My Award Winning Chili! Copy Cat of Wendy's Most Delicious Chili

 Have you ever heard of Todd Wilbur? I found out about him years ago while searching for good recipes online. He takes delicious food from popular restaurants and tries and tests different things until he comes up with a recipe to make it yourself at home that actually tastes pretty close to the exact thing. 

He has several recipe books filled with these cloned "top secret" recipes. Fortunately, he has also put many of them on the internet for us to try. When I first found him he would release one or two of them at a time, and it was always fun for me to see what I could try to make next. 

Over time I tried several of his recipes. But, the one that I've made over and over again is his copy cat version of Wendy's Chili. Before coming across this chili recipe I thought that canned chili was decent enough, and wondered why anyone would ever put in a lot of effort to actually make chili when you could just open a can and be fairly satisfied. I didn't even think I liked chili that much at the time, so wasn't especially motivated to change my thinking.

Well, that all changed once I got taste of this chili. It was SO good! And, as you'll see, not a lot harder than just opening up a couple of cans. I love it, AND my kids all love it, definitely a bonus! 

Of course I started making this recipe long before Pinterest was even a thing, but that didn't stop me from finding it again and pinning it on my fabulous food - dinner board. I never want to lose this recipe! 

You can find it here, and check out some of his other fabulous copy cat recipes. 

                                                           Here's the recipe for Todd Wilbur's

                                                   Copy Cat Wendy's Chili (Makes about 12 servings)

Ingredients: 

2 pounds ground beef

one 29-ounce can tomato sauce

one 29-ounce can kidney beans (with liquid)

one 29-ounce can pinto beans (with liquid)

1 cup cups diced onion (one medium onion)
1/2 cup diced green chili (2 chilis)
1/4 cup diced celery (1 stalk)

3 medium tomatoes, chopped

2 tsp cumin

3 Tbsp chili powder

11/2 tsp black pepper

2 tsp salt

2 cups water

Instructions:

*Brown the ground beef and onion in a skillet over medium heat, crumble into bite sized pieces and drain off the fat

*In a large pot combine the beef and everything else

*Bring to a simmer over low heat

*Cook for 2-3 hours, stirring every 15 minutes

**For spicier chili, add 1/2 tsp more black pepper. For much spicier chili, also add a tbsp of cayenne pepper. For even more kick add 5 or 6 sliced jalapeño peppers to the pot.

Top with your choice of cheese, sour cream, green onions, etc.



This chili tastes even better the second day (yeah leftovers!) when the flavors have had even more time to blend. And it can be frozen for up to a couple of months. So don't be afraid to make a big batch!

As usual I have some variations to this recipe. I usually cook it in my crock pot on low for several hours. I pre cook the meat and onions, but everything else I just throw right into the pot. I usually don't add the water in though, it doesn't evaporate away quite enough in the crock pot and leaves the chili too thin. I also usually just throw in canned tomatoes instead of fresh ones also (unless I have extra fresh ones at the time).

Oh, and about the award winning part of this post... not long ago I made it to bring to a party where they had a chili cook off contest. And guess what? Mine came in first place! I even got a snazzy little chili spoon trophy for winning! In full disclosure I should admit that a few of my many kids may or may not have voted for my chili, possibly skewing the results a little... but it really was yummy!!

Fall Porch Decor

I have loved living somewhere this year where we have actual seasons. I may miss Vegas' warmth this winter when I am turning into an ice cube here, but since moving to Idaho in February I am constantly in awe of the wonders of nature. 

 
The end of winter was beautiful, my kids loved playing in the last of the season's snow. We were thrilled when Spring came and tulips and daffodils started blooming in our neighbor's yards and all around us. Then summer showed up and I got to grow a garden that didn't wither away in the heat. And for the last little while we've been really enjoying a gorgeous fall. 

It's been a while since we have lived somewhere that the trees actually turn colors (Vegas' palm trees don't do that!). The reds, the oranges, the yellows... so pretty! I love it! 

Another fun thing about where we live right now is that the house has a front porch... not a big wrap around porch like my dream house has, but one that is plenty big for me to try my hand at decorating for the seasons! 

I should add here, that I have great kids too! When summer was coming to a close I mentioned to my oldest son that I wished I knew where I could get some hay bales. Ideas for my porch were swirling in my head, and I knew that hay bales would make for a great start to the decor. Later that day my son asked me to come see something... I followed him outside, and there on my porch were two giant hay bales! That's my son...  when there's a desire, he finds a way! What a good boy! 

I hadn't gotten all my ideas together just yet, but now that I had the hay I had to do something. I couldn't just let plain old bales of hay sit on my porch. So, of course I turned to Pinterest for some fall porch decorating pin-spiration! 

Of course, I found a lot of great ideas. Some of the ones I used to get my Fall Porch adorned were from here, here, and here.

 Luckily I had a few cute scarecrow decorations tucked away that fit the decor just right.  Then I found some Fall Mums and wrapped the pots in burlap and ribbon. I took the corn stalks that died in an unexpected freeze (a sad day for me) and tied them up with burlap and ribbon also, and then added a big bright sunflower to finish it off. Then I collected some of the corn that wasn't going to ripen enough to eat and put them in baskets. 

Oh, and of course I added a couple of pumpkins. The first ones were ones I bought at the store, but later I added several littler ones that grew in our own garden. 

To top things off I made a fall wreath for my front door. That was easy peasy. I just bought a twig wreath from the craft store, wrapped a wired leaf/acorn/etc. trim around it. Glued on some bigger leaves and berries, and then added a bow and a couple of Sunflowers to it. It probably took less than half an hour to throw it all together.

I added another sunflower and ribbon to the welcome post I made (here) to autumnize it, and that was it! Over time I added a few other things that I came across just for fun too! Like a bucket with more corn stalk tops, and a cute little pumpkin welcome sign. 

I think it all turned out pretty cute for my first porch decorating attempt! Maybe by next Fall I'll even have a cute bench on my porch to decorate with fun things too!

 

Mouth Watering Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I love Farmers Markets. It's so fun to walk around and see what the locals have been growing, and what some have made with what they've grown. The samples some share are always fun too!

So I was pretty excited early this summer when I found out that the city we moved to has a weekly Farmers Market throughout the Summer and into the Fall.

But Saturdays around our house tend to be pretty busy, and many weeks went by before we were able to make it down there. When we did finally make it I'd wished it hadn't taken so long!

Even though we have our own garden there are things we didn't grow that we found at the Farmers Market, so we loaded up on as much of that fresh produce as we could! 

One of the things we bought that I was most excited about was rhubarb. I remembered that growing in my family's garden when I was young, and I remembered the yummy strawberry rhubarb pies that came from it.

So, I bought some strawberries to go with it and then set out to find a recipe for making the perfect Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

After searching Pinterest I settled on one (here) that looked and sounded like it would do the trick.

My kids were pretty fascinated with the rhubarb too. Some who tried a bite of it raw were skeptical that it was going to taste good in a pie, but they were excited enough to try that they hung around the kitchen... so I put them to work! 

One little one chopped the strawberrries, another mushed them. Another added the other ingredients. And my oldest daughter made her first ever pie crust! I mostly just supervised! 

Oh, and I can't forget my son, of course his job was to take selfies with the finished product! 

One of the nice things about this recipe is that it gave instructions on how to freeze the filling so you could make the pie at a later time. Which was great because I bought enough rhubarb for two pies. So, we made one fresh, and then we made another batch of filling that we put in the freezer.

I'll admit I was a little worried that my kids, and maybe even me, wouldn't love the pie as much as I remembered loving it years ago. But, I didn't need to worry. Everyone, including me, thought it was delicious! Thinking about it now is making my mouth water... I may have to pull out that extra filling, enlist my daughter in making another pie crust, and soon enjoy another slice of heaven! 

 

Here's the recipe we used to make our

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

 

• 4 cups sliced rhubarb
• 2 cups mashed strawberries
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 heaping Tablespoons flour
• 2 Tablespoons butter cut into small chunks
• A pinch of salt
• 1 double pie crust

 

• Combine all ingredients (except pie crust) and mix well 
• Pour into prepared pie crust
• Top with second pie crust (we cut ours into strips and criss crossed them)
• Brush crust with egg white and 1 Tbsp milk or cream 
• Bake in Preheated 425 degree oven for 10 minutes then reduce heat  to 350 and bake for an additional 40 minutes or until golden brown and filling is bubbly.
• Allow to cool  and thicken before cutting
 

**If you want to pre-make your filling and freeze it, just combine all the filling ingredients and pour them into a zip lock bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible, and then use a straw to suck out the remaining air. Lay flat in the freezer. When ready to use, remove from freezer and thaw before adding to pie crust and cooking as directed above.   

 

Zucchini Muffins with Streusel Topping

 

 Got Zucchini???? I do!

 

It's that time of year when zucchini plants are in full production force, and our plants are no exception! We've loved going out to the garden and each time it seems discovering more full sized zucchinis. And I have been busy trying out all kinds of different recipes to use them! 

I know a recipe must be good when I've made it twice, and both times the food gets gobbled up by the family.

 

One of those recipes has been one I found for some zucchini muffins. I love that these muffins include oats, and as a bonus they have a yummy streusel topping! The original recipe (here) uses some whole wheat flour too, which would make them healthier, but I opted to just use all white, since that is what I had on hand. 

They were easy to whip up, especially since one of my sons LOVES grating zucchini (good thing, because it's not my favorite past time!), and they tasted great! 

So, grab your zucchini (if you don't have any your neighbor probably does) and try these muffins yourself. I don't think you'll be disappointed! 

This recipe makes about 24 muffins...

What You'll Need: 

FOR THE MUFFINS:

• ⅓ cups Rolled Oats
• 2 cups Flour
• ½ cups Brown Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ¼ teaspoons Baking Soda
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoons Nutmeg
• 2 cups Packed Grated Zucchini
• ⅔ cups Buttermilk
• 2 whole Eggs
• ½ cups Butter, Melted

FOR THE STREUSEL TOPPING:

• 2 Tablespoons Butter, Melted
• 4 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 4 Tablespoons Rolled Oats
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• ½ teaspoons Ground Cinnamon

What You'll Do: 

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Spray muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.
• Combine streusel ingredients in a small bowl and stir until well mixed. Set aside.
• For the muffins: Stir together all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Fold in the grated zucchini and mix until it is well coated with the dry ingredients.
• In a small bowl whisk together the eggs, buttermilk and melted butter. Fold into dry ingredients stirring just until combined.
• Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups and top with struesel topping.
• Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Grab a cup of milk and enjoy eating your veggies! 

Creme Brûlée... Heaven in my Mouth!

When we lived in Las Vegas my husband and I would occasionally go to one of the many buffets to eat for date night. There were lots to choose from, but there was one that had the most gorgeous desserts. I don't usually get dessert when we go out but the ones at this place were too good to pass up.

They had  all kinds of homemade pies, and pastries, and tarts, and cookies, and even gelato... mmm, the gelato, SO good! I think I can taste it now! 

Among all these wonderful culinary creations I discovered a love for a dessert which I hadn't had much previous experience with - Creme Brûlée. Something about the silky texture, delicious vanilla-y taste, and a warm caramelized sugar on top really hit the spot for me. I'm not sure that their's was any better than anywhere else, but it sure was good, and I found myself looking forward to date nights at that restaurant just because of it. 

Well, now that we've moved away from Buffet City, um, I mean Las Vegas, it's back to skipping the desserts when we go out (which is probably a good thing). And I thought my Creme Brûlée days were a thing of the past. 

I never even considered that I could make them myself. I didn't have a recipe, or a torch to caramelize the top, and I figured that the whole process of actually making such a thing must be pretty difficult. 

But, things change! A while back, while  perusing through Pinterest I came across a pin for a Creme Brûlée recipe that claimed to be easy, so of course I pinned it. Then, the stars really aligned when I found an inexpensive torch for sale at a garage sale. 

It seemed like fate was telling me it was time to try making my own Creme Brûlée! And when fate tells me something, I know I'd better get to it (that's good justification for dessert, right?!?).

So, I did just that, and besides a few malfunctions with the garage sale torch, this recipe was pretty easy, and so delicious! It does take some time since you have to cook and cool, etc. but the process isn't difficult, and the results are definitely worth the wait!! 

Here's the recipe I followed to make my very first (and I'm sure not my last) Creme Brûlée: 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 quart heavy cream
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ cup sugar
• 6 large egg yolks
• 2 quarts hot water
• ½ cup sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• In a medium saucepan, combine heavy cream and vanilla. Stir constantly over medium heat for about 7-8 minutes until mixture starts to bubble, close to a simmer.
• Remove saucepan from heat. Cover and let set for 15 minutes.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together ½ cup sugar and the egg yolks until it is well blended and just starts to lighten in color. Add the cream a little at a time, stirring continually until everything is combined.
• Pour the liquid into 6 (7 to 8-ounce) ramekins. Place the ramekins into a large cake pan. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
• Bake at 325 degrees F, just until the creme brulee is set, but still trembling in the center. Bake approximately 40 to 45 minutes.
• Remove the ramekins from pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.
• Remove the creme brûlée from the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes prior to browning the sugar on top.
• Divide the remaining ½ cup sugar equally among the 6 dishes and spread evenly on top. Using a torch, melt the sugar and form a crispy and browned top. The Creme Brûlée needs to sit at least 5 minutes before serving.

Countdown Blocks

December is always a busy month for me. I try to make a lot of homemade Christmas gifts to give friends and family, which always ends up taking longer to make than I think they will. Then I'm ususally waiting in long lines at the post office, hoping that my gifts will even get to thier recipients in time for Christmas. 

The past many years I've felt like things were so hectic during the holidays that I've had a really hard time being able to enjoy the season like I used to. Every year I promise myself that next year I'll do things better, I'll be on the ball and get my gifts made and mailed early so that things are not so crazy with all the last minute preparations.

That's been kind of hard for me, because I tend to be a last minute kind of girl. It's when the pressure is on that I get the inspiration and drive to get things like this accomplished. So, December comes and I find myself once again rushing to get all the gifts made and sent, and as usual promising myself that next year will be different. 

Well, hopefully this will be the year that things are different! 

A couple of weeks ago my teenage daughter and I decided to get busy and start making some of our Christmas gifts. A little Christmas in July! 

Admittedly, I had some push to do it since I had a brother coming to visit who could deliver some of the gifts, which would save me a ton of postage over mailing them all to Canada. 

This also gave me a deadline, so the last minute motivation was there, even though it wasn't December! 

My Christmas list seems to get bigger every year. More and more of my nephews and neices are getting married and starting families of their own. This year I wanted to make something fun for some of them that they could use for thier young families. 

After lots of Pinterest scanning, my daughter and I decided that we should make them some Countdown Blocks (seen here). 

We have a set of Countdown Blocks in our home that we've used now for a lot of years. My kids have had a lot of fun using them to get excited about upcoming events. The ones we have were specifically made for Christmas, but we keep them up all year long, and use them to count down to other holidays and birthdays, etc. 

So, for these blocks we decided to make them general, so that they could use them all year long, not just for Christmas. I hope they'll like them! 

Note to my married nephews and neices: I'm pretty confident that none of you read my blog, but if you do... pretend you didn't see this post! Forget all about it, and be surprised on Christmas! 

Here's how we made our Countdown Blocks

First I cut some blocks out of a 4x4 post (I had some leftover from when I made this welcome post). The post isn't really 4x4, because of wood shrinkage it was 3.5x3.5, so I cut them 3.5 to make them square. I also cut a 2x4 7.5 inches long. I sanded all the pieces down till they were nice and smooth.

Then I picked out some coordinating paper. Picking paper is always a hard step for me, but luckily I had in my paper stash some already coordinating paper perfect for this project. I'm pretty sure I bought this to use for some other project that I didn't get to, but since I can't remember what that was it must not be important! 

Next we painted the wood. We painted a couple of coats of blue, focusing primarily on the edges, since that is what would show up. We did end up covering the entire block of wood with paint on our last coat.

After painting the blocks we modged podged on paper squares (cut to 3 inches) to the blocks, and a paper strip (cut 7x1.25) onto the long piece. We inked the edges of the paper with blue ink before we attached them for a little added extra effect. 

I cut Vinyl numbers and "countdown", though you could use stickers if you don't have a vinyl cutting machine. The numbers you need for these are 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. This makes it so you can count anything down for one month (or up to 32 days). Notice that there is no nine because the six gets turned upside down to become the nine. When choosing a font to cut (or stickers) watch that the 6 can interchange to a 9 nicely. I didn't think of that when I chose my font so it's not the best looking nine, but it will do.

We attached the vinyl... one block of the set getting a 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The other getting a 0, 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8. And of course, the "countdown" going on the 2x4.

Once we were happy with how everything looked, we coated all the blocks with more modge podge and let them dry. 

Lastly, we carefully wrapped them, and happily sent them on their way! Phew, that eases some of December's burden! 

We made a couple more Christmas presents that week that I'll probably tell you about another day!

Brownie Bowl Pin-tastrophe!!

So, as anyone who uses ideas and recipes from Pinterest very often will know, not everything from there always turns out just like the picture.

I'll admit that this has happened to me on occasion. Sometimes it's because I do something wrong, but sometimes it's just a lousy idea that simply doesn't work.

Last week we had one of those pin-trosities happen!

My twelve year old son and I were preparing to make our family a Monday night treat. As usual we went to Pinterest and looked through my "fabulous food - sweet treats" board for pinspiration.

We found an idea on there (pinned a couple of times actually...anyone else accidentally pin things multiple times?). It was for these brownie bowls that you could put ice cream in.

They looked good, and easy enough, so we got to work on them.
 

All you had to do, according to the instructions, was to make any brownie batter, pour it into a greased muffin tin, then set another muffin tin (greased on the bottom side) on top and bake it like that. Then, when they come out of the oven you should have beautiful, perfectly shaped bowls of brownie goodness ready to fill with your favorite ice cream.
 

Sounds easy enough, right?

Well, not so much.
 

We followed those very directions...mixed up our brownie mix, thouroughly sprayed our muffin tins (I even have a picture for proof!), filled them, put the other tin on top, and popped them in the oven.
 

... But what came out of the oven was NOT perfectly shaped bowls of brownie goodness ...

What we had was a big ugly brownie mess!! A big pin-daster!!
 

So, of course I did some more Pinterest searching to see if I could discover what we did wrong. But, what I found was interesting. I couldn't find any other successful attempts at making these bowls this way.

The pin I used, with pictures of beautiful perfect brownie bowls was from an ice cream company, and that particular advertisement was pinned hundreds (or more) times.

The only other successful actual attempts I found were from people who used specialty pans especially made for making these bowls.

That made us feel a a little better I guess.

And, it wasn't a total loss... We still ate the brownie we could scrape out of the pan, and it still tasted good!
 

But, I don't give up easily. And I'm still not satisfied that there's not a way to use the pans I have to make brownie bowls. I have a few ideas floating around in my mind that we could try... So stay tuned, maybe someday I'll be able to pin a more fool proof method for creating perfectly shaped brownie bowls with two muffin tins!

I don't think I'll have trouble finding kids to eat whatever brownie mess I make in the mean time!

One Pot Zucchini Mushroom Pasta

When we got home from our vacation we were pleased to find that our garden had grown a ton! It's kind of amazing what ten days can do. It wasn't long before we were enjoying peas and beans right from the garden. And soon we were discovering that our zucchini plants were producing nicely too! 

While we don't have zucchinis coming out of our ears just yet (I'm sure we will soon), we've picked enough that I knew it was time to start collecting all the recipes using zucchini that I could find.

Last night we tried one of the new recipes I came across on Pinterest, and it was delicious! 

Besides being delicious, it was also really easy, and didn't even make a lot of dishes for me to have to clean up. That sounds like the perfect trifecta: easy, less mess, and delicious! 

Have you heard of one pot meals? Where you cook everything all at once in just one pot? This pin I found for Zucchini Mushroom Pasta was just that kind of recipe. It instructed to put everything, pasta and all, in your pot and cook it.

I was skeptical at first, wondering if I really trusted that cooking it this way would work out, or if we'd end up with mushy vegetables, or not quite cooked enough noodles. But, to my surprise it turned out just right! 

The vegetables were as if they were steamed, not the mush I worried about. And the noodles were just right too. Once again I was mightily pleased with a Pinterest find (don't ask about dessert though... that turned out to b e a pintastrophy, you might hear about it later!).

The other great thing about this recipe is that we got to use veggies right from our garden. Both the zucchini and the peas were freshly picked. I think that made my kids more excited to try this dish.

Normally I couldn't get away with putting mushrooms into a meal like this. But, I chopped them a little extra and most of my kids didn't even know they were there. They all ate it up and loved it! 

I wanted this to be the main dish for dinner, so I added some chopped chicken into it. I started that cooking in the boiling water a few minutes before I added the other ingredients, just to make sure that it was thoroughly cooked. 

Also, when I made this I doubled the amount of pasta (I used Penne Pasta) and water, and also doubled the cream and parmesan cheese. I used almost two whole zucchinis, and a handful of sugar snap peas that my son picked for me from the garden. And I used however many mushrooms I had. I figured exact measurements of the vegetables weren't that important. I didn't have any fresh thyme on hand so I just added a little dried thyme and it seemed to work out fine.

Here's the recipe as I found it, feel free to change it up as you like! 

ONE POT ZUCCHINI MUSHROOM PASTA

(makes six servings)

INGREDIENTS

1 pound spaghetti

1 pound cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 zucchini, thinly sliced and quartered

2/3 cup peas

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

2 sprigs thyme

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/3 cup grated Parmesan

1/4 cup heavy cream

INSTRUCTIONS

In a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat, combine spaghetti, mushrooms, zucchini, peas, garlic, thyme and 4 1/2 cups water; season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until pasta is cooked through and liquid has reduced, about 8-10 minutes. Stir in Parmesan and heavy cream.

Serve immediately.

My Changes: 

I used 2 lbs of penne pasta, 9 cups of water, regular mushrooms, sugar snap peas (including the shells), regular salt, and a few shakes of dried thyme. For the sauce I premixed 1/2 cup of heavy cream with 2/3 cups of parmesan cheese before adding it to the pasta dish. 

This was delish! I'm sure we'll have it again!! It was a great way to incorporate our fresh garden zucchini into our dinner! 

I'm still looking for more recipes using zucchini, what are your favorite zucchini recipes?