Cate The Great

A coworkers fortune cookie … Still thinking about what I think of this one.

Our Christmas Tree 2011

Tomorrow will be a somewhat hectic day at the veterinary hospital where I work. The hospital also operates a large kennel. There will be quite a few people dropping their dogs off for the Thanksgiving holiday. In order to keep our spirits up tomorrow, I decided to bake us some scones for the morning. Baking scones for my coworkers has become sort of my trademark. Many mornings they’ve graced the kitchen counter at my work much to everyone’s delight. So tomorrow morning we will be trying these chocolate chip scones for the first time. I’ll let you know how they go over!

Dinner tonight was Buffalo Chicken Chili. It’s delicious, easy, and perfect for fall/winter nights. I always feel a little nostalgic every time I make this as the first time I ever made it was in our apartment in Troy. Mark and I had been married just six months. I was still trying to figure out what the heck I was doing in our tiny little kitchen. Till I’d married Mark my cooking skills consisted of Hamburger helper! Thankfully (I know Mark would agree) my cooking skills have improved drastically since then!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 pounds ground chicken
2 large carrots, peeled and finely chopped
1 large onion, chopped
4 ribs celery with leafy tops, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon smoked sweet paprika
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup hot sauce
1 can tomato sauce (15 ounces)
1 can stewed, fire-roasted or crushed tomatoes (15 ounces)
1 sack whole grain tortilla chips, lightly crushed
3/4 pound Blue cheese, crumbled
A handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped

Preparation:
Place a large pot over medium-high heat with the EVOO, 2 turns of the pan. Add the ground chicken and break it up, lightly browning it for 5 minutes.

Add the carrots, onion, celery, garlic, paprika and bay leaf and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 7-8 minutes. Add the chicken stock and scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot.

Add the hot sauce, tomato sauce and the stewed, fire-roasted or crushed tomatoes to the chili and bring up to a bubble. Simmer for 8-10 minutes more to let the flavors come together.

While the chili is simmering, pre-heat the broiler.

Spread the chips out on a cookie sheet. Top with the crumbled blue cheese and transfer to the oven to melt the cheese, 2-3 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the chopped parsley.

Top each serving of Buffalo Chicken Chili with a few blue cheese chips.

Starbucks peppermint mocha = perfect

Saturday night Mark bought me new hiking boots! The ones I previously had had no support, weren’t waterproof and had a hole worn in one that was getting bigger every time I wore them.

I only wish I’d had them in Maine this past summer! They are so comfortable! I highly recommend them. Bristol and I took of to the Lisha Kill Nature Preserve to break them in on Sunday.

Alex: “… and that Linode, is where snow comes from.”

Linode: “Really?!”

Alex: “Would I lie to you?”