This came from the Chicago Tribune. Have a batch baking as I type.

Pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins


( recipe behind the cut )

That staple of Extruded Fantasy Product (tm), indefinable brown soup-stuff concocted from root vegetables and wagonkill. Or not.

I have interview questions to complete and a proposal to bloody finish, so of course I spent time eating and well, cooking so I'd have something to eat. Some of my recipes haven't quite worked out, but this one is Good. Had it yesterday with brown rice, which tasted a little flat. Had it today with mashed Yukon Gold spuds. Much better.

Orange-Cumin Beef Stew

3 tbsps vegetable oil
3 pounds lean boneless chuck, cubed
grated rind of one orange (about 1 tbsp)
1 cup orange juice
1 cup beef broth or stock
1 6oz can tomato paste
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbsps brown sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 1/2 tsps ground cumin
2 tsps dried oregano, crumbled
1 tsp ground allspice
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
8 oz small white onions
1 pound small mushrooms, sliced up however you like 'em

1. Heat oil in skillet--moderately high heat. Brown meat on all sides and transfer to a casserole (you could do this in the casserole dish, imho)

2. Stir in everything but the onions and mushrooms. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 2 hours or until fork tender. Add onions during last 30 minutes and mushrooms during the last 15.

I added carrots and celery because I had some in the fridge that I needed to use or lose. I also added chopped parsley. A whole can of stock, which at 15 oz was 2x the recipe. The stew tasted like glorified chili until it had cooked for a while. Then the flavor mellowed and the orange came through. The sauce thickens on its own. It's delicious.

Cook a package of frozen spinach. Set aside. Saute onion; add sliced mushrooms, minced garlic, tarragon, thyme, and basil. Cook until the liquid cooks away, then set aside. Melt some butter; add flour and stir constantly. Add milk and stir until thickened. Take off heat and add salt, pepper, dijon mustard, and grated parmesan cheese (I used the shredded stuff).

Add some of the sauce to cooked pasta and spoon into individual baking dishes (the recipe said 4. I used 6). Add some of the sauce and the spinach to the mushroom-onion mix, and spoon atop the pasta. Add rest of sauce, and top with more parmesan. Bake at 400F until bubbly, or freeze prior to baking.

many, many spoons and pots used. I saved one pot by using frozen spinach--the recipe calls for you to blanch fresh stuff and chop it.

it was good. Rich as hell, but good. Almost like spinach lasagna without the lasagna pasta.

I had intended to transplant some shrubs today, but it started raining late morning, and hasn't really stopped since. May last through the night. A nice, gentle rain, and maybe we need it.

And it was downright cold today. 60s/lo 70s, which feels positively Arctic after weeks of humid 80s and 90s. Nice to open the windows and feel the breeze.

Spent part of the afternoon making tomorrow's dinner. I was on the lookout for a chicken recipe that didn't contain tomatoes or pasta, and found a cookbook in the basement entitled Cook Now/Serve Later, which features make-ahead recipes. Found one for something called Flemish Chicken Stew, which along with the usual carrots, celery, onions, leeks, parsley, and thyme, also contains cloves and nutmeg. I had never considered using those particular spices with chicken before, but I will say that the whole mess smelled marvelous as it cooked. Tomorrow, I cook up barley, then thicken the stock with cream, lemon juice, and egg, which must be what makes it Flemish. Should be a good day for stew, since it's supposed to rain throughout.

Wrote a little. Not GIDEON, but a new story, as yet untitled. It's a Jani story, a thirteen-years on continuation of INCIDENT. I really did want to try to write the how-Niall-Pierce-got-his-scar tale, but I couldn't get it started. A story doesn't take hold until I start thinking of dialogue, and the first line for this one came so easily. I had no dialogue for the Niall story, and what scenes I could envision felt as through someone else had thought of them. No spark. So technomage, looks like you'll be in a Jani-Lucien story. I envision bloodshed, blackmail, lies, and deceit. IOW, the usual.

And right now, I have a scaredy cat dog trying to wedge himself beneath my desk. Thunder, you know. Must go. Can't type too well.

Watched a few cooking shows on PBS this afternoon, which inspired me to make the chili. I used this recipe, courtesy of dancinghorse, except that I used both diced and crushed tomatoes, and added a green pepper as well as a red pepper, and only added 5 cans of beans, and used red wine vinegar instead of rice vinegar. I also added a tube of crushed cilantro in oil directly to the chili, then read the recipe and realized that I really did need the fresh stuff because it's used as a garnish, not in the cooking. And I didn't add the chipotles, because I was tired and didn't feel like opening another can and chopping one more thing. I'm also not a fan of too much heat.

Right in the middle of things, I needed to change pots because what I thought was a large stockpot was actually a medium stockpot. You need a large one.

Someday I'll be able to cook something without filling two sinks with dishes.

Had the chili with some cheddar cheese and sour cream, and rosemary-olive oil bread . It was really good, although I needed to cook it about an hour and a half instead of the suggested 25 minutes because the carrots just didn't want to soften.

I now have enough chili for weeks.

I gave Comcast cable a few days to settle, and waited until today to cancel AT&T DSL. ( Goodbye AT&T, and don't let the door hit you on the way out. )

( Knives and such... )

Revised page proofs arrived Friday. I haven't dug into them to any great extent. Here's hoping...

I do like veggie dishes. Sometime this weekend, I'll try adding some mushrooms and artichoke hearts to some herb marinara sauce, and serve the result over whole wheat spaghetti. Rosemary-olive oil bread on the side. I found an interesting recipe for veggie chili, along with one for the white bean variety (ok, that one contains chicken).

But today, I craved a hamburger. A fair-sized mound of Black Angus ground beef. Salt. Pepper. A dash of Worcestershire sauce. While that's broiling, slice up an Ugli tomato, the only supermarket variety I've found that tastes in any way like an actual tomato. Wash some baby lettuce. Get a slice of extra sharp cheddar. Toast the whole grain bun. When the burger starts smoking under the broiler, turn off the heat and add the cheese. Let it melt. Assemble, adding French's yellow mustard and Homemade chili sauce. Russet potato chips on the side. A bottle of Sam Adams Black Lager.

The burger was rare. Juicy w/o being greasy. Good stuff.

Good veg chili recipes appreciated. The one I found contains sliced green and red pepper, about which I'm a little dubious. If anyone has a recipe that includes corn, all the better. And black beans.