chili mac

• leftover chili
• 1lb macaroni or other short pasta
• 1 can diced tomatoes

Heat diced tomatoes over medium high flame for 5-10 minutes. Add left over chili and simmer for another 10-20 minutes. Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large pot of slightly salted water. Drain cooked pasta and stir into chili mixture.

The dish: Long before fusion restaurants began dotting the suburban landscape, offering unique amalgamations of different ethnic fare, creative home cooks have been fusing together the best of tex-mex and Italian in this classic dish. Chili over pasta makes for a hearty meat sauce with a stand out flavor. The extra tomatoes were added to stretch the batch a little as well as to make the mix seem more like a traditional sauce. Using "planed-overs" is a great way to save some time in the kitchen without making it seem like you're eating the same thing night after night.

chili

• 2 yellow peppers, diced
• 2 orange peppers, diced
• 1 lb ground turkey meat
• 1 can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can small red beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 large can diced tomatoes
• 1 small can diced tomatoes with chopped chilies
• assortment of hot peppers, finely chopped
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 3 cans Coors Light (or other light domestic beer)
• chili powder
• unsweetened cocoa powder

In large skillet cook onion in a little olive oil for 3 minutes, add to crock pot when done. In same pan brown meat (I add a pinch of Chinese 5 spice, but if you don't have some don't buy it just for this recipe) over medium flame for 5 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks (if anyone knows a technical term for this action, please feel free to let me know), add to crock pot when done. Add beans, peppers (for the hot ones I used 2 habernaros, 2 red chili peppers, and 2 green chili peppers) and tomatoes to the onions and peppers in the crock pot. At this point the whole mixture should be pretty dry. Add a couple of generous shakes of chili powder and a heaping tablespoon of cocoa powder. Use as much of two of the beers needed to get chili to desired consistency while enjoying the Rocky Mountain goodness of the third. Cover and cook for 8+ hours.

The dish: Chili is a pretty loose term that can mean a number of different things, but this variation is pretty close to what most people think of when they hear the term. You can add or omit things as they suit your tastes, don't like beans- don't add them (but I think you'd be doing a bad thing). The finished product was a little spicy, but not uncomfortable to eat. The real key here is the beer and the chocolate. Don't be scared of either as you won't taste them, but they'll give a rich taste that will make your chili a standout.

Tuscan chili

• 4 cans cannelini beans, drained and washed


• 1 bag frozen chopped spinach


• 1 jar sun dried tomatoes, drained of oil


• 2 bell peppers, diced (I prefer yellow and orange)


• 3 cloves chopped garlic, or 3 tablespoons prepared garlic


• 3 tablespoons prepared pesto


• 4 links sausage


• 1/2 cup of vegetable stock


• chopped fresh parsley

If using raw sausage, brown meat in skillet and slice. If using cooked sausage, slice meat, then combine all ingredients except half of fresh parsley in crock pot (yeah, I'm that guy), season with dried Italian sounding herbs (look for lots of vowels- I used oregano), and cook on low for 8 hours. Garnish servings with fresh parsley.

The dish: I'm not really sure what makes a chili a chili, although typing this I'm inclined to think the presence of chili peppers does, but whatever. This is a great meal that has a chili-like satisfaction to it. Beans, peppers, meat- other than the Italian twist it's straight up chili. Like the more traditional variety of chili you can notch up the spice on this by adding some hot peppers, you can even find them Italian style if you wish to remain true to the name. If you're reading this and know me, you know the one thing on the planet that I CANNOT STAND is green peppers, which is fine because the yellow and orange ones really give off nice color alongside the green spinach and white beans. I used regular Italian sausage, but you could just as easily use a nice chicken sausage or no meat at all and this dish would satisfy. If you don't already own one I highly recommend picking up a crock pot as there is no way that we'd have a hot dinner half the time if we just didn't walk into it at the end of the day.