This steakhouse beef chili recipe is designed to warm you up in the middle of winter. It’s hearty and thick, and the chili works wonderfully with all your favorite toppings. It’s January. It’s cold. Something about the cold, gray days this month always makes me crave soup, but instead of soup, I made chili. The chili of my childhood was actually more like soup. It has a broth, and rather than a tomato sauce, it has tomato chunks. Additionally, like most things in my childhood,... more

I woke up with a migraine yesterday. I have to say that after this odd three-week hiatus (unheard of if you’re me), I particularly resented this one. It was just there. No usual phantom warning, flecks of light, odd pain elsewhere. There. Pounding at my eyelids and making it impossible for me to feel like dragging myself out of bed when my alarm went off at 5:45 in the morning, even though it had to happen. I think the fact that I’d been oddly migraine-free for about three weeks... more

Daylight savings, nearly a month ago now (where did the time go?), marked the end of late evenings, cooking dinner by the light of the kitchen window. The sun is gone by 5:00 p.m., forcing me to turn on glaring overhead lights earlier, sometimes before I’ve even stood up from my computer and finished work for the day. Dinner-hour darkness and cold, windy nights have me dreaming of warm dishes cooked in my oven and over the stove. I thought this hearty cream stew was the perfect way to warm... more

Kiwi helps stir to melt the cheese We do a soup swap. Everyone brings soup; we eat the soup; the leftovers go home with people. It’s great. I received some delicious turkey noodle soup from the last soup swap that Kidney Bean is is love with. Somehow, I decided that making a beer cheese soup was a good idea. While I do love my beer cheese, it isn’t really a meal in a bowl. So, I probably failed my neighbors on this one. To make it a full meal, you’d probably want to add larger... more