A friend sent me an unbelievably yummie looking recipe for Gingerbread White Chocolate Blondies from My Kitchen Cafe. While I haven't gotten around to trying it out yet, I did click around and find some interesting dinner recipes. Tonight I made Creamy White Chili. Despite some substitutions, it turned out great - and Eric liked it! OMG!


Lately, my cooking has been a little hit-and-miss. I attribute this to my tendency to change up a recipe at will: adding and subtracting ingredients, as well as guestimation measuring. The former is usually due to missing items and/or my frustrating pickiness, while the latter I inherited from my mom - most of her recipes were done from recipes in her head that she measured by eye. Early this year I made an amazing lasagna based on the many plates I enjoyed in Italy - which was a matter of changing up my mother's spaghetti recipe into something thicker for the filling, and exchanging mascarpone for the traditional (American) ricotta. The first was amazing, the 2nd less so, and the most recent... bland. That's what I get for adding a million extra spices without keeping track and never bothering to write anything down!

So tonight when I didn't have all the proper ingredients, I was torn between accuracy and laziness (no desire to go to the grocery store at 7pm). So in the end, I left out the cumin and cayenne pepper, substituting half a package of taco seasoning instead. Then I decided that I should listen to my hesitancy about adding the green chillies (they can make me sick), and instead sauteed 2 chipotle peppers (from a can) with the onion (only half of what the recipe dictated). Then I removed the peppers because I didn't want them to overpower things. I also used a clove of garlic instead of the garlic powder. The sour cream I halved (and used fat-free), and I also substituted half-and-half for the whipping cream.

With all those substitutions, I couldn't believe it came out so great! The flavors were subtle (a rarity for me), and it wasn't all that spicy - on first taste. There was an aftertaste that was quite unexpected, and tasty! Definitely try it with crackers - it brings out the sweetness.

Next up, I'm going to try Melanie's Chicken and Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes. Sounds awesome!