Pork and Summer Veggie Chili

Pork and Summer Veggie Chili

September is the time when I crave chili the most. I love a veggie packed chili, but this time of the year it is a shame to cook your veggies too long because they are so fresh and tasty! I decided to try and make this chili sort of backwards by letting the meat and spices simmer away in the crock pot all day and then adding the veggies at the last minute. The resulting dish was super tasty with a nice juxtaposition of deep slow cooked flavors and fresh light crunchy veggies.

The Avant Gardener’s Salad

The Avant Gardener’s Salad


I wanna grow tomatoes on the front steps. Sunflowers, bean sprouts, sweet corn and radishes.
This is what Courtney Barnett is planning in her song Avant Gardener before her day takes a bad turn. I imagine that things got better and she was able to plant that garden eventually so the neighbors would stop thinking that they have a meth lab in the house. Then one day after the garden grew, she made this sweet salad with the harvest.

Pesto Mashed Potato with Corn Zucchini Pork Hash

Pesto Mashed Potato with Corn Zucchini Pork Hash

I had some leftover pesto but it was only basil hazelnut and garlic, there was no cheese in it. I was brainstorming on how to repurpose the pesto, and because of the lack of cheese I was thinking of going Asian with it. Basil with a nut made me think that a vaguely Thai dish would work. I was thinking of mixing the pesto with some rice noodles at first and maybe popping some pork I had in the freezer on top, but when I was at the store, I was persuaded by the fresh summer corn and zucchini, and some really tasty looking potatoes. I ended up mixing the pesto in with mashed potato, and topping it with a mixture of the pork, corn, and zucchini dressed with some sriracha and fish sauce. It all came out fantastic, summery, and bright, and somehow light yet hearty and filling.

Pasta with Corn Sauce

Pasta with Corn Sauce

My hobby: making pasta sauces out of vegetables besides tomatoes. I’ve done it with red peppers, carrots, and now corn. Mandi is obsessed with summer corn right now, and for good reason, it just tastes so damn good! I always get happy when I can think of a fun unique corn recipe, because most of the time I just eat it off the cob and don’t get to feature it on the site. This sauce came out really sweet because of the sweet nature of corn and carrots. Overall it was really awesome and balanced with the cheese and bacon, but once in awhile you would get a bite that was a little too sweet.

Bluth Family Cornballs

Bluth Family Cornballs

If you don’t want to travel all the way to Mexico to get a cornballer on the black market, you can just make this tasty snack in any deep frying situation. I assume that the cornballs in question are similar to a hush puppy, so that was the approach I took making this recipe. They came out great and were a fun app for our little Arrested Development party. Yo soy loco por los cornballs!