White Chili

8 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
6 cans white beans (navy, great northern, etc) *do not drain beans
2 cans chicken broth
8 cloves garlic
2 onion, chopped
1-4 Tbsp chopped jalepenos (to taste)
4 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp red pepper
2 cans chopped green chilis
4 Tbsp olive oil
shredded monterey jack cheese

Heat oil in stock pot. Add onions and garlic. Saute' until onions are tender. Add chicken, broth, green chilis, cumin, oregano and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and add beans and jalepenos. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes or until heated thoroughly. Serve topped with shredded cheese.

My notes~
*chicken can be boiled or even skillet fried with butter and your favorite seasoning to add extra flavor
*cook chicken ahead of time and refrigerate; cold chicken is easier to cut up
*this makes about 5 quarts of chili; if that is too much it is easily halved; or I have been told it will probably freeze/thaw well; it doesn't lasts long enough around here to be frozen

You will notice that I mentioned in the previous post that I would post pics of the chili. Suffice to say that I may hold my own in the kitchen, but I am neither a food stylist nor a photographer. When I photographed the chili, it looked... Well...less than appetizing. (o:

And so it begins

I figured a good place to start a blog titled "In the kitchen..." would be in MY kitchen.  I plan to slowly take you on a tour of my kitchen in future posts.  I spend a LOT of time there, so I figured I would share some of it with you.  You can read about the history of my kitchen and it's remodel HERE.  It went from being the most unlovely room in the house to one of my favorite places to be.  I love, love, love my kitchen, the layout of it, the decor, colors, etc.  It's just a happy place for me.

The first food I want to blog about is chili.  It's chili weather and our church is holding it's 5th Annual Men's Chili Cook Off tomorrow evening.  Cary is entering 2 different recipes of chili.  One of the recipes I will share sometime this week, when I can post pics with it.  The other recipe I am not at liberty to divulge as it was given to me in confidence.  It is award winning and Cary used it last year for the first time.  His ranking in the chili cook off raised dramatically.  It is Johnny Purtle's chili recipe.  Johnny won the chili cook off at Unity Baptist Church of Hope more than once with this recipe.  Cary and I were thrilled when he shared it with us in 2008.  Johnny passed away a few months ago and I thought of him as I was helping Cary make the chili.  Johnny was a great cook, as is his wife Judy, and they both spent a lot of time in the kitchen together.  It is bittersweet that I dedicate this first post on the ITK blog to a fine Christian man, Johnny Purtle.  I have a number of his and Judy's recipes in my collection and I plan to make and share several of those with you in the future.

See you in the kitchen!