N's Wonderful World

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Crazy Cuisine...Cincinnati Chili

In the evenings the hubby and I watch Food Network. On several different shows they have talked about Cincinnati Chili. The recipe always seemed so peculiar to me, that I was nervous to try it, but intrigued all at the same time! The chili is unique because it is served on top of spaghetti. You can order it "one way, two way, three way, or four way" depending on the toppings you want. I believe one way is topped with spaghetti. Two way is cheddar, three way is cheddar and onion, and four way adds in oyster crackers. This recipe has chocolate, cinnamon, and negates the usual chili ingredient of beans. I finally worked up the guts to try interesting concoction. I was amazed. It did not taste like chili or spaghetti. It was a spicy dish, not hot spice, but cinnamon, clove, allspice type spicy. It reminds me of Indian food or even African food in a way. The flavor is just so different from anything I have ever tasted. While I was incredibly hesitant to try this recipe, I am happy to say I will continue to make it in the future! Supposedly, it tastes like a recipe from a famous restaurant called Skyline. This chili has a cult following and I can see why! So don't be nervous, go ahead and give it a shot! Since this was a new to me experience, I did something I rarely do. I actually followed the recipe as best I could. You can click here to find the recipe! I didn't have allspice in my cupboard, but oddly enough I had pickling spice which had very similar seasonings to what was called for in this recipe. I only used one pound of ground beef. I also cheated slightly. After simmering my ground beef, I just rinsed it and added water again to simmer. I didn't use the whole technique of putting it in the refrigerator overnight and skimming the fat off. I also used a lot of water. We have heavy duty pots that retain heat REALLY well, I found myself adding 1 cup of water every half hour to keep everything simmering nicely. This says ten servings, but my pot made more like 5 servings. Let me know if you try it, hope you find it to be just as wonderful as we did!

Pumpkin Perfection.

Today we got around to preparing our baking pumpkins. I had eleven in my pumpkin patch. Earlier we had used a couple to make pumpkin bars and bread. Today, we made puree and measured 1 cup servings into freezer bags. I am hoping I get to make the pie for Thanksgiving! Here is how we prepared our pumpkins...we washed them, cut the stem off, sliced them in half, scooped out the guts, and put them cut side down in about a half inch of water on a baking sheet. We baked them for an hour at 400 degrees. We let let them cool and scooped out the flesh. We finished by using the food process to puree it. I plan to have a baking pumpkin patch again, it has been a very rewarding plant! In fact, I tried a new recipe today and we both LOVE it!

Pumpkin Cranberry Chocolate Chip Bars

I originally got this recipe from the Weight Watchers website which claims it to be just a couple points a slice. Mine is slightly higher and I did change the recipe from what was on the Weight Watchers site. I think mine is higher because of the cranberries I used...the nutrition on the packages seem to be twice as high as what most websites site it should be. In fact my chocolate chips were lower in calories than the cranberries were! The Weight Watchers website did not use chocolate chips. They used buttermilk and I used regular milk. The final product is a cake like bar that has sweet chocolate accenting sour cranberries in a soft pumpkin confection. It really is delicious!

Ingredients:

1 Cup Brown Sugar (I used dark)

4 Tbsp. Margarine (Mine was 60% vegetable oil)

1 Cup Pumpkin Puree (You can certainly use canned, that's what the original recipe calls for)

1 Large Egg

1 Egg White

1/3 Cup Fat Free Milk

1 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour

1 1/2 Cups Uncooked Old Fashioned Oats

1 Tbsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice (I used Apple Pie Spice, because that's what I had on hand)

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Table Salt

2 oz. Craisins or other Dried Cranberries (I used 2-100 calorie packs of Craisins)

1 oz. Miniature Chocolate Chips

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour dust a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. In a large bowl cream brown sugar and margarine. Beat in egg and egg white, pumpkin, and milk. Mine looked very granular or almost slightly separated at this step, which concerned my slightly, but by the time it gets to the pan it will be mixed nicely. In a separate medium-sized bowl combine flour, oats, pie spice, baking soda, and table salt. Stir in pumpkin mixture just until moistened. Fold in cranberries and chocolate chips. Spread evenly in baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely and cut into 18 rectangles. Enjoy with a tall glass of milk or hot cup of tea or coffee.

Each bar has around 174 calories, 3 grams of fat, 1 gram of fiber, 10 grams of carbohydrates, 8 grams of protein, 154 mg of sodium, and 384 mg of calcium. This calculated out to 4 Weight Watchers Points per bar. This is a great snack or could be a nice breakfast bar!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Home again.

Usually at the end of vacation, I am ready to go home. This time, I wanted to stay on vacation. We had such an enjoyable trip. There were so many highlights, wonderful moments, and pictures I took with my brain so I could hold on to them forever. Here are a few of those memories...

Watching the sunset with my dear husband.
Seeing an incredible ocean environment while snorkeling (under water film to be developed).
Hearing a lady yell, "Lady, hey lady, hey pretty lady..." I'm sure you had to be there. She was hilarious. She wanted to braid my hair. I am not someone who wears tiny micro braids well. My hair is fine, pokes out all over, and my scalp is so white! Needless to say, she didn't get my business. Even though she spelled out her name ever so carefully so that I'd remember her, ha ha.
A week without my cell phone, laptop, etc. To just be with my husband, enjoying life.
Leaving the casino with more money then we came with. J and N =2, Casino= 0.
Enjoying incredible food without having to cook, clean, or plan!
Amazing views of lighthouses, beautiful blue ocean, and seeing new places.
Laughing, smiling, and continuing to giggle after seeing a hilarious comedian and other shows.
Meeting new people from around the world.

Those are just a few highlights. We hot tub, swam, went for walks, shared drinks, and in general just enjoyed life. If you need a vacation, I suggest a cruise. Next we want to do an Alaskan cruise! Watch out world, here we come!

Around the ship!

This was the Stardust Theater. It was gorgeous and a picture doesn't do any justice. We watched a Broadway type production, enjoyed a comedian a few different nights, watched a newlywed game, and had a lot of fun here!

I love all these flags. Speaking of flags, there were people from all over the world on our ship. It was incredible. If you ever go to the Bahamas, I strongly suggest doing it on a cruise. Awesome experience.

This was the Palace Restaurant. We had some incredible meals at the seated restaurants. My very favorites included seafood ceviche, prime rib, lobster, salmon eggs Benedict, and a bunch of other delicious food!

There was this stained glass that was awesome! The colors were absolutely incredible!

Enjoying dinner at the Palace.

This was the French Restaurant were every seat had a view of the ocean.

The place setting at La Bistro. I would love a set of China like this. The butterflies are gorgeous!

Room service! I have never ordered room service, until now! It was included in the cruise, so one day we ordered dessert. Cheesecake with hot tea for me and chocolate cake with milk for the hubby.

The final evening, we had this little surprise was in our room on the last night! Delicious!

Towelpendous!

Dog.

Seal.

Rabbit.

My shot at a rabbit, I made mine a lop ear. I learned how to make the animals on the last day on board at a demonstration. So come visit and I'll try to make some for the guest bedroom!

This was probably my favorite animal! I love the elephant. Room Service made all of these, except the lop eared rabbit. They are so cool!

Rockin' the Bahamas...Part 3 of 3

Great Stirrup Cay (pronounced Great Stirrup Key) is a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines.

A portion of the beach!

Lines of beach chairs ready for all of the cruisers to soak up the sun.

So, it started to rain and I actually thought it was hilarious! This is a picture of everyone huddled under a tent. I just giggled and enjoyed the rain. It was fun to run through it!

I'd be happy if my jack-o-lanterns looked this good, let alone my watermelons!

We took tender boats from the ship to the island. They are still working on building a dock. It was really fabulous to just swim in the ocean with little fish, soak up the sun (before the clouds rolled in), and enjoy the day.

Rockin' the Bahamas...Part 2 of 3

The second port of call was in Nassau. This is inside a straw market. Everything is so colorful there!

Don't mind the lady at the taxi desk in a swimsuit, just a welcome sign.

This is the "White House" of the Bahamian government. Notice it is pink. So, it is the Pink House.

This is at the Graycliff a fancy hotel and cigar factory. We liked the landscaping so much, that we want to do something similar in a portion of our backyard! I can't wait to see what we do!

You guessed it, the cigar factory. Very similar to the one I saw in Nicaragua a few years ago. This one seemed like a better working enviroment. Everyone was so nice!

This is in one of the Graycliff dining room ceilings. It is so enchanting and beautiful. There is just something magical about it!

Fort Fincastle...the first room was for prisoners, although there never were any. The second door led to an ammunition room and the third door (not shown) was for the command station.

One of several cannons at Fort Fincastle.

The water tower.

The Queen's staircase. It took a crazy number, like 600 slaves and 14 years to hand chissel out this stair well!

A bunch of flavors and variations of rum cake. We brought back chocolate, amaretto, pina colada, and cinnamon. Our favorites were chocolate and amaretto.