Mmmmm. . .

I have to admit that I hate (well, strongly dislike) these unseasonably cold days we've been having, but it does get me excited (yes, just a little bit) for cozy sweaters, warm fires and comfort food! After a week of cold days (or so it seems) today I made a typical "cold weather" meal for us. It was cheesy potato soup with warm biscuits. I find that I enjoy making food when I can start with a recipe, make some changes and still come up with something that is delicious! Today, I started the soup by simmering the veggies in chicken broth and then decided to add some white wine. When we were camping once, this guy was constantly grilling the most heavenly scented food all weekend! Of course, we were kind of "pulled" towards him and we found out he indeed was an excellent cook and that's because he was a chef! He gave us a tip to never cook with wine that we wouldn't drink! Makes sense, so because of that, we always have to have wine on hand ~ LOL. Okay, we do occasionally run out, but we try to not drink it all ~ hehe. Here is a picture of the lunch we enjoyed. :~)Oh, and I have another tip. If you make soup or something and it made wayyyy too much, just freeze it! We have many gallon bags of frozen foods that we got sick of eating leftovers, but knew we would enjoy another time, so the freezer is our friend. Just make sure you label it because no matter how well you think you'll remember what it was, you probably won't :~) It really doesn't matter what kind of base you had in your soup, either and hey, look at it this way; you were going to throw out the leftovers anyway, so if you can get a quick last minute meal out of the leftovers later down the road it's a win-win!

Here is the recipe for the dip I made on Friday night:

Chorizo Bean Dip

1 lb ground beef

1/3 lb chorizo or spicy pork sausage

1 medium onion, chopped

1 env. of taco seasoning

2 cans (16 oz each) refried black beans (I'm not sure how these would be different from regular, except they cost more)

1 cup (4 oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 jar (11 oz) salsa

2 cans (2 1/4 oz each) sliced ripe olives, drained

2 cups guacamole (I bought a refrigerated cntr and called it good ~ not sure how much was in it)

6 green onions, thinly sliced

1 cup (8 oz) sour cream

1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro (I didn't have any, so skipped it)

3/4 cup jalapeno-stuffed olives, sliced (again, I'm not sure these were worth the $6 I spent on the small jar, I think you could also use chopped jalapenos or chilies)

Tortilla chips (we used pita chips from Sam's and they were good and less fat than tortilla chips)

1. In a large skillet, cook the beef, sausage, onion & taco seasoning over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. (we added the taco seasoning after draining, so we could rinse off most of the grease).

2. Spread the beans into a greased 13 x 9" baking dish. Layer with the meat mixture, cheese, salsa and ripe olives. Cover and bake @ 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.

3. Spread guacamole over the top. Combine the green onions, sour cream and cilantro; spread over guacamole (this didn't spread so easily since the guac kind of melted being spread on the hot stuff, so next time, I'll just stir the guac with the sour cream, onions and cilantro since it all gets mixed together anyway). Sprinkle with stuffed olives (or one of the other choices I mentioned, or you could leave out for a not so spicy dip ~ the jalapenos were the only hot thing in this dip). Serve immediately with tortilla chips. Refrigerate leftovers.

We had a half a pan leftover after a night of munching by 12 adults, so next time, I'll make the meat and freeze half of it because the rest of the ingredients would be simple enough to split into half, so we don't have to bring so much home.