Fix-It and Forget-It

Here’s some comfort if you’re out of cooking ideas:

Sweet Potato Chili

Looks like you can have a blog named “My Kitchen Addiction” and still get tired of making food.

What Jen doesn’t say is that all those bright orange sweet potatoes and pumpkins means you’re getting lots of good nutrition when you eat this “addictively” good chili.

Here’s another chili with similar ingredients, this one to make in your slow cooker. (This recipe will also warm the heart and innards of any vegetarian.)
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It’s hard for me to trash some stuff. Not because I think I’ll miss it, but because I imagine the landfill rounding up several inches. I get this vision whenever I hold an empty plastic box in my hands. I’m talking about those eternally sturdy containers with a “4” or “5” molded into the raised triangle on their bottoms.

So I’ve got a cupboard stuffed with those round plastic boxes—in all sizes—each of them waiting for a new assignment. About half the time the cupboard door doesn’t close tightly, it’s so full. When I start to nick up my knuckles getting a stack in or out, I finally take a bunch of boxes out and retire them to the back room of the basement—where teetering piles are gathering, mostly out-of-sight.

I’m a partly converted locavore, but one of the dark, dirty secrets of eating locally for me is this accumulation of untold numbers of plastic boxes. I shop regularly at our downtown farmers market, where the vendors hand me their produce either in plastic boxes or plastic bags (yeah, it’s almost as hard for me to toss bags as it is boxes).

I do carry my grandma’s wicker market basket (it’s at least 50 years old and still doing its job), and I do return empty egg cartons to the woman who sells me eggs. I’ve thought of coming equipped with part of my army of empty plastic boxes and bags and asking that the standholders put the chicken breasts and the fresh pumpkin in them while I wait. . . and while a restless crowd grows behind me as this whole operation consumes precious minutes.

Sometimes when I’ve cooked a big meal and have lots of leftovers, I pull out a raft of plastic boxes and fill them for my mother and daughters and son-in-law. I love getting those boxes out of our house almost as much as I like giving the food away.

Then my mother gives the boxes back. I tell her I don’t want them. She says she doesn’t either.
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Brrr! It’s a little brisk outside the office today. In fact, it’s downright chilly.

And that means it’s time for chili! (Ha. Ha.)

But instead of the typical red-kidney-bean-and-ground-beef-soup, we’re warming our bellies with Pumpkin Black-Bean Turkey Chili.

We can’t resist cooking with pumpkin at this time of year because it’s in season and because we love the gentle flavor of the squash.

In this soup, the pumpkin cuts the acidity that tomatoes can add to many chili recipes, and it adds a soft, sweet flavor that complements, but does not over-power, the turkey and black beans.

We love each hearty bite of Pumpkin Black-Bean Turkey Chili. But even though it’s sturdy and filling, we don’t think it’s quite as dense or heavy as other chili recipes. Plus, it looks simply smashing on a table beside Tomato-Zucchini Ratatouille and Apple Caramel Pie.
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