heat, and stir in 1/4 cup rum. Drizzle and smooth evenly over the top and sides.

Super good - I highly recommend.  We also tried spaghetti squash today, though I wasn't sure how to make it - we baked it and then sauteed it with some Parmesan, butter, and spaghetti sauce.  It was pretty good, but if you have a better way, I'm happy to hear it.  And I'm sorry I don't have a picture for this, but we tried Chipotle Chicken, too.  It was really good. 

Besides that, I spent some time last night with a couple of good friends shopping, having dinner, and then movie night -- which then turned into slumber party because we got freezing rain and it was pretty much an ice rink outside.  I started home, got two blocks, and went back.  Special thanks to KVO for giving me a safe, warm place to stay.  On my way home this morning I saw two cars in the ditch... and neither of them was mine. And I am thankful for that!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have some more cake.

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!