Judge's Choice Chili Cook-Off Winner!

Yes, I'm shamefully bragging. But it's my first food-related win ever and I'm excited! I work at a sweet advertising agency, and every Thursday during the summer we have a happy hour in the courtyard at 4pm. And to keep happy hour new and exciting (as if I needed any more of an excuse to drink wine and snack on gummy worms), each HH usually has a theme. This time it was a chili cook-off!

I wanted to make a chili full of flavor, meat, heat, and even more meat. My favorite chilis have always been more meaty than soupy, and more meaty than beany, so therefore I used about 7 lbs of a variety of meat in this chili.

[my itsy bitsy little counter space for cutting up all the veggies. thanks mama for the cute cupcake apron, and to Greg for the heavenly Calphalon knives!]

I don't have the exact recipe, and I sort of forgot because this was a couple weeks ago... Oops! But these are the ingredients to the best of my memory (which isn't great).

Meats:
- Dry Spanish chorizo, probably 2 or 3 links. Cut 2 links into small cubes, and leave one to mash up in the pot.
- BACON. I used about 6 strips. Cook it till crisp then break it up into small pieces.
- 3 different kinds of beef. I don't really remember, but I picked cuts that were thick and had great marbling (while being on sale). Get around 6 lbs worth.

Veggies:
- Diced: red and yellow bell peppers, celery (4 or 5 stalks), onion (half a brown, half a white)
- Garlic, minced and sliced.
- Canned whole tomatoes, crush by hand
- Tomato sauce, I think, maybe half a can...
- Serrano peppers, 2 or 3, I think the day of the cook-off it wasn't spicy enough, so I added in a couple more.
- Jalapenos soaked in chipotle (Alton Brown taught me that one). don't add too much of the chipotle, it's very overpowering.

Seasonings:
- Cumin
- Cayenne
- Lots of cracked pepper
- Garlic salt
- Onion powder
- Probably a cube of boullion
- A couple others, coriander/chili/etc, whatever was lying around the pantry pretty much.

Other:
- Great American white beans (I think that's what they are called... doesn't matter)
- chicken or beef stock

1. Generously season meat with salt, pep, cayenne, whatever. Sear all the meat with some of the garlic to lock in juices and flavor. Throw in the chorizo, mash up the uncubed one in the pot. Add in all the diced veggies. And toss in all the seasonings. Let it all cook together a little bit.

2. When veggies are getting a little soft, dump in the stock. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pot to get all those yummy burnt meat pieces. Add in the tomato stuff and half of the bacon and whatever else I forgot to metion so far. I put the other half of the bacon in before serving so that there's a nice crunch. Bring to a bubble, then pour into your crock pot and simmer it at least overnight. I served it with sharp cheddar cheese.

3. Serve to the masses. Notice how there are no soup puddles left standing? All that meat drunk it all up:

4. Claim the prize! This is a fellow Bruin and agency VP, Pete Imwalle. What did I win, you ask? 2 movie tickets, an extra large Angels t-shirt, an Angels baseball hat, and extra large orange Oxygen channel flip flops. Angels stuff was given away since I am 110% a San Francisco GIANTS fan. But most importantly, I won the coveted pride-and-glory bragging rights.

Now I'm hungry again... What's funny is that the day of the cook-off, my mouth was so burnt from the test pot I made the 2 days before, that I couldn't even eat my chili! But thankfully I had lots of hungry coworkers and my roommate Steph to help me make sure the pot was cookoff-ready before sending it out. =)

Getting back to my roots

I visited my family and hometown over the weekend, and so of course, as it always is, I gained about 5.8 lbs from the sheer amount of delicious home cooking that I can never refuse - both because I'm Filipino and it's a SIN to deny food from your elders, and because it's just that damn amazing. Also, whenever my grandma knows I'm coming home for the weekend, she texts me the week before asking me what I want to eat! She is pretty amazing (plus she knows how to text!) and I owe that foodie part of me to her.

Grandma Upeng, and toffee crunch cake:

I love going back home, especially for holidays. My mom's whole family lives in the Bay Area, her parents, 4 brothers and sisters, and all the nieces and nephews (except for me obvi, and my brother and cousin that are in college). And we always get together to celebrate every birthday, every new American citizen induction, every major holiday, and even some of the smaller ones. Any excuse to eat great grub, watch the Giant's game, and pick on the little kids - we're there, together.

The emotional connection I have between my family and food is probably why I am so obsessed with food. If I'm having a great day, I crave food to further enhance that feeling. If I'm having a nervous breakdown, I need food to make me feel better. Here is some photographic evidence of some of the food I've grown up with along with some new favorites:

Grandma's paella. For some reason, probably because Tagalog doesn't have the double-L of the Spanish language, our family pronounces it Pah-ail-ya. Whenever I say it like that, pretentious people tell me I'm saying it wrong, but they're just so closed minded.

Every Christmas morning, my grandma serves popovers hot out of the oven along with her homemade strawberry butter. She knows I love them so much that she made a special non-Christmas day batch last weekend!
My Caca Tony's pulled pork. I call him caca not because he smells like poop, but because when I was little I would say "caca" instead of "uncle"! He is also an amazing cook and grill master. His specialties include deep frying a whole turkey (our Thanksgiving turkey has been deep fried for the past decade!), and any slab of meat that you can throw on a grill.

My grandma's famous crab. People fly over from the Philippines and the first thing they want is this crab. No thank you Crustacean of Beverly Hills, step aside $50/lb bills. This is the real deal, crab fat and all.

My mom is less of a chef and more of a food artist. This japanese amuse-bouche includes uni, toro, and tobiko.

Next up for One Potbelly: I'm entering my company's chili cook-off tomorrow! Recipe, pictures, and results to come!

Oops, my bad.

I totally forgot about you. Ok, not you specifically, the blog. I forgot about taking pictures (or making my photographer boyfriend take pictures), I forgot about taking the time to write a semi-entertaining post, I forgot about taking this dream I had to be world famous... blogger... to a whole new level. Well, now that I put it that way, I really was trying to be less selfish because I would have had to take a whole bunch of different things. But I'm ready now to put myself first. =)

It's been 6 months, 1 week, and 4 days since my last post. And it's not like I've been sitting around waiting for my butter to come to room temperature that entire time. Honestly, do you think I'm that much of a loser? ... Don't answer that. But this is what I've been up to:

1. I went to the Philippines! And Japan! For 3 weeks! Did I use enough exclamation points yet to tell you that I loved it?!!?!?! Highlights: the gorgeous pristine Philippine islands, my lovely family that I don't get to see nearly as often as I would like, the serenity of Japan, the kazillions of beyond adorable Japanese trinkets, my first (and 10th) Pierre Herme French macaron (!!), the freshest most amazing seafood and sushi, the multiple suckling pigs that gave their lives to the heavenly dish of baby lechon, the $5 manicures, the $15 full body massages, TOCINO the foie gras of breakfast food, uni and tako 5 minutes out of the ocean. Oh lawdy what the heck am I still doing in America?

Palawan Islands, Philippines

Embracing my inner-Asian, Tokyo, Japan

Catching crabs in the Philippines (Ok, fine, the local dudes actually caught it)

2. I took my first French dessert class. I now know how to make financiers, the most delectable sea salt caramel french macarons, and some other stuff that I don't bother remembering because why make those inferior desserts when I can make sea salt caramel French macarons? Who's with me??


3. I moved apartments! Exactly 5 blocks northeast-ish of my former apartment. It. Is. Amazing. You know you love your apartment when you battle through LA numbnut drivers to eat lunch on your lovely balcony. My roommies are great (check out Steph's blog - honestly a lifesaver because I don't know anything about hair or makeup), walking distance to amazing Thai food, a dollar store, and a trendy bar, a smooth bike ride down to Venice Beach, how much more can you ask for in LA? I have a lovely room with tons of storage, a private balcony that gets just the perfect amount of sunshine, parking, and my own bathroom (first time ever in my life!) This is a picture of my lovely bed. Thanks to my interior designer mama for decorating and the financial backing! Also thank you to Mr. Ross, Targé, and Craig Slist for their amazingly affordable furniture finds!


What's your favorite getaway spot? Where's the best place you've lived? What's your favorite French dessert/pastry?? This post is far too long now. More food related commentary to come!