Jason Raven

Buffalo Chicken Chili

This was the winner of last weekend's Raven/White Chili cook-off. The recipe came from CookingForEngineers.com, but their instructions aren't consistent between the recipe and accompanying article. I always like to get my "mise en place" on, so that's incorporated into my instructions and I think it's much easier to prepare my way. You could do steps 1 through 4 early in the day and store them all in the fridge until you're ready to cook, which would reduce the total time it takes at supper time to about half-an-hour. All you need for hardware is a few bowls, a measuring cup, a wooden spoon and a good sized pot (I use a 6 quart stainless steel stock pot).

Mixed in with seaweed - part deux

Last week, we made basil pesto and I had an epiphany: seaweed pesto! What a great way to get rid of my two remaining packages of kelp noodles! I have seen variations of pesto using roasted red peppers, mushrooms, butternut squash, etc... as the base, so why not seaweed?

Mixed in with seaweed

I was watching Bill Green's Maine a month or so ago when I saw a story about a gentleman from Maine that was harvesting seaweed from the ocean, cutting it into thin strips, boiling and packaging it for sale as frozen kelp noodles. I was immediately intrigued and, as usual, waited several weeks to act on it.

I'm beat, beet red

Up until this past year, I was very adept at avoiding beets. My father would eat them out of a can while I grew up. I'm feeling queasy just thinking about it. A couple of years ago, my wife brought some home from the grocery store and the more-mature me decided to give them a try. I had learned by that point that you can't condemn a vegetable just because some people choose to eat it out of a... Oh boy. Would you believe he eats canned potatoes, too? Urp.