Quick And Easy Dinners

September is a busy time for many families. Gone are the schedule-free summer days, so everything can seem a bit overwhelming, including preparing meals.

In The Early Show's Five Minute Cooking School with Williams-Sonoma, cooking teacher and author Tori Ritchie shares great dinner recipes that are not only easy, but you can prepare in advance. And they store well, too.

The three recipes are: 6-Hour Chili, Beef Brisket Sandwich, and Tamale Pie.

These recipes don't call for any hard-to-find ingredients or tools. The first two are done in a slow cooker, which Ritchie says is great because once you pop things into it, you can walk away and pretty much forget about.

The following are her recipes:

6-Hour Chili
Serves 8 to 10

To ensure impeccably fresh meat, we recommend grinding it yourself with an electric meat grinder. Try using boneless chuck with some of the outer fat still attached.

Ingredients
5 lb. ground beef
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 can (28 oz.) chopped tomatoes with juices
6 to 8 Tbs. chili powder
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 cups unsalted beef stock
Sour cream, chopped red onion, grated, cheddar cheese and/or chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

Method:

1. In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, brown half the beef, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the beef to a slow cooker.
2. Repeat with the remaining beef.
3. Add the garlic, yellow onion, tomatoes with juices, chili powder, oregano, cumin, salt, pepper, cornmeal and stock to the slow cooker and stir to blend.
4. Cover and cook for 6 hours according to the manufacturer's instructions. Skim the fat off the surface of the chili.
5. Ladle the chili into warmed bowls and garnish with sour cream, red onion, cheese and/or cilantro.

Beef Brisket Sandwiches
Serves 10

Beef brisket is a tough cut of meat that benefits from long, slow cooking. Here, we accomplish this task by using a slow cooker, which produces juicy, exceptionally tender meat. To create the ultimate sandwiches, layer slices of beef between toasted sandwich rolls and drizzle with your favorite barbecue sauce.

Ingredients:
1 beef brisket, 4 to 5 lb.
Salt, to taste
1/4 cup beef grilling rub
2 small yellow or red onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup beef stock
1/2 cup lager-style beer
10 sandwich rolls, toasted
Store-bought or homemade barbecue sauce, warmed, for serving

Method:

1. Season the beef brisket generously with salt and coat with the grilling rub. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour or refrigerate overnight.
2. Put the onions, garlic, stock and beer in a slow cooker. Add the brisket, fat side up. Cover and cook on high for 8 hours.
3. Transfer the brisket to a carving board, cover loosely with aluminum foil and let stand for 30 minutes.
4. Slice the brisket across the grain and fill the rolls with meat.
5. Pour barbecue sauce into a bowl and pass alongside.

Tamale Pie
Serves 16

Perfect for a crowd, this tamale pie gets a lively kick from chili powder and serrano chilies, which are small, slender and very hot. The compound that gives chilies their heat, known as capsaicin, is concentrated in the white membranes, or ribs, inside the chili and is transferred to the seeds. To lessen the heat, trim off the membrane and scrape away the seeds.

Ingredients:
3 Tbs. canola oil
3 yellow onions, thinly sliced with a mandoline
3 large green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
3 to 5 serrano chilies, seeded and minced
4 1/2 lb. ground lean beef
4 cups corn kernels, fresh or thawed frozen
1/4 cup ground cumin
4 1/2 Tbs. chili powder
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
3 1/2 Tbs. coarse salt, plus more, to taste
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 box Buckeye corn bread mix
1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese
Sour cream for serving

Method:

1. Preheat an oven to 400°F.
2. In an All-Clad lasagna pan or a large, deep sauté pan over medium heat, warm the oil until almost smoking.
3. Add the onions, bell peppers and chilies and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
4. In the same pan over medium heat, cook the ground beef, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to break up the meat, until browned, about 10 minutes.
5. Stir in the onion mixture, the corn, cumin, chili powder, tomatoes, tomato paste and the 3 1/2 Tbs. salt and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Taste and adjust the seasonings with salt. Remove from the heat and let stand for 15 minutes. If the meat mixture was cooked in a sauté pan, transfer it to a lasagna pan. Sprinkle with the cilantro.
7. Put the corn bread mix in a large bowl and stir in the cheese. Prepare the corn bread batter according to the package instructions and spread the batter evenly over the meat mixture.
8. Bake until the corn bread is golden brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
9. Let the tamale pie rest for 20 minutes before serving. Accompany with sour cream.