Hi Joni Mari,

Went shopping this morning. Sure enough I found Chili Sauce between the Ketchups and the BBQ Sauces. Kroger's own brand, subtitled with "Ketchup with a kick!" I swear I never noticed it before...

I'm making Mexican style burgers tonight and I think I try it instead of good ol' Heinz 57 Ketchup.

Best,
Mellie

Hi Cristine,

We used to do something similar back in the 1970s: cheese and mushroom filled burgers.

We'd (my roommate and I) take a couple of hamburger patties and slightly flatten them in the middle. In the indent of one we'd place a mixture of shredded cedar and minced mushrooms. Next we'd place the other pattie over the first and crimp around the edges, sort of like a dumpling. After that, we'd prepare the burgers as usual, making sure they were cooked enough to melt the cheese inside.

Haven't thought about dong that in many, many years.

Best,
Mellie

Hi Joni Mari,

Okay, you asked for it, let me put my critic's hat on (the pretty one with the wide brim and a feather).

I like the folksy style, sort of like watching Julia Child, Rachel Ray or the Galloping Gourmet on TV. I seldom bother with "just the facts, ma'am" rigid ingredients and directions recipes. Part of the fun of trying someone else's dish is to get a feel for their personality.

When you inserted an important "NOTE" is might be a good idea to use another color to make it stand out. I think Red would have been appropriate in this case, LOL.

Finally, this may just be me but a solid block of type is very difficult to read. New paragraphs or blank lines would be nice. My eyesight is failing (not kidding here) and I wish all posts did this, not just recipies.

Just my take, and you did ask...

Best,
Mellie

Thank you, Melody, this is exactly the kind of feedback I want. And I so hope that everyone who posts to the cooking forum is able to accept some feedback as well. A far as the format, I am going to post some guidelnes so that hopefully we can have some kind of layout that is more or less the same for each recipe.

As far as the folksiness or chattiness in a recipe, I do like that as you can see. Personally, it's why I love the cooking channel and so on, if I just wanted recipes I could open a book, to me the little asides and tips and tricks and so on make it more real. Besides, this forum, like all the others, is about connecting and getting to know each other, as you pointed out.

Thank you, hon, for your feedback and your ideas.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Hi Joni Mari,

My "Mexican Style Burgers" aren't really a recipe, just substitutions. I just use south of the border ingredients like queso instead of American Cheese, tomatillo instead of tomato, salsa instead of ketchup, mustard and dill pickle (or in this case Chili Sauce), cilantro instead of Iceberg lettuce and chibata rolls instead of a hamburger bun. I brown the insides of the roll with a bit of lard. Otherwise, they are just hamburgers. Also I serve them with Fajita Fries (I get them frozen in bags and fry - no recipe, either.)

The burgers turned out fine with Chili Sauce, but if I do it again I'll splash a bit of hot sauce on the burger.

I was expecting the Chili Sauce to be hot and spicy, but found it sweet (a bit like BBQ sauce.) Mexican tomato sauce with Chili Powder would not be a substitute.

Best,
Mellie

ps, since Katie wants piccies:

Hi Melody and Cristine-

I've done the cheese hidden in the burger thing before, too, but not with bleu cheese, that sound yummy. I love bleu cheese in salad dressing and so on. Hey Melody, you mentioned making Mexican style burgers, do you want to share your recipe for them? And I bet the chili sauce will work really well. Hmm, I should try it in other things myself, the only thing I ever do with it is put it in that stew recipe.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Wow, what a good idea, Cristine, the oil thing on the hands so makes a lot of sense. And girls and guys, I can't caution you enough, as Cristine said, if you're handling fresh chiles be ver careful about touching your eyes or lips or anywhere on your face. And for heavens sake, wash your hands before you go to the bathroom. Don't ask me how I know this, just take my word for it.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Hi Melody-

I thought of you when I posted this and figured you, as a Southwestern girl with a sophisticated palate (meaning probably lined with asbestos, like mine), would like it. You can find Chili Sauce (honestly, I have no idea why they even call it that) in the same area they keep ketchup and stuff like that in your local grocery store. At least that's where Safeway keeps it in both Heinz and their store brand. Sure, I guess you could use Mexican style tomato sauce, but I would taste test before adding chile powder to the mix, especially if you're going to serve it to guests whose tolerance may be variable.

BTW, please let me know, if you don't mind, how you found the instructions for the recipe. I like to be a little chatty and so on, but if it's too much, I certainly don't want to have people get turned off by too much wordiness in a recipe.

Have fun, hon. This really is a great recipe (not to toot my own horn), I usually make a batch at least once a month especially in the winter.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Hi Joni Mari,

Sounds good - I'll have to try it the next time I have folks over.

"Oh, and wash your hands when you're done prepping them." And may I add, don't even think of touching your face, especially near your eyes, till you do.

A question about chili sauce. I don't think I've ever seen it at the market, but then I wasn't looking cause I didn't know it existed. If it's not available, could one add chili powder to stewed "Mexican Style" tomato sauce?

Best,
Mellie

Joni's Southwestern Pork and Sweet Potato Stew

This is a hearty main dish that, like most stews and soups, you can easily vary the ingredients to suit your own taste or what you have have on hand. It's a country dish, so precise and exact chopping isn't an issue. It goes well with a green salad on the side along with tortillas (either corn or flour, if you have them around where you live) or hot biscuits or a nice whole grain bread, best of all is nice, hot cornbread. To wash it down a nice hearty beer or ale, or iced tea or lemonade.

NOTE! Like Rachel Ray, I hardly ever do exact measurements (1/8 tsp salt? I mean, c'mon.) except for baked goods where exact amounts or proportions are important. Just use your judgement as to how much you want to make in a batch. This dish also freezes well and like most stews is even better the next day.

UTENSILS:
A large stainless steel or cast iron dutch oven with a lid.
Spoon for stirring.
Chef's knife and cutting board for chopping.
A couple of bowls to hold chopped ingredients that are waiting their turn in the pot.

INGREDIENTS:
1 medium sized pork shoulder roast, either boneless or bone in, cut into approx 1" chunks with excess fat trimmed off.
4-5 good sized sweet potatos or yams, personally I prefer yams (yes, I know what the name of the recipe is) but use whatever you have, it won't matter.
2 medium sized yellow onions, coarsely chopped
1 medium size bag of frozen peas
1 medium size bag of frozen corn
1 medium size bag of frozen chopped okra (you can leave it out if you don't like it)
1 medium size bag of fresh or frozen sliced carrots
***Of course you can always use fresh veggies if you have them and they're in season.***
1 box (32 oz) of chicken broth, you can also use vegetable broth or plain water
2 bottles of chili sauce. ***NOTE! VERY IMPORTANT! This is NOT 2 bottles of hot sauce. This stuff is made by Heinz and looks ketchupy and is only very mildly spicy. DO NOT use two bottles of hot sauce or you will be sorry. Don't say I didn't warn you. You can also use tomato sauce if you can't find the chili sauce stuff.

ANOTHER NOTE! There is some confusion between the word chile and chili. Chiles (with an "e" at the end, ie, "chile", properly prounounced "chee-leh) is the fruit of various plants in the capsicum family and range in heat from rather mild to "OH MY GOD HELP ME! HELP ME!". Chili (with an "i" at the end) is the concoction of meat and beans and spices that comes in cans but is also made at home and gets served over burgers, hotdogs and so on or in big bowls with crackers. It also comes in various degrees of mouth heat
.
Dried red pepper flakes to taste. Go easy, you can always add more if you like, but it's hard to make a dish milder once too much is added.
Fresh, finely chopped jalapeno or serrano chiles if you can get them. Once again go easy, don't just drop great handsful in the pot. Removing the seeds and white ribs inside the chile will reduce some of the heat. Oh, and wash your hands when you're done prepping them.
Salt and pepper to taste.
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
Cooking oil for sauteeing

INSTRUCTIONS:
Do all the prep work first, chop the meat, the onions, mince the garlic, etc. Fry the chopped pork in a small amount of oil in the dutch oven, until browned. Fry the meat up in small batches, if you add it all at once it will just steam rather than get nicely browned. As the batches brown transfer them to a bowl. Add oil as needed during the browning process. Once all the meat is nicely browned add a little oil to the dutch oven and toss in the onions and garlic and carefully sautee them until just turning brown. Be careful, burned garlic tastes nasty. Once done, add the meat back to the pot and pour in a small amount of the broth or water to deglaze the pot and get all the nice browned yummy bits off the bottom of the pot. Add the yams or sweet potatos and enough broth to cover the ingredients as well as the salt and pepper, red pepper flakes and the chopped chiles. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. If foam forms on top you can skim it off if you want but I usually don't, it will cook down. Once the yams or sweet potatos are just barely fork tender, add the rest of the veggies, saving the peas for last, personally I think peas taste best if only heated through. Taste the broth and adjust seasonings. It's ready to serve when all the vegetables are tender and heated through but not falling apart.

Serve with salad and the accompaniments mentioned above. You can also serve bottled or homemade salsa as well as bottled hot sauce. Enjoy!

Final note, ice cold milk is good if you find a dish is too spicy. It's why Indian cooks serve yogurt alongside curries. I hope you girls and guys like this, if you have any questions, please let me know, especially if something seems unclear or confusing.

Hugs...Joni Mari

Hi Melody-

Yep, I agree as far as the so called chili sauce, honestly, I have no idea why the call it that. Oh well. And girl, the way you do your burgers is a recipe. Would you mind kind of putting it in a regular recipe format and we will includ it in the recipes we already have. You know, rough amounts of ingredient and order of preparation and like that. I would so appreciate it and I know everyone else would to.

Hugs...Joni Mari