Fabulous Chili

Found a good-looking chili recipe on the Better Homes and Garden website and thought I'd try it. Made a few alterations and, wow, it's fantastic. Don't let the ingredients put you off. Make it and try it!

FABULOUS CHILI

              Serves 12

      1    Recipe Chili Seasoning, (recipe below)

      1 1/2
pounds ground beef chuck

      1 1/2 
large onion, chopped

      3 
stalks celery, sliced

      2 1/2 
tablespoons smoked paprika

      2 1/2 
teaspoons ground coriander

      1 
teaspoon crushed red pepper

      3/4
teaspoon ground cloves

      2   15 ounce can diced tomatoes

      1   can kidney beans

   1 
32 ounce container beef broth

      1 
6 ounce can tomato paste

      2 
ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped or

             1 semi-sweet, 1 unsweetened

      1/2
cups dried plums, chopped

directions

Prepare Chili Seasoning Puree. In 6-quart Dutch oven cook beef, onion, and celery until meat is browned, stirring as needed. Drain fat.

Stir in Chili Puree, paprika, coriander, crushed red pepper, and cloves. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Stir in undrained tomatoes, beef broth, kidney beans and tomato paste. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Add chocolate and plums. Simmer, covered, 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Makes 12 servings.

 Chili Seasoning Puree

      2 
dried chili peppers

      ¼ cup 
jarred, tamed jalapeno peppers

      3/4
cup beef broth

      5 
pitted dried plums

directions

Place dried chile peppers in a bowl. Add boiling water to cover. Let stand 30 minutes. Drain; remove stems and seeds. In food processor or blender combine drained chile pepper, jalapeno pepper, beef broth, and dried plums. Cover and process or blend until smooth.

Another One Done!

First things first: Did you all get a copy of Judy's new book, "60 Pieced Borders"? What a fabulous book!! There are so many quilts and borders I want to make! What a design WIZARD she is! If you haven't gotten the book yet, I'll tell you, it's the best value in a quilt book I've ever seen--and I have a couple hundred quilt books! Go get it!

Now, for my design wall:

I'm on a roll--two quilts finished in one week! How did this all come about? See, the part that always holds me up with a quilt is the PINNING! I simply don't have a place big enough (the floor is not an option with my bad back) to comfortably get this part of the process done--until this week!! My DH come up with 2 long tables and cleared a space in our well-lighted garage to put them up, got me a chair and everything so I could sit and pin--YAY!!!.

So, I pinned 3 quilts and quilted 2 of them! You saw the first in Judy's last Design Wall Monday (the baby quilt for my daughter's friend) and this one is for my daughter and her wife who will be closing on their first home next week. It will be a throw for their new sofa. Their color plan is white, black and Tiffany blue, the condo is bright and modern and they're young so I wanted something hip and fun. I decided on "Happy Hour" by Atkinson Design.

They don't know what the quilt looks like but I gave them a choice of back fabric knowing full well what they would choose: Zebra print Minkee! I quilted it with big flowers and leaves which I know they'll love too. I named the quilt "Happy Hour, Happy Home". I hope they thrive in this new space that's totally their own!

A word about the little orange rectangle: My daughter is trying to find the perfect rug for her living room and I told her last week to find one with a complimentary color in it as a boost to the palette they chose. That would be orange. Since they were married on Halloween, I included this orange fabric which has little pumpkins on it; a salute to their very happy, 3-year marriage.

Do you like the binding I chose?

One more thing: I just came back from arguably, the best quilt show in California: "Road 2 California" down in Ontario. The quilts! The people! The classes! The SHOPPING!!! Here's what I bought: 4 new patterns I just MUST make NOW, enough thread to last me a lifetime  including 72 pre-rolled bobbins ('Superior' thread is my fav brand--2 miles of thread on each of those big spools), 4 kinds of needles, pearle cotton, some new gadgets to try and a few pieces of fabric to fill in my stash. PHEEEW! What a fabulous time I had!
Now I have to get into my sewing room!