hello kids.

So I have had a very excited past few days. Especially food-wise. my dear friend Elliott’s birthday was on Friday so Marilyn and I went all out and made her mother’s amazing top secret chocolate cupcakes and I made my first attempt at yummy chili.

I want to tell you kids how I prepared the chili so that you can make it for yourselves. It was sweet, and not too spicy, and just warm and such a delight!

I started with a big deep sauce pan, adding a few glugs of oil, 3 cloves of minced garlic, and 2 medium chopped onions. after the onions sweat a bit, add about 3 tablespoons of Mexican chili spice, 2 teaspoons of crushed chili flakes, a tablespoon of brown sugar, and about 2 tablespoons of cumin. these of course are all to taste.

after that gets all nice and merry, add in a 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes and all the juice (to deglaze the bottom of the pan), a jar of mild enchilada sauce, 3-4 tablespoons of bbq sauce, and 2 cans of drained sliced mushrooms. mix all together. mmmmm.

next to add some beans. I used a can of drained red kidney beans and a can of brown beans in tomato sauce. Here you can use any beans you want~ black beans would work too. also add some frozen corn, if you so desire. Here I also added 2 pack of ground round. this is veggie chili, you know~

I found that the liquid/solid ratio was perfect when made this way, but if you so desire… add water/stock or anything if you want to water it down more. After adding everything and letting it simmer for 10-15 minutes, you should be good to go.

don’t forget that you can add more spices to it too (such as salt and pepper) and you could also use spicy enchilada sauce. It’s up to your taste buds.

I hope you try this chili out, It received rave reviews from the party goers and I wish now that I would’ve stolen the left overs when I went home.

As for the cupcakes, I have been sworn to secrecy. I cannot share the recipe with you. But what I can tell you is that they were so good and Marilyn and I really out did ourselves. If you’re reading this Marilyn, you can work at my bakery.

Tonight, I am making a modified version of Shepard’s Pie and Bread Pudding for dessert. I cannot wait. I will make sure to update you later as to how it went.

To all of you: Thank you for reading. I’m overwhelemed by the praise that I have been getting both online and offline. I will be sure to keep doing this, for all of you!

<3