Homecooked Chili Dinner

What's the best medicine to cure school pains? A study group dinner! The menu consisted of Spinach Salad with blueberries, fried garlic mashed with roasted macademia nuts, dressed in vinaigrette and Turkey Chili with corn, beans, and scallions. Friends brought cornbread, drinks and desserts.

My gourmande friend noted that the salad could be a bit more tangy. I agree. I blame the vinaigrette, but otherwise, this is one awesome salad. The fried garlic mashed with macademia adds a crunchy texture to the spinach, which by itself contributes less crisp than iceberg lettuce or romaine.

Spinach Salad-with blueberries, fried garlic mashed with roasted macademia nuts

I wanted to make a less fatty chili, so I used ground turkey and lean chicken sausage. I love corn so I dumped a can of it into the crock pot of sautéed meats, spices, beans, a bottle of Shiner, and tomato purée. I'm a texture kind of eater, so once again, the corn accents the otherwise mushy texture of chili with sweet crunches.

Turkey Chili-with ground turkey, chicken jalepeno sausage, beans, corn, and scallions topped with B.D.'s cornbread

To be honest, I hate cornbread. B.D.'s cornbread was yummy, so it made me rethink cornbread. My biggest complaint against cornbread is that it's dry. It usually feels like I'm eating sand. My mission was to make cornbread moist and enhance its sweetness. I think I found one way to do it, but I'm not going to give out my recipe!

Honey Banana Corn Bread