The Plucky Housewives

I usually have a standard chili recipe that I use - have for over 20 years.  I rarely deter from it.   This last week, we were homebound, due to weather and with the bitter cold, going out and fetching for a few items just was not on the radar.   I was hungry for chili though and scoured the pantry.   I had made soup the day before and my favorite pot was in the outside fridge, so I had to find an alternative.   A friend had recently commented she had made her chili in her crockpot, so I thought, why not.  Now mind you, I am not a big crockpot person.  Its use, for me, has been confined to reheating and transporting, so this was another stretch from my comfort zone.   The recipe below is the result. Mind you, my husband loves it, but he loves spicy food.  I loved it, but next time, for me (and as I have noted in the recipe) the fewer chipotles, the less spicy. Spicy Chipotle Chili – Crockpot style 1.5 lbs ground beef (80/20) – I usually make this with 1.5 lbs of beef chunks, c

Its been cold.   Very cold.   One of the "pros" when deciding to move to Missouri 2 years ago, was that the Show Me state had a more moderate climate.   Tell that to old man winter this year.  Today, the high is -4 with a windchill between -25 and -30.  Hello?   When did that become moderate?   Thankfully, the native Wisconsin blood that pulses through this body knows how to feed a half frozen family - its called soups and stews! So when searching on pinterest for a new recipe (sorry kids, I wasn't in a corn chowder mood), I came across a picture for a Buffalo Chicken Soup.   I followed the links, but they were dead - to just pics and no recipe.  I turned to google ands struck gold.   Buffalo Bleu Chicken Soup This soup, adapted from several different recipes I found (isn't that how it always goes), reminded me of a dear friend back in Wisconsin.   We share a love of bleu cheese, gorgonzola, the really creamy, danish and very bleu of them all.   What makes thi