Thank you to our loyal readers!

We made our goal – 50,000 hits in our first year!

After months of taking computer classes on graphics, social media, entrepreneurship, blogging and iMovie editing, I started our website on February 5, 2016. I wanted to share the healthier recipes that Alexander and I created together with you. I wasn’t sure if anyone would read it. Not even my own mother since she hardly ever uses the Internet.

At first my very supportive family and friends kept visiting our site and giving words of encouragement. Then I wanted to try to attract a larger audience. I started using Facebook and Instagram in May and began to grow. By September I had the crazy notion that we could reach 50,000 hits by our first year. It became my goal.

I am so excited to report that on February 4, 2017 at 11:24 am eastern time one day before our first anniversary, we reached 50,099 visits to our website.

Please keep coming back to visit our website as we continue to bring you even more new recipes.

Love, Victoria and Alexander

I had the best Lamb Burger at a restaurant in Cornwall on the Hudson, NY named Painter’s Tavern, so so good. It was a couple of years ago when we took my Mom for her birthday.

I had always thought of lamb as a fine dining entree, lamb chops, butterflied leg of lamb etc. I had never had it before as a burger. I realized it was much more versatile and ever since I have wanted to make a lamb chili.

Why did it take so long? Well finding good ground lamb (that’s affordable) surprisingly where I live is not easy. The Cheslea Meat Market has it for a decent price, but I lucked out and just found an Azerbaijan butcher selling his ground lamb for $4.99 a pound. See when you are creating a recipe it often takes a couple of tries to get it just right, and the costs add up. But for this price I was able to make it three times to get it perfect and not break the bank on my grocery budget.

I also figured that using kidney beans with the lamb wasn’t going to compliment it well. I thought of using navy beans, white beans, black eyed peas then finally settled on cannellini beans which are white kidney beans. It worked great. Cannellini beans have a milder taste almost buttery, so delicious.

Enjoy!
Avec Amour, Victoria and Alexander

Cannellini Lamb Chili

Yield – 6 Servings

1 Pound Ground Lamb

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

2 Cups Chopped Onions

2 teaspoons Ground Cumin

1 teaspoon Chili Powder

1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

1/2 teaspoon Kosher or Table Salt

1/4 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

1 28 oz Can Crushed Tomatoes

1 14.5 oz Can Diced Tomatoes

2 15.5 oz Cans Cannellini Beans (White Kidney), drained and rinsed with cold water

1. Over medium high heat

brown lamb in a 4 quart saucepan,

drain off excess grease and remove lamb from saucepan to a plate covered with a double thickness of paper towel,

wipe out saucepan with paper towel, return saucepan to stove.

2. Over medium heat add olive oil and sauté onions until golden brown,

add spices, salt and pepper, stir and heat spices to bring out their flavor,

add crushed tomatoes and stir,

add diced tomatoes

and beans,

stir, bring to a boil, cover saucepan and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.

Serve with sour cream and sweet potatoe tortillas.

This is a mild chili, if you prefer heat use 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper instead. This is also much better if you make ahead of time and re-heat. I made it in the morning and by night the flavors had developed. It also even better the next day.