On Saturday we knew we would not have a lot of time on Sunday to make dinner (because of soccer games and because we were going to see STAR WARS) , so we started cooking on Saturday. We made two types of turkey chili, one with beans and one without beans because some people don’t like beans. We cooked the chili in a slow cooker on high for 4 hours. Then we put it in the fridge over night. For dessert we made lemon sorbet using fresh lemons with a simple syrup of sugar and water and lemons that we juiced. Then we cooked rice in a rice slow cooker. For sides for the chili we had guacamole, grated gruyere cheese, grated cheddar cheese, and sour cream. We forgot about the salad till the end and by that time we saw pancetta in the fridge, so we cut it up and cooked it in olive oil. Knowing that pine nuts go really well with pancetta, we than sauteed them in the same pan as the pancetta. We got all the mixed greens we had (spinach and arugula) and used it as the base of the salad. We put the pancetta and pine nuts in and then added goat cheese. Using the leftover olive oil from sauteeing the pancetta, we made a warm salad dressing with some sherry vinegar. It was a perfect balance of heavy food (chili) and light food (salad and lemon sorbet), and just the meal to get us into holiday spirit.

All of the ingredients for the chili

Chopping onions for the chili.


Adding the beans into the slow cooker.

Adding sugar to the simple syrup.

Lemons.

Juicing the lemons.

The sorbet’s final product!!

Final Dinner!