Shopping Around The World and Friday Fill-Ins

It’s Double Duty Friday!  

Today we will be doing Friendly Fill-Ins which is a fun hop co-hosted by Annie of McGuffy’s Reader AND Ellen of 15andMeowing……….THEN we will be adding to that post, our “SHOPPING AROUND THE WORLD” which is hosted by our porcine friend Bacon at his blog PIGLOVE.

Fill-Ins are one of the coolest Hops we know of because it’s so much fun to learn things about each other simply by filling in the blanks in sentences that our co-hosts give us every week.   What’s easier than that?   Sometimes I get to fill in and sometimes Mom gets to fill in and sometimes we both do.   Wanna play along?  Click McGuffy’s badge above and fill in the LINKY tool to join us.

Here are the FOUR sentences – two from each co-host…………..and I’m letting my Mom fill them in this week!    Her “fill-ins” are in BLUE.

1. For Easter (or Passover), I hide Easter eggs inside the house for my husband to find – it’s a long-standing tradition!

2. My favorite Easter (or Passover) treat is chocolate – I can’t deny it!

3. Lately, the song “Something About You” by Level 42 – it’s an oldie but I heard it on the 80s’ station on the radio the other day and it is stuck in my head.

4. The A-Z Blogging Challenge is an annual event I’ve never participated in – I seem to just be too darn busy with other things but it’s fun to see what others do with the challenge.

 

Thanks Mom – I guess by “BUSY WITH OTHER THINGS” means ME right?   Oh well………

Now, onward to the next thing which is “SHOPPING AROUND THE WORLD”……………..this one is cool because every month our host Bacon gives us a project to research and provide a recipe for – like it could be “favorite dessert” or “favorite sandwich” – then we give the recipe for whatever it is that we make and a list of all the ingredients which includes the PRICES we pay for stuff – what’s so great about that you ask?   WELL, it seems there’s a HUGE difference around the world in prices of food so it’s kind of fun to compare prices PLUS it’s neat to collect recipes!

This month Bacon wants to know what our favorite “GO TO” menu/dish is.   Something our Moms or Dads make that they might do when they need to make something yummy for company, or a favorite meal that’s easy to make when you can’t think of anything else – that kind of thing.   In my house that could be a number of things……but the very EASIEST “GO TO” around here is when Mom makes her Chili/Tamale casserole because it takes her about five minutes to make it.   HAHAHA

 

Ridiculously Easy (aka LAZY) Chili/Tamale Casserole with Cornbread Topping

Mom here – just wanted to say that I keep these ingredients in my pantry at all times because sometimes you just want to throw something together at the last minute or you don’t have TIME to cook all day or you just plain want to dump a bunch of stuff in a casserole dish and make it EASY on yourself!!

Preheat oven to 375 and have your “whatever size” casserole dish ready to pop in the oven after you put your ingredients together.  I have a nice 3 quart round ceramic casserole dish that I use but use whatever size you want and upsize or downsize the ingredients to fit your family.   It’s just the two of us here and my husband eats this stuff like there’s no tomorrow while I have one serving!

INGREDIENTS:

2 LARGE cans of chili – your choice of types – we prefer Hormel’s HOT chili with beans ($1.95 for 15 oz. can)

1 can Hormel Tamales in chili sauce ($1.59 for 15 oz. can)

1 package cornbread mix – I usually get Betty Crocker or Jiffy brand – these are the little packages that you just add sometimes an egg and milk to – EASY!   ($.99 on sale)

HOW TO:

I layer my tamales (after you remove the paper wrapping!!!!) in the bottom of my casserole but some people put them on top and others in the middle.   Doesn’t matter.    The put the cans of chili on top.   Put casserole in the pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes or until it JUST starts to bubble a bit.   Make your cornbread mix and pull your casserole out of the oven long enough to dump the cornbread mix on top of the casserole spreading evenly – pop back in the oven and cook until cornbread is done (look on package of cornbread you’re using for how much time AND you might need to adjust the oven temp too for the cornbread!).    This is absolutely DIVINE.   Simple YES but delish too.   Scoop out servings of the whole thing and if you are a chili lover, I guarantee you’ll have SECONDS!

OK Teddy – the blog is all yours dear boy!!!!

Well Mom, I think we’re DONE for today so I’ll just sign off!   

HUGS, Teddy

Say- is that chili done yet? Smells good!