Author: Eleri

This is another one that’s never exactly the same twice- the basics are corn, bacon, milk. Everything else is mutable! Mine is carrot-free because of weird allergies, but you can add them, too. I’ve even done the “What half-full bags of frozen veggies are in the freezer?” thing.

• 4-5 medium potatoes
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 2 small yellow onions Or one big one. Or a bag of pre-diced onion. We don’t judge. 
• 1-2 lbs of bacon Depending on how meaty you want it. Chopped ham works, too. I usually buy a thing of bacon ends and chop that up.
• 1 box chicken stock
• 1 bag frozen corn I usually grab the 16oz bag- you don’t need to use that much if you don’t want. Canned corn is ok, too, just drain it. Sometimes a can of creamed corn is good, in there, too.
• 2-3 cups milk
• 2-3 celery stalks
• 2-3 cloves diced garlic At our house, this can go higher, because garlic.
• Seasonings. This is where it really varies- I’ve done everything from basic sage/thyme/rosemary to Jamaican jerk seasoning. A bay leaf or two is tasty. Just depends on my mood!

Peel and chop the potatoes into chunks, put in the soup pot with just enough water to cover them, and set on to boil. If you want chunks of potato in the finished soup, keep aside about a potato’s worth.
Peel and chop the sweet potato into bite size chunks and set aside.
Dice the onion and set aside.
Dice up the bacon and put in a frying pan on med-low to slow cook.
Dice up the celery and set aside.
When the potatoes are soft, drain off all but about 1-2 cups of the water, and mash them up- it should be like thin mashed potatoes. And add chicken broth, corn, and sweet potatoes (and any spare regular potatoes). Cover and let come to a simmer.
When bacon is cooked (depends on how crispy you want it, although it’ll soften up in the soup anyhow), add the onion, stir, and let cook slowly until onions are soft.
Add the garlic, bacon/onion mix and celery to the soup, and then add milk. Add seasonings and let it simmer until sweet potatoes and celery are soft. Taste test along the way and play with your seasonings to taste! If you want it thicker, mix cold milk and cornstarch and add as needed. Eat!

This can be vegetarian by omitting the bacon and using veggie broth and a milk substitute instead.

I never make this the same way twice, but this is pretty close to the basics. I’ve done it with no meat, or with other meat (maple bacon was yummy), no beans, added other spicy veggies- you can play with it however. It’s fundamentally Your Favorite Chili Recipe with pumpkin replacing some of the tomato sauce. Use a masala mix and coconut milk instead of tomato sauce and it becomes pumpkin curry?

• 1 can pumpkin puree (make sure it’s not pumpkin pie mix)
• 1 lb pork sausage
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 med yellow onion, diced
• 2 med tomatoes
• 1 small can tomato sauce 
• 2-4 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 can kidney beans, drained (or two cups cooked) 
• 2 cups milk (or broth)
• Seasonings: Salt, pepper, chili powder (or chili seasoning mix), powdered sage.

In a frying pan, crumble and brown sausage. If it isn’t pre-seasoned, mix in some pepper and sage as it cooks.
Add garlic and onion, and cook until tender. Drain.
Chop peppers into 1/2 inch-inch pieces. It can be tasty to roast them first.
Chop the tomatoes and rinse.
In a soup pot, heat pumpkin and milk.
Add tomato sauce, peppers, tomato, beans and meat mix, and simmer.
Add spices to taste. Eat!
Goes REALLY GOOD with cornmeal biscuits.

• 1 lb chorizo
• 2 cans chili
• 2 lb bag frozen tater tots
• 2-4 cups grated cheddar (depending on your family’s cheese needs)

Oven @ 425

Layer the tots in a rectangular baking dish, about halfway full. Cook for 25 minutes or until crispy.

While tots are cooking, in saucepan cook ground ground choriso into crumbles (In my family this is called “graveling” your ground meat. o.O).

Drain the meat (because there will be so much grease, and possibly water content, too).

Add the cans of chili to the chorizo and mix over medium heat until well blended. Let simmer on low until the tots come out of the oven.

Pour chili over baked tots. Add a layer of cheese. At this time you can also add things like onions, chile peppers, fritos or other corn chips, whatever you put on chili.

Put back in the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.