Hominy Chili

Hominy Chili

After making Posole (a Mexican pork/hominy soup that is DELICIOUS) a handful of times, I started looking around to see what else I could do with hominy. Hominy is dried corn kernels from which the hulls and kernels have been removed. It has a distinctive flavor and texture that Chris and I both really like.

I came across a few recipes for various soups and chili’s that all looked pretty good, but didn’t seem to have enough pep in them for me. So, I used them as inspiration and tonight created my own version of hominy chili!

For your enjoyment:

Hominy Chili

1 small can fire roasted chilies, undrained
2 teaspoons minced garlic (jarred is fine)
¼ - ½ cup chopped red onion
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 15.5 oz can white hominy, drained
1 15.5 oz can red beans (kidney), rinsed and drained
1 15.5 oz can diced tomatoes (low/no salt), undrained
1 15.5 oz can fire roasted stewed tomatoes, undrained
shredded mozzarella cheese (garnish)
sliced radishes (garnish)
chopped cilantro (garnish)

Heat a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the chilies, garlic and onions to pan. Sauté in the chile juices until the onions are soft. Add the chili powder and next 5 ingredients (through stewed tomatoes) to the pan. Mix well. Heat to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes (longer for thicker chili) or until well heated.

Spoon 1.5 cups chili into bowl, top with raw sliced radish, chopped cilantro and a tablespoon of cheese.

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Of course, you can make this your own by choosing cheddar cheese, or using sour cream as a topping instead of the mozzarella, etc. This chili is tasty and filling. Next time I will likely add a bit more heat to it with either some fresh jalapeño or poblano, or perhaps add a little chipotle powder in addition to the chili and cumin. I served this with a side salad and was quite satisfied.

If you are a beer drinker a nice Mexican beer like Corona would be tasty!

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What else did we do today you ask?

Well, a looong time ago I started telling you about Mead, which we have continued to ferment. In fact, we have actually started several other batches since our first foray into mead-making. The first mead was “traditional” mead that we flavored with lemon and ginger. The next mead was prickly pear cactus mead. The third, and most recent, is blackberry mead that we are making with some of the fresh blackberries we picked last summer. It SMELLS so GOOD!

In the fall we also made a batch of hard apple cider.




Today, after about 9 months, we bottled the traditional mead into wine bottles and are going to let it continue to ferment and age in the bottles for another several months or year even.



In January we bottled the prickly pear mead into wine and beer bottles. We bottled that first, even though we made it second, because we used a different process for the fermentation, so it processed faster than the traditional mead. We are hoping to be able to start drinking the prickly pear mead this summer at some point.




With mead, the longer it sits the more the flavors mellow and blend, so sometimes one batch can have several different outcomes, depending on how long it sits in the bottle.

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Chris and I also went for a hike yesterday. I have told you before about Roxy Ann, the mountain behind our house. Well we have hiked up there several times. Our hikes have been varying lengths. One time we hiked up to the summit, but that only took us around about half of the mountain. Yesterday we went to go for a “short” hike and ended up doing the entire loop around the top of the mountain!

We hiked for about an hour and a half. The loop road around the summit is about 2.9 miles and the access road up to the start of the loop is between 0.5 and 0.8 miles (depending on which resource I look at). Either way, we ended up going for about a 4 mile hike! It was totally gorgeous here. Sunshine, blue skies as far as the eye could see. The temperature was in the mid 60’s. Chris was plenty warm in a t-shirt and shorts. It was really wonderful. It felt very much like spring!!

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One more little recipe before I leave you for today.

This doesn’t really have a name. You can call it shredded crock-pot beef.



Shredded Crock-Pot Beef

1 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1-2 lb London broil (top round) steak
1 15.5 oz can diced tomatoes
½ can light beer (coors light)

Turn on 3-4 qt crock-pot to high. Chop onions, garlic and chipotle chili. Add to heated crock-pot. Add basil, oregano and thyme. Put lid on to let onion mixture steam lightly. Heat a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add olive oil to heated pan. Cook London broil 3-4 minutes, or until browned, on each side. Add seared steak to crock-pot. Add tomatoes and beer. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours, then turn to low for 3-6 more hours. Shred the beef with two forks. Serve over brown rice or couscous.

* I would not suggest serving over mashed potatoes. The potatoes suck all of the flavor out of the meat. Instead, serve it over rice or couscous or some other grain that will add to the dish.

I added a nice side salad. This is a hearty and flavorful crock-pot meal. It is great to use with the cheaper, tougher cut of meat like the top round or other inexpensive cut.

Have a happy week!

Mead-Part Deux

Mead-Part Deux

Last time I gave you some history of mead, and told you about our initial recipe. We left off with the brew being placed in the initial fermentation container (carboy).

To refresh: the honey, water and yeast are blended together. The yeast feeds on the sugar in the honey, thereby causing fermentation. We did not add any additional nutrient to the mix. Nutrient helps the process go faster.

The brew was started on April 3, 2010. It was off-gassing at a rate of about 12-13 seconds, which means that the vapor lock would have a little bubble pop up every 12-13 seconds. This means that the fermentation process is happening.

After about 5 weeks in the original carboy, Chris decided it was time to transfer the “wort” to a secondary fermentation container (carboy). This carboy is a large glass jug. Sometimes, depending on the process, the wort may need to be transferred multiple times.

Here are some pictures of the process of getting the wort from the white bucket carboy to the clear glass carboy.









The glass carboy is, again, topped with a secure vapor lock to keep air and bacteria out of the mix. The wort has continued off-gassing at about 12-13 second intervals up until the last few days, when it has slowed to about 20 seconds between bubbles. The fermentation process is starting to slow down just a bit, which means it is almost ready for another transfer.

Mead is a brew that takes a long time to make. Unlike beer, which can be done in a few weeks, mead regularly will take several months to a year, to finish fermenting. The longer you leave it the clearer and crisper the color and flavor of the mead. So, we won’t be drinking any of this mead for quite some time.

However, we did take a tiny sample when we were doing the initial transfer. Wow…it was very tasty!

Mead-Part One

Mead: The Honeymoon Brew

Mead. Most people have never heard of it. In its simplest definition, Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from yeast fermented honey water. Sounds appetizing, no?

Mead is as old as history itself. Because of the simplicity of ingredients, the stability of honey (honey never spoils), and mead’s mythical properties of being an aphrodisiac and increasing the likelihood of giving birth to boy children, mead has been around for thousands of years. Mead is found throughout history in cultures around the globe, from the ancient Greeks and Romans, the Aztecs and Incas, and from the Vikings to the Australian Aborigines.

Mead is thought to have been used, not only as an alcoholic beverage for celebration, but also for medicinal purposes. Honey has antiseptic properties and different cultures would add various medicinal herbs to the mead to treat disease or infections.

Ah, but mead is a romantic beverage. Mead has been touted throughout these ancient histories as a drink that promotes pregnancy resulting in a boy child being born. Boy children were very important for the carrying on of the legacy and lineage of one’s family in ancient times. Also, many of these ancient cultures, like the Vikings, Greeks and Romans, were warring cultures and they needed boy children to continue to be able to go “aViking!” which is what the Vikings called it when they went and attacked and raided other cultures.

Back to the romance; before a man could get the woman pregnant with that healthy boy to carry on the family lineage, there had to be a wedding! After the wedding, and for one lunar month, the father of the bride would throw a feast and serve mead to the groom so that 9 months later a baby boy would be born. This lunar month of mead drinking, celebrating and feasting, is the origin of the “honeymoon”. Mead is a honey beverage provided after a wedding for a “moon” or month. Ah, romance!

Now that you know some history, don’t be expecting to run off to the local convenience store, bottle shop, brew store or pub and pick up some Mead. It just won’t happen. Mead is simply not made for mass production. Most people that have ever tried mead have home brewed it themselves, or like us, tasted it from a friend who home brewed. And, upon tasting the sweet honey brew of the ancients, people are hooked and have to brew their own!

That is what happened to Chris. A good friend, and coworker, of his made some mead. Chris was hanging out and playing Rock Band one night, when his friend broke out some home brew mead. It was mead flavored with ginger. Wow! What a flavor! What a punch! Oh, did I forget to mention that mead is pretty stout when it comes to the overall alcohol content? Yeah, it packs a punch! Well, after that, Chris was hooked and started talking about making his own home brew.

First he had to get the book: “The Complete Joy of Home Brewing” by Charlie Papazian. Then he had to get the tools, which included a brew making kit, a big huge pot, like a turkey frying pot, the cooking stand and honey. Oh yes, don’t forget the honey. For the recipe Chris is making he ended up needing a lot of honey. More on that in a minute.

Before we get into our recipe, there is some terminology to know. Straight yeast fermented honey water is just called mead, but if you add fruit to it, it is called melomel. If you add grapes to your melomel it becomes pyment. Adding herbs and spices makes it a metheglin. Apple juice with your honey creates cyser. For our first attempt at mead making we decided to go with similar mead to the one Chris’ friend home brewed.

Lemon Ginger Mead – April 3, 2010

12 lbs alfalfa honey
3 lbs clover honey
6 lemon tea bags
1/3 lb fresh ginger
1 slap pack of champagne yeast
distilled water

Yes, as you can see, 15 lbs of honey. That is a lot of honey.

First, Chris heated about 2 gallons of water and all 15 pounds of the honey until it came to a boil. This time, he boiled it for about ten minutes. There is some controversy whether boiling is necessary. Chris says next time he probably will skip this step.

Meanwhile, make a tea with the lemon tea bags and the grated ginger.

Add the boiled honey, the lemon-ginger tea, and enough additional water to a “carboy”, to equal 5 gallons of liquid. A carboy is a sealed container that is used for fermentation, aging and storage of the brew.

Then the liquid has to cool to about 70 degrees so the yeast can be added. The temperature cannot be too hot or the yeast, which is a living thing, will die. Once the yeast has been added, it becomes “wort”. The wort must be stirred for a couple of minutes to activate the yeast. Then the carboy is sealed and a vapor lock is installed. This ensures that no air or bacteria gets into the wort, but allows gasses to escape.

When the yeast starts eating the sugar, the wort starts off gassing. This can take about 24 hours to start. This particular mead, Chris did not add any additional nutrient to the mix. The nutrient assists the yeast in the fermentation process, which makes it happen more quickly. This particular mead will take longer to ferment because it does not have any nutrient added.

The wort stays in the carboy, preferably at a temperature of about 70 degrees, until fermentation is complete. This typically takes 2- 4 weeks.

This is the first stage in our mead making process! It has been exciting watching the vapor lock “blurp” little bubbles of gas as the fermentation occurs. It has steadily been “blurping” along at about 12-13 seconds per bubble, which is good consistent fermentation timing.

Check back for updates as our mead making journey continues!