Hello, my friends! It's been a busy few weeks, but I won't bore you with that.
In some fun news, I (and by that, I mean my mother) found this awesome little critter in the herb garden. He was mowing away at the parsley. After a quick google search, he appears to be a swallowtail butterfly! That's fun! I wasn't able to find him a few days ago. I hope a bird didn't snatch him!
I also cooked up some delicious chili. This was a play on Wendy's Chili. They only thing I had to change was with the beans. I could not find ranch style beans. I substituted the 2 cans for pinto beans with jalapenos of the same size can. It had enough kick to notice, but wasn't overbearing. I will be making this again, only I will half the recipe next time. (That chili is in the biggest pot in the house and was pretty full!)
I really need to learn to take better/more pictures of the food while I am cooking it to better show the process. Although it doesn't look like it, that there is a pork chop. A. Chocolate. Spiced. Pork. Chop. I love Paula Deen. When I make this, I normally double up the spice rub. I'm not sure if Paula's chops are just smaller than the ones I end up getting, or if I just love the concept of putting a chocolate spice rub on my pork entirely too much. I also decided this time to cut out the heat of the recipe and did not use the crushed red pepper. Either way you do it, it is totally worth it. I paired it up with a cute bit of salad and roasted broccoli.
Now I have recently discovered the wonders of Pinterest. Not sure if this is good or not. It certainly can consume a lot of time. I was all over, looking at recipes for food and drinks, going through ways to enhance my green thumb, and even looking for some new projects to start. Now that it has taken over a lot of my free time I have been able to familiarize myself with Pinterest, I have been able to find things that satisfy my current tastes.
I am not sure where you are from, but here in Pennsylvania, it is quickly starting to chill down. I love it. Everything about fall (except the change of season cold I normally get) is just so comforting. Plus I know then that winter is right around the corner. I can't wait for some snow! Or I can, but only until after my snow tires make their way onto my car.
Now yesterday, being that hoodie season has arrived, I was a bit chilled and decided I wanted soup. I really didn't want to go to the store, so after looking at what I had on hand, I decided to make Broccoli Cheddar Soup. This was my first attempt at a cream based soup. I don't think I quite nailed it down yet, but It was pretty good. This recipe was an attempt to copy Panera's Broccoli Cheddar soup, which is awesome. Not sure how to improve it, but I will make it again. Maybe a different type of cheese? I used extra sharp white cheddar. When I make it again, I will let you know.
Now normally at Panera, they serve their soups with a nice, crusty baguette. Now, I did have the ingredients to attempt a crusty loaf of bread, but I really didn't want to wait the time it takes to make a loaf of bread. I decided biscuits instead. My sister is normally the champion of biscuits in the house, but she was busy, so I had to give it a go. The recipe is pretty straight forward, but I ended up using the high altitude amounts for the baking soda and powder. It just seemed closer to the recipe my sister uses for her biscuits. These are light and flaky. Make them. Now. I'm not kidding. You will thank me.
