I am done whining, back to a recipe! I am certain you are thinking, “It’s about time!”

At the request of a kind follower, Dagmar, I am also putting up a few more pictures of Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon.  Tomorrow, I’ll share a few photos from our trip on the Verde Canyon Railroad, along the beautiful Verde River.

The recipe may have a long name, but it couldn’t be easier to make. Tri-Tip is a classic cowboy beef cut that is thick, nicely marbled, and very flavorful. It is the triangular cut at the tip of the sirloin.

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I found this lovely orange Kuri squash at the Phoenix Public Market in downtown Phoenix. It was almost too pretty to use, but I finally caved and made it into an equally lovely soup. Any winter squash will work just as well; butternut, pumpkin, acorn, whatever you find or have on hand.

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I am finally letting my subscription to Family Fun magazine run out. I’ve been in denial for …oh, let’s say the past 8 years, that my family status (meaning the ages of my two remarkable and incredibly talented children) has long passed the prime target audience of this great magazine. Kinda like a 25 year old still subscribing to Seventeen Magazine… it’s just sad!

But, if YOU happen to have young kids or grandkids, you NEED to get this magazine! There are SO many great ideas for crafts, vacations, recipes, backyard fun, parties, and on and on and on! But since my “kids” are 20 and nearly 24 – it is seriously time for me to let it go. Well, now we celebrate everything in normal adult ways. Like, for Halloween, we could throw a party for friends and family or have a quiet night with a horror movie marathon (choose movies through hellhorror.com or equivalent websites). However, I still miss the magazine since it provided great fun ideas.

As a matter of fact, Family Fun was born the same year as Connor – founded in 1991 by Disney and it is the country’s number one magazine for families with children ages 3-12, with more than 2 million subscribers. Now, if one of my two were to get married and have a child (BIG HEADS UP…that is the “right” order – BTW!) then, I will immediately re-subscribe! Until then, I shall reminisce with a couple of my favorite Halloween ideas taken directly from the pages of my beloved Family Fun… Oh yeah, and here are my truly awful photos from when I could not remember how my own camera worked at 4 AM… yeah, good times!

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Chayote squash is a member of the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, along with melons, cucumbers and squash. Chayote is a good source of amino acids and vitamin C. The pear-shaped green fruit has a thin skin and a flattened pit (seed) that can be eaten but is generally discarded. Chayote may be eaten raw, but is usually cooked as a side dish. You’ll find it in the produce section sold individually in little plastic sleeves or wrapped in tissue paper, which helps protect the thin skin from being pierced or blemished.

Now that you know all about chayote, it’s time to tell you about the coyote. But first, a little history.

Our backyard is enclosed by a 6-foot tall solid block wall. Inside that wall live quail, bunnies, ground squirrels, and (gasp) roof rats. I can live with the cute quail and bunnies, even though the quail are stupid and bad parents and they tick me off and the bunnies eat my flowers. I used to think the squirrels were cute until one snuck into my house.  Well, he didn’t actually sneak in, he walked right in through the open door. It was two years ago, and I’m still not over it. Here is what I posted on Facebook that day – October 26, 2009
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Last month my dad was in Colorado visiting friends and shopping for beans. OK, not exactly shopping for beans, but he had offered to pick up some anasazi beans for my cousin, Dennice, and some pinto beans for a friend of his. Dennice was thinking he’d get her a pound or two of beans, but in my dad’s usual style, he brought home a 10-pound bag. Really, who needs 10-pounds of dried beans?  I offered to take three pounds off her hands, at $1.20 a pound, they were a steal. If you haven’t seen anasazi beans before, they are pretty cool looking, but honestly, they taste about the same as a kidney bean, and once cooked, they lose most of their good looks. Plus they are a lot more expensive than plain-Jane kidney beans as you can see from THIS LINK on Amazon.  Anasazi beans have been available commercially only since 1983, check out THIS LINK to learn more about them… and just about every other bean you might be even remotely interested in. So, feel free to substitute kidney beans in this recipe. And if you don’t want to go to the time (overnight soaking) and trouble of starting with dried beans, use three 15-ounce cans of kidney or pinto beans, drained and reserving the liquid. You’ll be adding that liquid (or the cooking liquid from the dried beans) to the chili. If you don’t have a full 3 cups of liquid to add, supplement with either tap water, vegetable broth, or chicken broth.

The thing that makes this chili special is the blend of three pure chile powders; California, ancho, and chipotle. Do me a favor – go pull out the jar or can of McCormick or Shilling chili powder you have in your spice cabinet. Now look at the ingredients; it probably reads something like this – Ingredients: chili peppers, cumin, oregano, salt, garlic, and silicon dioxide. That’s right, plain chili powder is more than just plain. So buy a selection of pure chile powders and you will be able to control the season of things you use chile powder in. If you want to kick it up a bit, add more chipotle chile powder, to taste. Most grocery stores now carry all three of these chile powders, and you can always find them at Cost Plus World Market.

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I’ve been pulling out and putting up the Halloween decorations these past two days and since we were in Canada last Halloween, the storage boxes were literally buried in the shed. It was a chore to get them out of there… I’ve got the cuts and bruises to prove it.

The motivation was our weather. The last couple of days have been gorgeous; the windows are open, the air is off, and life is good! Well, at least for now, because it is going to be 93 degrees on Tuesday, 97 degrees on Wednesday, and 99 on Thursday! What is up with that!?! Ninety-nine degrees on October 13th… that is not right! Not. Right.

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My sister and niece, Sloane and Raina, had a long-weekend getaway to Portland, Oregon last month. I had the task… I mean the pleasure… of dog-sitting for their pooch, Bubo. When I say that Bubo is a spoiled brat, that is just glancing the tip of the iceberg. Yeah, he’s cute, and that is the only thing that kept me from ringing his little neck. We (as in Dave, my dad, and I) can’t agree if he is deaf, stupid, or just a brat. Bubo will NOT come when you call him; Dave thinks he can’t hear, Dad thinks he doesn’t know his own name – making him an idiot, I know that my sister has just spoiled him to pieces and that Bubo loves to be chased after. Ugg!

I am pretty hardcore when it comes to spoiled brats … Bubo did NOT sleep on our bed as suggested by Sloane, or even in our room for that matter. No – since he is a dog – he slept on his little pillow on the tile in the gated-off area of the breakfast room/kitchen/laundry room, and he was just fine with that… no whining or complaining, just sleeping all night. Although my sister brought over a bagful of various doggie treats, he only received one a day, not one every single time he looked up wistfully at me. He was not allowed to bite at my toes and fingers or tear into my shoes… you get the idea – I straightened him out, but I’m certain he’s back to his old antics… right, Sloane?

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I am completely “committing to the chai” with this French toast. It goes without saying that this is delicious served with the Vanilla Chai Tea Hot Toddy for a perfect fall brunch. Enjoy!

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I am so beyond ready for fall. I’ve been working on some chai tea recipes in anticipation. The high temp today is expected to be 97 degrees. But I don’t care what the thermometer says, I am turning down the A/C (sorry environment – blame mother nature!) and having a hot toddy on this, the first Sunday morning of October! Then, once I perfect the chai tea French toast and chai syrup, I will share it with you, even if the weather does not cooperate.

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The fun little picture above is meant to represent the number 100, as in 100 consecutive days of blog posts – a new record on my part.  When I made the decision back on September 10th (day 80 in a row), I had no idea just how difficult it would be to not miss a day for 3+ months. You never know what life is going to throw your way when you make a plan – a public statement – like that.  But in many ways, this blog is my therapy, it keeps me honest, and well, I just love doing it.

October is always my busiest month of the year, so I’m happy that it worked out that September 30th is day 100. Just for the sake a trivia and my amusement, the previous streak of consecutive posts was 72 back in June, July, August, of 2010.

I was wracking my brain thinking of what might be fun to make for post #100. I searched the web for food-related “100” and found nothing.

Then I went to Foodnetwork.com and found our own Chef Beau MacMillan, executive chef at Elements at Sanctuary with this video.  The video is from the show “The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Street Food”  and Beau is talking about H-100 tater tots from the Grill ‘Em All food truck in Los Angeles, CA.  Food truck chef Ryan Harkins named the tots after a hard-core rock band, H-100 from Ohio.

It was about a year and a half ago that Beau was right here in my kitchen cooking with Larry Fitzgerald and me. He is a great guy and if he loves these tater tots, I knew they must be something special. I’ve tried to re-create them here.  Next time I’m in LA, I’m going to find that truck and compare … ’cause man, these are awesome!

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