In honor of it being:   a) finally cold outside b) Kitchen Day at our house (per the Large Family Logistics Plan) c) a dish my family has been asking for,   I am posting my recipe for Cincinati Five-Way Chili. My Mother-In-Law came home from a work trip with this recipe about 12 years ago. While in Cincinati, she and friends found that the city was famous for this dish. Cincyusa.com estimates that there are 140 chili restaurants in the city, and around 70 of them are owned by the same extended Greek family. This is not the Texas version of chili con carne...this recipe was created by Athanas Kiradjieff, a Macedonian, and tastes Greek. It is served like this:   One Way: chili in a bowl with oyster crackers on the side. Two Way: chili on a bed of spaghetti. Three Way: chili on spaghetti with grated cheddar cheese on top. Four Way: onions underneath cheese on top of  chili over spaghetti. Five Way: spaghetti, chili, onions, kidney beans and grated cheese.   Cincinnati Chili   1 Quart water 1 pound ground beef (double ground or run through blender quickly) 2 medium onions grated in blender 4 garlic cloves 2 Tablespoons white vinegar 16 oz. tomato sauce ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes* 2 teaspoons Worcestershire 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 ½ teaspoons salt (omit if using cheap chili powder) 4 Tablespoons chili powder* 1 teaspoon cinnamon ½ ounce Unsweetened Chocolate In a Bouquet Garni: 1 large Bay leaf 5 whole allspice 5 whole cloves   Cook over medium to low heat until consistency is like spaghetti sauce. *You may want to go easy on the chili powder and red pepper flakes until you (especially the children) have tried it first. I can't remember how many serving this is, but I multiply it by ten making six meals for us, if that helps.   You can pick and choose which toppings to add, but most prefer not to have it just plain chili in a bowl, as it is very spicy (not hot, just rich). Some folks like to serve sour cream with it as well.   I'm anxious to see how you like it! Happy Autumn!

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Nesting seems to be covering many aspects of the daily workings of our home these days. I've been painting, cleaning, ditching stuff, and reworking systems to be more automated. Reinventing the wheel on a daily basis is not as efficient for me as reading a previously thought-out list of ideas. Read that: I don't think well on my feet. I've been working on grocery lists, chore lists, stuff-to-pack-in-the-diaper-bag lists, and any other list that will help me (and the kiddos) keep ourselves in order even when life is crazy.

The ladies at Choosing Home have inspired me to work on a What-To-Have-For-Lunch list. Whenever possible, we have leftovers from dinner the night before, or Live It Up Lunch, but in the abscence of leftovers, I am sharing some of the ideas from our list.

First, some of the ideas for the days when there are "some" leftovers, but not enough to just have that alone.

• Soup: Ok, kind of a no-brainer, and not all that interesting in August, but it really works for January. We mix different veggies and meats together, and usually fill in the rest with milk. A tip I learned from Joy of Cooking, is to not mix too many types of leftovers together. Pick a theme and go with that: Mexican (corn, tomatoes, beans), Italian (pasta, tomatoes, spinach, white beans), oriental (rice, brocolli, peanut butter). We serve soup with bread, leftover muffins, or pancakes.
• Open-faced sandwiches: leftover casserole, soup, sloppy joes, meat and gravy, etc on top of toast.
• Omlet: a few veggies and some chopped meat make fun omlets. When we have tons of time, we make individual "real" omlets. When we are short on time, we mix all the ingredients together into scrambled eggs.
• Salad: Dad prefers Plain Jane type salads, so when he's not here, we can be a little zany with our salads. Into a base of lettuce or spinach, we toss in leftover meat, cheese, boiled eggs, weird veggies that you wouldn't find on a salad bar (corn, green beans), nuts, bread cubes , etc.

When we are starting from scratch without leftovers, here are some of our usual (and unusual) ideas:

• Cheese fondue: Shredded cheese, some milk, maybe a smidge of your favorite herb, melted together. For dippers, use bread (fresh or stale), raw veggies cut up, fresh fruit cut up (apples in cheddar fondue is awesome), crackers, etc.
• Yogurt bar: we always have plain yogurt around , so we serve bowls of yogurt, so folks can doctor it up themselves. We add pineapple, apples, orange slices, berries, jam, shredded carrots, a bit of ginger, etc. for a sweet version. Some folks eat it straight from the bowl, others wrap it in a tortilla, or serve it on leftover pancakes.
• Tuna/chicken/roast beef salad: we stretch the meat by adding shredded carrots or shredded apples to the mix. (Shredded apples is especially good with tuna.) We eat this plain, or with crackers, on celery , scooped up with carrot sticks, in a tortilla, or the "normal" way: on bread.
• Eggs: Boiled eggs with veggies on the side, egg salad (plain, on bread, in scooped out tomatoes, etc.), fried or scrambled. Quiche is also pretty quick to throw together. Leftovers mixed in the batter, or just some salsa and cheese are yum. We just use a ratio of 1/4 cup milk for every egg, then bake it at 375' until set in the middle.
• Baked potato bar: This only works if I think of it early enough in the day, since they take an hour to bake. We top potatoes with  leftover or canned chili, always cheese, veggies, yogurt or sour cream, green onions, etc. The kids love making their own crazy toppings.
• "Heidi Lunch": This is one of my kids favorites-literally a slab of cheese, and a thick slice of homemade bread. Butter the bread, and serve with lacto-fermented pickles. Add an apple, and lunch is done.
• "Beanie Weenies": This is one of my emergency lunches for a brain-dead-with-no-leftovers day. Saute chopped hotdogs with some onion, green pepper, and add canned beans. Add to taste: ketchup, mustard, mollasses, garlic.
• Mongolian Grill: The kids get ready their own stir-fry ingredients, then I saute each one individually. It is really quicker than it sounds-remember stir-fry is a quick-cooking method. We serve it over rice. When we are pressed for time, we mix everyone's ingredients (that they picked out and got ready) together and saute all at once.
• Bean Burritos: Another emergency food I keep on hand is canned refried beans. The kids can add whatever they want to these: cheese, veggies, salsa, etc. They also sometimes like them cold.

We prefer to eat whatever we're in the mood for, but since that doesn't always work (i.e. life is crazy, someone is melting down, there is a newborn in the house), I have adopted Kim's plan from Large Family Logistics (scroll down sidebar for "Lunch Plans"). We have a menu set up for those less-than-perfect days, then, when things are going smoothly, we can eat a little more intuitively.

Also, when things are going smoothly, or more importantly when they are not, and we need something refreshing to change the direction of the day, we throw something easy into a basket and head out to the yard. This doesn't have to be involved-just think Heidi lunch: toss in a loaf of bread, a block of cheese, some apples, and a jug of water. When the weather is yucky, I'll let the kids eat under the kitchen table, pretending they're camping for a change of pace.

Two birds, one stone: another quick note about our lunches is that we do Science during lunch. No, no, no... not because we pull out the green hairy stuff from the fridge during lunch. We listen to science audio tapes during lunch. Currently we are enjoying the Jonathan Park creation science radio shows. They are a little hokey for the mommy's taste, but the scientific stuff is awesome! The fringe benefit is that lunch has to be eaten by the time the tape is done (thirty minutes), so we don't hang out too long and blow naptime. Priorities, you know.

Happy Lunching! And be sure to check out Choosing Home for more great lunch ideas. Because we know that crisis is only one bologna sandwich away...

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It is a fact. Life is not predictable.  The weather doesn't always do what I would like, nor does the IRS. Diapers flood on the way out the door, and children don't always grow at the rate I expect. Growth spurts happen typically when I least expect them. The first evidence of their arrival is an increase (sometimes exponential) of a child's appetite.    Likewise folks sometimes come over without warning. And they are usually hungry. In the South, where I have been raised, it is downright rude not to feed folks when they show up. It matters not that they have been discourteous in arriving hungry without an invitation. A good Southern woman feeds everyone in her path.   Adding these factors into the equation, it becomes necessary for a homemaker to have a backup plan. I can get over the house not being "just so" after a few minutes of visiting, but I can't make food appear out of thin air. Those times when there isn't enough prepared food to meet the apparent need,  creativity is earnestly needed. In our home this creativity is actually a learned skill. We call it Loaves And Fishes-making the available food feed the present mouths (or appetites).    While understanding the difference between mincing and dicing, frying and sauteing, boiling and braising are all important, they are skills not used nearly as often as Loaves And Fishes. In our home, Loaves And Fishes is viewed as the single most important kitchen skill to learn before leaving home.   We know not what a day may bring. Where we will live, what types of food may be available, and our budget are all variables that we cannot presume. But an understanding of how to make food stretch can always be useful.   There have been times when I have dumped the contents of a casserole back into a bowl and added more vegetables and sauce. Still not enough casserole? Serve it over rice. For a pasta meal, more pasta can be quickly prepared. Bread is a great filler of bellies-especially homemade. More lettuce can be tossed in to a salad, along with other miscellaneous refrigerator items. A few lonely boiled eggs? Throw them in. Stale bread? Make croutons and throw them in.  Everyone knows that soup is great for using up small bits of leftovers, but what about quiche? Quiche is a great user-of-leftovers. We toss in bits of meat, small amounts of vegetables, some cheese, and pour on top a mixture of one egg for every quarter cup of milk. It doesn't even need crust-just throw it in the oven and bake at 375' until set in the middle.   Truly, the method is not as important as the mindset. Feeding hungry folks is very rewarding. Just remember that good company makes the food taste great. So, the next time you have an unexpected blessing of company, think Loaves And Fishes.   The next time your twelve servings don't make it past your eight year-old son, think Loaves And Fishes...   ...and be ready to buy him some new pants.

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The more folks you have in your family, the more variables there are. Three toddlers increase the odds of being late to church more than one toddler. Three boys sharing a room create a higher likelihood of finding crusty dried critters under the bed than one lone boy. Life is like this.

In some ways the variables make life easier. Finding a good bargain on jeans, you readily buy, knowing that, "It will fit someone". There are other challenges, however, that come with the variables, no matter what size your family is. Appetites, growth spurts, and meal planning can at times be more art than science.

Children go through growth spurts in an unorganized fashion, on again, off again, in an altogether unpredictable manner, their hunger drive paralleling their growth. Since I never quite know if they will be ravenous or disinterested for a particular meal, nor which child (or children) will be sprouting up this day, I always go with the more is better plan. Hence the leftovers.

Throwing leftovers out just goes against my tightwad, cheapskate nature better judgment. It is not just about the wasted food, but the wasted 

W-O-R-K for me, so over the years I have developed a mad scientist approach  knack for making leftovers interesting. At least most of the time.

We call leftover meals "Live It Up Meals". Since leftover concoctions masterpieces are never the same twice, you only get to enjoy it or, conversely, only have to force feed yourself once. Just this morning we had oatmeal apple fritters and "western omelet" for breakfast.  The oatmeal apple fritters were originally leftover oatmeal and fruit salad. The omelet was originally leftover fried potatoes, corn, a smidge of green pepper and onion, and the last of a jar of salsa.

If you love it, live it up...it will never taste like this again.

If you hate it, live it up...it will never taste like this again.

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