Begin by creating the spice puree.  Add the onion, jalapeno peppers and garlic cloves to a food processor along with about 1/8 cup of water.  Puree until it becomes a greenish slush.  Add olive oil to a large stock pot over medium heat.  Add the ground beef and ground pork.  Brown the meat in the oil.  Once the meat is browned, stir in the spice puree.  Once thoroughly combined, add in the cup of beef stock and then allow to simmer over low heat.  Simmer for about 15 minutes or until about half of the liquid has cooked off.  Add in the tomatoes, salt, pepper, and cayenne.  Simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add in the tomato paste, honey and cinnamon.  Stir thoroughly and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes.  Finally stir in the beans and allow to cook for about another 5 minutes.  The chili is done and ready to serve!

Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil to a large sauce pan or a stock pot.  Add in the onion and let it soften on medium heat for about 2-3 minutes or so.  Add in the garlic and stir it about.  Let it all cook for about 1-2 more minutes.  Now add in your chard leaves in handfuls, stirring as you toss them in.  Once  you have all of the chard in the pot, add in the chicken stock, water and vinegar.  Add in salt and pepper to taste, stir it all about, and then cover it and let it simmer for about 10 minutes or so (or until the leaves have wilted and softened).

Drain the liquid from the chard leaves and you have a tasty, healthy side dish ready for serving!

Peel and dice the potatoes into cubes.  Add them to a saucepan and cover the potatoes with water.  Bring the potatoes to a boil and then allow them to simmer for about 5 more minutes.  You can test the pieces with a fork to see if they are tender enough and done.  Once the potatoes are ready, strain the water from them.

While the potatoes are cooking, make a small batch of sour milk.  This is an excellent substitute for buttermilk if you do not have any on hand.  Most buttermilk these days is made from low fat or non fat milk, so feel free to use buttermilk in this recipe.  But if you do not have any buttermilk on hand, a batch of sour milk will do the trick!  To make sour milk, take 1 cup of low fat or non fat milk and add either 1 tbsp of lemon juice or 1 tbsp of white vinegar.  Whisk them together and allow them to sit for about 10 minutes.  Keep in mind using the lemon juice will add a bit of a very slight tangy citrus flavor.

Whichever form of the milk you decide to use, be sure to add it to a saucepan and allow it to simmer a little to get warm.  Why warm the milk, you ask?  If you don’t, the milk will make your potatoes cold when you add it (and who wants to eat cold mashed potatoes ?).

Ok… now back to these mashed potatoes!  Add the strained potatoes to a bowl and start mashing them by hand with a hand masher.  (Yes, we’re doing this the old fashioned way!)  Once you’ve got them mashed up pretty well, add in as much of the 1 cup of warm milk as you need.  Stir the potatoes with a spoon to get them to the texture you desire.  Add in the garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste. If you desire less or more than my recommended measurements of these, have at it!  Lastly add in the yogurt and chopped parsley and give it all a good mix.  You have mashed potatoes!

TOMATO HERB GRAVY

• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 cup chicken stock or broth
• 2 Roma tomatoes, peeled and diced
• 1/2 tbsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tbsp dried oregano
• salt
• pepper

Combine all ingredients for the meatloaf together into a large mixing bowl.  Be sure the onion is finely diced and add the salt and pepper to taste.  Mix all of the ingredients together well with your hands (Don’t be afraid, get in there with your hands.  You can always wash them later!).

Once you’ve got everything mixed well, move the contents of the bowl into a greased loaf pan.  Get it all level and pretty looking, and then place it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes (or until fully cooked).  Remove the meatloaf from the oven (with oven mitts please!!).  Allow it to cook for 5 minutes or so before slicing it up and serving it.

But wait!  We can’t serve it without the gravy!  To make the gravy, add the butter to a saucepan on medium heat and let it melt.  Once melted, add the flour and whisk together to start to make your roux.  Add a little of the chicken stock in and whisk until you have a yellowish paste.  Now slowly add the rest of the stock while whisking.  Whisk vigorously to avoid getting any clumps (I mean, who wants clumpy gravy?).  Allow the gravy to come to boil and thicken.  Add in your diced, peeled tomatoes.  If you’re not sure how to peel Roma tomatoes, refer to the tomato sauce recipe.  Finally add in the thyme and oregano as well as salt and pepper.  Whisk everything together and then allow the gravy to simmer and thicken.  You can use an immersion blender to break down the tomato a little if necessary, but be careful not to puree it down too much that the gravy gets thin!

Serve the meatloaf slices with the gravy on top.  It’s quite tasty!  I decided to serve the chicken meatloaf with some butter free Yukon Gold mashed potatoes and swiss chard.  ”Oooh!  Those sides sound perfect!  How do I make those???”  Stay tuned…

The dish starts with a simple “stewing” of tomatoes.  Fill a stock pot with water and bring to a boil.  Add 10 Roma tomatoes to the boiling water.  Slice an X in the bottom of each tomato before adding it to the water (not too deep now, just a nice shallow X to get that skin wanting to jump off the tomato).  Boil for about 10 minutes.  You will see the skin begin to peel off.  Remove the tomatoes from the boiling water and place them immediately into a bowl of cold ice water.  Let them rest for about 10 more minutes and the skins should finish peeling off.  Remove the tomatoes from the water and peel any skin remnants.  Cut off the tops of the tomatoes and slice them.  They’re gonna be very juicy and that tomato juice is going to want to run everywhere so be careful slicing them so as not to lose all that juice; you’re gonna want that in your sauce!  Place the tomato slices and juices into a bowl.  Add one tablespoon each of salt and sugar.  Stir, and then place into the refrigerator for an hour or so until you are ready to use them.

In a large stock pot add olive oil and then one cup each of diced red onion, diced carrot and diced celery (this is the French mirepoix, the base for many Mediterranean sauces and dishes – See! You learned a little French too!).  Also add about 3 cloves of garlic, minced.  Allow to cook down for about 5 minutes or so until softened.  Add in one tablespoon each of dried oregano and dried thyme leaves.  Add a little salt and pepper.  Stir regularly until softened.  Add in the tomatoes from the refrigerator along with one cup of chicken stock (or broth).  Stir and cook down for about 5 minutes or so.  Use an immersion blender to break down the tomato and vegetables, then add one large can of tomato paste.  Stir to incorporate the paste into the vegetables and stock.  Add one cup of water and one cup of red wine (I recommend Chianti, Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah).  Lastly add in about ½ cup of diced fresh basil.  Stir all the ingredients together and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes or longer, stirring regularly.

Voila!  You have a tasty, basic tomato sauce that you can use as a base for a lot of different Italian dishes!