the recipe black hole

Oh hey look, five months just passed and I didn't annoy the interwebs with my rambling. Just when you thought you were safe, I'm back! You can blame Martha Stewart and my piss-poor organization skills, not me, though. 

This whole blogging thing all started (again) last night. I thought I might need to whip up an impromptu appetizer for a group of hungry boys, and figured spinach dip would do the trick. A few months back, I made my first ever spinach artichoke dip, and wanted to replicate that. Clearly I didn't write about it, and apparently I didn't bookmark or save the recipe, because I spent a frustrating 30 minutes on the train home opening recipe after recipe and thinking "NOPE," "EW," and "HECK NO." I never did find the recipe, and we all ended up going out to happy hour instead. 

But, the more frustrating recipe black-hole situation was actually when I up and decided I like chili. I made it over a year ago, back when SS and I first met, and thought to myself "hey, where has THIS been all my life?" And again, promptly lost the recipe, the results of which SS had just deemed "the best thing ever." Again, I searched recipe after recipe, and not a single one seemed right. The closest I could come was Martha Stewart's 30-minute chili recipe. But I definitely didn't use tomato paste, beer, or beef in mine, and I like a variety of beans. So, I kinda made up my own, and I love it. Thanks for almost nothing, Martha!

LKTC Smoky 3 Bean Turkey Chili   

• splash of olive oil 
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• about 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 to 2 TBS chili powder
• about 2 TBS chipotle in adobo (I open the can, and use scissors to cut up the chiles, then scoop out 1 to 2 tablespoons of the juices and peppers; be careful, this stuff will sting your eyes, so make sure to keep your hands clean!)
• dash of cinnamon
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 3 14-oz. cans diced tomatoes in juice
• 1 14-oz. can each of kidney beans, black beans, and pinto beans, rinsed and drained   

1. Heat oil over medium-high in a large, heavy pot. Add onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are nearly translucent. Add garlic, salt, and pepper, and let cook for another few minutes. 

2.  Stir in chili powder, chipotles, and cinnamon. Cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes. Add the ground turkey, and cook, breaking it up with a spoon and stirring it around until it's no longer pink. 

3. Add tomatoes with their juices and beans. Note: I normally add one can of the tomatoes/juice all at once, then strain the juice out from the other two cans of tomatoes. I don't like a lot of tomato chunks in my chili. I then leave the remaining diced tomatoes in the cans, add about half a cup of water to each, and mush up the tomatoes with a spoon (to create enough extra tomato juice to cover all the beans and turkey). Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.

You really only need to let this simmer until the beans are soft, but, the longer you simmer it, the thicker and smokier the chili becomes. It freezes really well, evidenced by the Armageddon-ish stockpile of little bags of it I have in my house right now.