Easy Weeknight Meaty Chili

I got this recipe from a friend who sells Pampered Chef, and immediately thought, YEP, I need to try that. I didn't have their awesome RockCrok to use for their recipe (link here) but I thought I would try it on the stove top and it worked beautifully. I had both ground pork and ground beef, so I decided to use a combination, but you definitely try all beef if you preferred!  

Don't be worried about the unsweetened coca powder in this recipe, it really gives a complexity and smoothness to the chili.  If you're worried, you could cut the qty in half, but honestly, I think you'll like it.  My hubby wants me to make it again using less cocoa powder and more chili powder, which I promised to do next time. 

We're eating more low carb, so i elected to make this without the canned beans, but it would be good either waya. 

Makes enough for 6-8

Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil

1  medium onion, chopped

1 lb lean ground beef

1 lb ground pork 

4-5 garlic cloves, minced

4 Tbsp chili powder

2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tsp cumin

½  can (3 oz/ tomato paste

2- 10oz cans of Rotel diced tomatoes with chilies, undrained

1 1/4 cup water

2 Knorr Chipotle bouillon cubes, or one minced canned chipotle chili (optional)

1-2 cans (16 oz  each) mild chili beans in sauce, undrained (optional, I did not use)

Salt, to taste

Saute the onions in olive oil until they start to soften, add the minced garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes.  Add the ground beef and pork, and cook over medium high heat while stirring. Make sure to leave some big chunks that will add to the texture of your chili. Add in the spices, the canned tomatoes and tomato paste, adding the water at the end.  Give it a stir to combine, and turn the heat to medium low heat. 

Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.  

Add the canned beans (optional) and bring back to a boil. You can serve it over rice, if desired, or just a big bowl of rich chili!

Serve with Sliced green onion, sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, jalapeno slices 

(optional)

South Korea Adventure- Part 2

Our short 6 night trip to Korea was so packed full of fun and interesting sites and experience, I had to break it into two posts!  The first post was HERE and focused on a lot of the food experiences we had.  This post focuses on our visits to the beautiful palaces and shrines and also to the DMZ, also known as the border between South and North Korea. 

There are many palaces within the city of Seoul to explore.  Check their opening times and days, as they are often closed one day a week, so you may only be able to do a couple a day. Also, they are humongous and you will walk miles and miles in one day!

Changdeokgung Palace on a beautiful sunny 

Gates at Changdeokgung

Everyone on their cell phones at Changdeokgung Palace. Can you say SELFIE?

You can rent the traditional outfits while you are there, and we talked about it, but we were a little self conscious to be a 50 something year old woman in this beautiful dress that so many young girls were wearing. It totally would have been amazing photo opportunity though, so, I sorta wish we had done it.

Wonderful angles and roof lines at Changdeokgung

This place was huge! We kept wandering and wandering and had this back corner of the palace to ourselves

We walked forever on the grounds in a free walking tour.  They don't allow people to wander unattended at this palace. This is the Forbidden Garden at Changdeokgung.

Gyeongbokgung Palace (trying asking the taxi driver to take you here... LOL).

Outside the gates on our first attempt to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace - it's closed on certain days of the week, so plan ahead!  

Jongmyo Shrine- lots of ancestors behind those little doors!

Onto the DMZ, we hired a private car and driver for a tour to the demilitarized zone between South Korea and North Korea.  He picked us up at our hotel at about 8am and we didn't return until well after 6pm. While this was the biggest expense we had on our trip (besides hotel), it was definitely a great investment.  He took us to Seoul's War museum and took us through the important historical background before taking us to the DMZ. We learned so much and had a much more emotional experience because of the care of our tour guide.

Nobody told us the North Korea was going to be beautiful!  This is looking from the observation center across the water towards North Korea. You could use telescopes to view the "fake" cities set up across the water. You could tell they were fake as there was absolutely no people or cars to be seen. We were able to view one lone cyclist riding down the road with our telescope. Very weird.

There were displays of all the countries that came to support South Korea, there were many from around the world honored by showing their uniforms of their armed forces.

I have to say, I cried when I read this quote:

"Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country 

they never knew and a people they never met"

What they don't tell you is how much equipment the Russians left in Korea for the North Koreans to use against South Korea.  They were severely at a disadvantage, as this chart shows what each side had on hand at the onset of the war.

Sad to stand in front of the plaque for all the people from Washington that perished in Korea, over 400 soldiers. It was a long corridor of plaques from all the US states, and countries from around the world. Each name honored.

This is the train station built on the railway that travels from South Korea to North Korea. It is the last stop in South Korea, but the train is unable to travel any farther north.. It is virtually new and unused. The map on the wall in the right of the photo shows that if North Korea was open to travel through, then travelers from South Korea could travel to Paris by train. Essentially South Korea is an island until North Korean relations improve.

The guards didn't seem to mind that we stole a little kiss.Okay, so they were mannequins.

After our trip to the DMZ, our wonderful driver took us to a modest neighborhood restaurant for duck BBQ. He told us that nowhere else in South Korea is duck common for grilling in the BBQ style. This tasted so delicious and look at how many little dishes of "stuff" you get" ? If you want more of anything, you just let them know. We had such a great day on this tour and spent over 10 hours with our driver. He was so wonderful with us, we couldn't have been happier with our private tour.

Onto something lighter now... one thing I wanted to do was to visit a Cat Cafe! LOL, go ahead and call me a crazy cat lady, I don't mind!

There was about 14 cats in the cafe, lots of them snoozing, can you imagine that?

You have to remove your shows and wear their cat slippers! How happy was I?

How about we end with a little piece of beautiful cake?  We went into a small chain cafe for a cup of afternoon coffee and how could we not get this to share?  We loved Korea so much, what a wonderful, exotic, friendly and comfortable place to visit. We are already planning our next trip!

Pork Kimchi Burger

I get that kimchi might not be everybody's favorite thing, but I always, always have been a fan, even back before it was cool! Thanks Mom for being different from every other suburban housewife in the 1970's! 

The inspiration for this came out of necessity, we were staying somewhere in a cabin far from home, and I had packed limited ingredients to use for the weekend to put dinner together for the two of us. I always love a challenge!  I had a package of ground pork that I had brought with us, but only had limited other things to work with (I should have planned better- LOL). In full disclosure, we did travel to the Safeway to pick up some kimchi after I shared my idea with my hubby (who insisted we go get it ASAP), but I used what I already had brought with me (hence the simple ingredients!) for the rest.

About two years ago, we were lucky enough to go to Korea, and boy oh boy, did we have a foodie's paradise adventure.  My hubby likes kimchi just as much as I do.  If you are interested, here's a couple travel posts that I wrote to remember the trip!
Korean Adventure, Part 1

Korean Adventure, Part 2- coming soon!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Burgers:

20 oz ground pork
1/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup kimchi, drained (save juice) and chopped fine
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp soy sauce

Kimchi Coleslaw:
4 cups green cabbage, shredded (about 1/2 small head)
1/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup kimchi, drained and chopped coarsely (or more, if desired- I used 1/2 cup)
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2-3 Tbsp kimchi juice 
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp red pepper garlic paste (optional)

4 Buns

Mayo, if desired

Get two bowls out, one for meat mixture and one for your salad.

Chop your green onions finely, add 1/4 cup to each bowl.  Next, chop your kimchi, adding 1/4 cup to each bowl. Shred your cabbage (or use pre-packaged slaw cabbage mixture), add to the salad bowl. Add the vinegar, sesame oil and a bit of salt. Mix the slaw, let it sit and marinate for 30 minutes before serving.

In the meat bowl, add the ground pork to the bowl with green onions and kimchi that you put in there previously. Add in the pork, red pepper flakes, sesame oil and soy sauce. Make mixture of meat (I use latex gloves and mix by hand), shape into patties and grill for about 10 minutes until done.

Assemble the burgers by putting mayo on the buns, add the patty and a generous amount of slaw. Enjoy right away.

Buns, mayo, patties and slaw= Yum

Note- these are just as good served with a side of coleslaw and not on a bun. We found some Franz low carb buns that are delish, so it was great to have a burger!  

Here's the kimchi, ready for chopping.

Chop it pretty finely

Here it is ready for mixing with the cabbage.

I use latex gloves to mix the meat mixture, and shape the patties.

This is the chili garlic sauce I like

Here's my salad, all ready to go. Let it sit for at least 10-15 minutes before serving so the cabbage softens up a little bit.

Patties are all shaped and ready to go on the grill. I put them on wax paper, as it makes it easier to easily over turn onto the grill without deforming the patties by using a metal spatula.  Just my little trick.

Cook over medium high heat for about 10 minutes.  Try not to over cook, you want these to be juicy!