The green chili casserole was one of my mother’s favorite things to make; mainly for the fact that she could use up stale tortilla chips. With four kids there were always half-full bags of stale tortilla chips shoved back into the pantry. She made it often for the crew during crush, and this year I made a batch for the winemaking crew and Michael asked me to repost the recipe … he likes it spicier than the original version so my favorite hot tomato sauce El Pato is listed. You can find it in most Latino sections of markets, and it has a duck on the label. This also can be made as a vegetarian version and I have brought it to pot-luck brunches, so it’s pretty versatile meal wise. The Chicken Marsala is also a standard fall-go-to recipe for me on cold nights … you can easily substitute veal for the chicken … I just used chicken as it’s an easier ingredient to find. I mainly use dark meat chicken just to get a richer flavor with the mushrooms. You can top a pasta or a polenta with the finished product if you would like … steamed green beans are a great side-dish to compliment the marsala.

My secret ingredient to most of my soups? Actually, I got the idea from visiting my cousins in Ireland… instead of chicken broth I use turkey broth. It gives a depth to the soup that is wonderful … Better than Bullion has a nice one, which is always in my fridge. Yes, you can make it from scratch, but I am lazy. When you roast the onions, garlic, and squash many of the sugars caramelize and like the turkey broth, gives another boost to the flavoring of this soup.