clearing out the pantry chili: this is a perfect recipe if you've got beans or tomato sauce you need to use. plus, it's stupid easy so things can be substituted, added in, so on and so forth. the base of the chili is any sort of beans (I generally use black, red, and pinto, either canned or dried-then-soaked work, but if you're using canned make certain to drain them well) plus anything else you want to add (I generally use onions and jalapeno peppers). any kind of meat can be used also, just make certain to blot it as best you can if you're using beef or turkey. put all this in a bigass pot, cover with tomato sauce or leftover pasta sauce. I like my chili less soup-y so I generally pour enough in so that it almost but doesn't cover the fixins, but if you want to add a little more, you totally can. for spices, I generally use a packet of McCormick chili powder, but you can totally season to taste with chili powder, black pepper, cayenne, etc. Cook the chili on medium for a few minutes then put a lid on the pot and let it simmer for a half hour or until you get damn hungry. eat with cornbread or crackers. The best part of this is it can make a LOT so congrats, you have dinner for tomorrow and the day after.
if you need to bring a lot of something for an event or something like that, this recipe isn't that hard and makes four dozen cookies. You can't cut them out in cookie cutters or anything like that but if you're bringing dessert for the potluck, it'll work: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/9870/easy-sugar-cookies/
also, I need to share y'all the wonders of pimento cheese. It's a pound(ish) of sharp cheddar cheese, three tablespoons of mayo, and one 4 ounce jar of pimentos, mix all of that up together and wham, you've got basic pimento cheese. put it on crackers or a sandwich, add in extras like red pepper or onion if you want, you can do all sorts of things with this. the important thing is, the pimento cheese needs to be a thick enough consistency that you could stick a cracker in there and scoop up some pimento cheese. if it's too soup-like, add more cheddar.
Re: food thread
if you need to bring a lot of something for an event or something like that, this recipe isn't that hard and makes four dozen cookies. You can't cut them out in cookie cutters or anything like that but if you're bringing dessert for the potluck, it'll work: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/9870/easy-sugar-cookies/
also, I need to share y'all the wonders of pimento cheese. It's a pound(ish) of sharp cheddar cheese, three tablespoons of mayo, and one 4 ounce jar of pimentos, mix all of that up together and wham, you've got basic pimento cheese. put it on crackers or a sandwich, add in extras like red pepper or onion if you want, you can do all sorts of things with this. the important thing is, the pimento cheese needs to be a thick enough consistency that you could stick a cracker in there and scoop up some pimento cheese. if it's too soup-like, add more cheddar.