This recipe is based on the chicken, shrimp and sausage gumbo in Paul Prudhomme's Seasoned America cookbook. To make my wife happier I drastically reduced the fat used in the recipe from 1/2 c. to 2 t. To keep me happy I increased the amount of seasoning in the recipe to keep it tasting like the original.

Dave is on his drive back home right now, the kitchen is all cleaned up, so I decided to transfer our chili notes to the web-site. While this batch was not our best chili - it is too early in the season to get the variety of fresh chiles in the Pacific northwest - it is a good guide to getting to our best chili.

This is a simple stewed beef (or lamb or buffalo) dish that I worked up for my first dutch oven gathering (DOG). The spices remind me of a "mild" beef dish called "alicha wat" that I get at my favourite Ethiopian restaurant.

For me, one of the most satisfying of comfort foods is a slow cooked beef stew. But since my schedule does not always allow time for the slow cook stew, I also use this (relatively) quick and easy recipe.