Monday, January 4, 2016

a chili day

It's been such a mild winter so far, that we haven't been eating a lot of hot soup.
I think this is only the second batch of chili I've made this season.

I don't really follow a recipe, it's a little different each time.
Usually I use five cans of beans (kidney beans, red beans, and black beans) and three pounds of ground beef.
Diced onions and a couple of cans of tomatoes or tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin and other spices.

Never any spaghetti noodles. (Husband doesn't like them in there)

So, chili was our Sunday dinner, along with grilled cheese sandwiches, baked potatoes and homemade coleslaw.


Like a barbarian, I just set the chili pot on the table so we could all  ladle out what we wanted.



The grilled cheese turned out really  good. I layered a combination of Velveeta and Havarti on a "flax and golden grain" bread , then browned them in a mix of butter and olive oil. 


Later on, we had frosted brownies for dessert.



A few years ago, I tried making chili with shredded chuck roast instead of ground beef. It was good but maybe a little too rich.
I might try that again soon, but use less meat and more beans this time. 
Hmmm, I'm off to check out some recipes and see what sort of meat-bean ratio others use.



















6 comments:

  1. Mmmmm, chili good... I've taken to using breakfast sausage as part or all of the meat. I like mild, hot is too hot for me. Store chili powders don't do much for me either, just cumin and paprika for more color... Sometimes a diced red bell pepper... Sometimes some diced celery... And of course onions & beans & 'maters... Yeah, grilled cheese too! Of course there's 5-ways which are completely different...

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    1. I never thought of using sausage in chili...but it might be better than some of the ground beef that's available.
      I'm going to remember to give that a try.

      And yep, a good ol' 5 way chili from Skyline is always good. Like a different dish though, compared to home are chili.

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    2. For the 5-way seasoning most recipes call for tiny amounts of a dozen different spices making making it a PITA. There is a spice mixture, garam masala, sold at that indian grocery, that is pretty much right on. 1-3 teaspoons per pound of burger, to your taste. It becomes hotter on simmering a while. I add a little sugar too.

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    3. I had some of that garam masala years ago-from the bulk spices bin at Whole Foods. I wanted to see what it was but no internet then so I didn't know what to use it for.
      Sounds like I need to get some again!

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  2. Ever try topping it with a dab of sour cream?

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  3. Just did that today with the leftover chili. Sour cream and crumbled tortilla chips!

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