Chili

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This all-American chili recipe is perfect for an outdoor cookout but can also be made on the stove for a comfort classic on a cold day.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 1/4 cups chili and 1 tablespoon cheese)

Ingredients

• 6 ounces hot turkey Italian sausage
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound ground sirloin
• 1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1/4 cups Merlot or other fruity red wine
• 2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes, undrained and coarsely chopped
• 2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, drained
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese

Preparation

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Remove casings from sausage. Add sausage, onion, and the next 4 ingredients (onion through jalapeño) to pan; cook 8 minutes or until sausage and beef are browned, stirring to crumble.

Add chili powder and the next 7 ingredients (chili powder through bay leaves), and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in wine, tomatoes, and kidney beans; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Uncover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Discard the bay leaves. Sprinkle each serving with cheddar cheese.

Note: Like most chilis, this version tastes even better the next day.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

375 (29% from fat)

Fat:

12g (sat 4.6g,mono 4.1g,poly 1.1g)

Protein:

28.9g

Carbohydrate:

33.7g

Fiber:

8.2g

Cholesterol:

59mg

Iron:

5mg

Sodium:

969mg

Calcium:

165mg

Cool Whip Pumpkin Pie

 Ready in: 2-5 hrs 
 Difficulty:   2 (1=easiest :: hardest=5)

Serves/Makes:   12

Ingredients:
2 cups solid pack pumpkin
2 large packages (6 serving size) instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 containers Cool Whip (8 ounce size)
2 graham cracker pie crusts

 

Directions:

In large mixer bowl, mix the pumpkin, pudding, milk and spice. Mix well. Then fold in one container of Cool Whip. Pour into pie crusts and put the other container of Cool Whip on top of pies. Put in fridge/freezer at least 2 hours before serving. 

Best Assignment Ever!!

When Paul announced the final blog assignment was to be our favorite recipe I immediately knew I was going to write about my homemade turkey meatballs I use for my spaghetti! Then as I sat down to write I realized that was really just the most frequent thing that I make not necessarily my favorite. So I thought if money was no object and I could have anything I wanted for dinner it would be crab, and I instantly changed my blog idea to crab cakes. I love crab cakes so much I often have them as my entrée even when they are only served as appetizers…which means I usually order 2!! In that spirit I’ve got 2 crab recipes for you because really, you can’t have too much crab!

Dungeness Crab Cake Salad w/ Berry Sweet Onion Salsa:

1 pound Dungeness crab meat

2 teaspoons chopped green onions

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1 egg, beaten

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 cup bread crumbs

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 pound spring greens

4 onions, grilled and chilled

1 pound asparagus, grilled and chilled

Into a bowl, combine crab, green onions, mayonnaise, egg, red pepper, parsley, bread crumbs, and salt and pepper mixing until blended. Shape into 4 cakes (double the ingredients for 8…what I usually do ;). Heat oil in a sauté pan over medium heat; add the crab cakes and sauté until brown on both sides.

Berry Sweet Onion Salsa:

2 tablespoons chopped sweet onion

1 cup mixed fresh blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and sliced strawberries

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

To prepare the salsa, combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir gently to blend; set aside

Arrange spring greens, grilled onions and asparagus on 4 plates, Place a crab cake on the greens and garnish with the berry salsa. Mmmmmmmm, enjoy!!

Sautéed King Crab with Wine and Garlic

3 ½ pounds frozen king crab legs, thawed

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 garlic cloves, chopped

½ cup dry white wine

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Salt

Lemon or lime wedges

Remove crab meat from the shells. Rinse in cold water to remove yucky stuff. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for about 1 minute, or until golden brown. Add wine, cayenne and parsley. Raise the heat to high and cook until reduced by half, about 1 minute. Reduce the heat to medium and add the crab meat. Cook for only 2 or 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Add salt to taste, lemon or lime wedges are edible garnish. Sometimes I make bow tie pasta as a bed and serve the crab over it, but it’s amazing either way!!

Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese

This is an amazing spin on regular mac and cheese, spicy and a little crunchy. I got the recipe from one of my favorite sites tastespotting.com.

7 Tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for the dish
Kosher salt
1 pound elbow macaroni
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce, divided
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2-1/2 cups half-and-half
1 pound extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
8 ounces pepper jack cheese, shredded
2/3 cup sour cream
1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9 x 13 baking dish. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil; add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 7 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, melt 3 Tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chicken and garlic and cook 2 minutes, then add 1/2 cup hot sauce and simmer until slightly thickened, about 1 more minute.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour and mustard with a wooden spoon until smooth. Whisk in the half-and-half, then add the remaining 1/4 cup hot sauce and stir until thick, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, then whisk in the sour cream until smooth.

Spread half of the macaroni in the prepared baking dish, then top with the chicken mixture and the remaining macaroni. Pour the cheese sauce evenly on top. Put the remaining 2 Tablespoons butter in a microwave safe bowl and microwave until melted. Stir in the panko, blue cheese and parsley. Sprinkle over the macaroni. Bake until bubbly, 30 to 40 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before serving. Drizzle with some wing sauce for color.

GMOs

· Monsanto- The Monsanto company produced this website. Its purpose is to inform clients, potential clients, and the general public of their about their company, what they do, how they do it, and other facts about their company. They are bias towards the products their company produces/helps to produce. The information seems to be currents. The audience of the website can contact the company via produced e-mail and telephone numbers. The website is up to date and easy to navigate.

Scitable- This website is produced by the Nature Education group. The authors purpose is to inform the public about genetically modified foods, both the negatives and positives. I don't see a bias leaning towards either an opinion for or against GMOs. The intended audience seems to be the American public. The specific author is unknown but there are ways listed to contact the responsible group in charge of the website and its contents.

Say no to GMOs- I can not find a clear author of this website. The information provided is to inform the public of the dangers of GMOs. The bias of the author is against GMOs. The information is up to date. The intended audience is the general public. It is possible to contact the author but only through providing your own contact information and waiting for a response.

As of now I'm not concerned about eating GMOs, for the fact that I feel that most of the foods I consume are natural, or seem natural. My assumption about why the US does not require GMOs to be labeled is because of the economy of our nation. In comparison the US usually tends to have a higher unemployment rate then much of the EU. GMOs tend to be cheaper than other foods, therefore it is cheaper to feed the people.

To Trust or Not to Trust

When I began my review of the websites I went in the order they were presented in the assignment: Monsanto, Scitable and last Say No to GMOs. Each of the sites was easy to use but Scitable is lacking in contact information that the other two have, or perhaps I was just unable to find it. Monsanto seemed to be focused toward selling to farmers and is clearly biased toward the benefits of breeding and biotechnology and how it isn’t much more than selecting the best organisms to yield better and better crops with a little help from technology. The site also tries to hide some of the bias through seeming open to either selective breeding or biotechnology and may one day move to just one if it is decidedly better. It was very informative but mostly stuck to the benefits and didn’t really address the negative side effects. I found this made me question the reliability since the site ignored the controversy instead of addressing it. Say No to GMO’s was blatantly against genetically modified organisms hence the title of the website. The one sidedness of the site made it hard to take the information as reliable because the perspective is clearly skewed. Scitable was the only site with an actual authors name attached to it and that author happens to have a Ph.D. This added with the informative nature of the site and it’s clear address of both sides of the issue made it the most reliable to me. The site seemed to only want to inform and let the reader decide. Both Say No to GMO’s and Scitable are only addressing the public, but being open and accepting the opposing views made Scitable stand out to me as the most reliable, Monsanto to be the second and Say No to GMO’s last.

After all the reading I have to say I am not completely opposed to eating GMO’s although I would like the FDA to require those foods to be clearly marked. It is our governments’ responsibility to protect the people not the companies and we have the right to know what we are eating. The fact that the FDA refuses to label GMO’s makes me want to avoid them more so than anything that I read on the websites.

Lutz, C. Greg. "Genetically Modified Organisms: A Continuing Controversy." Aquaculture Magazine 27.4 (2001): 8. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 24 May 2010.

GMO Discussion

Monsanto:

There is no author listed on the Monsanto page, so it will be attributable to the corporation in general as a result. With Monsanto itself responsible for the post, the purpose is to "educate" the general public as to the many benefits of GMO's, including the science behind this wonderful technology. The inherent bias, as a result, is to sell the idea of GMO's as good, which would be beneficial to the Monsanto corporation as a business. The site is copyrighted through 2010, though the exact time this page was posted is up in the air, as no date is explicitly given. The intended targets of this information would be the general public, mostly including those with curiosity or minor doubt (not to discount firm believers). Contacting the author seems to be unlikely, but there is a Contact Us link at the bottom of the page, which would put you in touch with the company. But, the site is nice to look at and labeled in a very neat fashion.

Scitable:

Theresa Phillips is the author of this piece, and it seems to be an article that seeks to inform the public of the various risks and benefits of GMO's. The bias seems to be almost non-existent, as there is no advertising readily noticed and no issues to sell. It is an information hub, and that would require a look into the people behind the website. But the article is from 2008, so fairly recent, though science has most assuredly advanced since this was published. Concerned and curious citizens seem to be the target. There are links here that will put you in contact with the people running the site. Everything here is structured nicely.

Saynotogmos:

Again, we have no author for this work, whose purpose it seems is to persuade people against buying products with GMO's. The bias is that the author explores only the negative aspects of GMO's and is clearly bent on trying to eliminate them. There is nothing that points to when this section was written, but there are links to 2010 information. It seems to be wanting to sell its point to those who are already doubters of the whole GMO issue. Like the others, no direct author contact, but you can contact those in charge of the site. The design is more busy than the others, and less professional looking.

Scitable may be the most reliable, as it is authored by somebody specific, a Ph.D. no less. It has research available and touches on both sides. Monsanto is likely least, as it stands to make or lose the most depending on how the public reacts. Millions and millions of dollars are at stake here.

1. I don't have any real issue with GMO's, it just hasn't been an issue that strikes me as most risky, and I just haven't looked into as much to really know.

2. I think the foods should be labeled, and the refusal to do so seems to be a way to disguise issues rather than inform.

Ruse, Michael, and David Castle. Genetically Modified Foods: Debating Biotechnology. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2002. Print.