It's Never Too Hot for Chili

Restaurant Widow's chili 

Yes, I said it. Despite it being the hottest summer season we've ever experienced here in South Jersey, my daughter wanted chili and set out to make a pot full using some of the fresh ground beef I had just bought. Chili is one of her favorite foods. She loved it when my mother would make chili. And, she liked my chili (which was a bit different from my mother's). But, once she began making it herself, she swears by her own. 

Of course, it is good, I have to admit. But, I don't quite know where she got her taste for adding hot sauce since that's never been part of my cooking or my mother's cooking. Even her father, of Mexican heritage, isn't too fond of spicy foods. But, my daughter likes to kick it up a notch, as Emeril might say. I don't even know which of the several hot sauces she's brought into the house she uses because I don't use it, although I might consider Tabasco sometime now that I'm familiar with it on spicy Hawaiian Pizza (thank you, Dominos!! You ROCK!)

Anyway, this time she decided to add corn to the mix. Corn is her favorite vegetable - well, second favorite. I'd have to give potatoes the edge. In a very close third position for her would be either French style green beans or broccoli (cooked beyond all recommendations). Neither of us has put corn in chili before, but I've seen some recipes call for it and I've even considered it in the past.

Deb wanted tater tots to go along with the chili, so that was my job. Toss them on a cookie sheet and pop them in the oven. Can't get much easier than that.

What made this even more interesting is that this was all taking place between 12:30 and 1 a.m. What can I say? We were hungry and it was a bit cooler by then (although temps never dropped below 80° all night). We both really like chili and can eat it any time of the year. We still have over a quart left over and that includes eating more today and her taking some to share with a friend. One of these times, though, I'm going to have to  make some of my somewhat less spicy chili. I like mine as much as she likes hers, although the basics of both are the same (ground beef, diced onions, diced green peppers, kidney beans, tomatoes and tomato sauce, chili powder).

I have included an image from The Restaurant Widow. She makes her chili differently than we do, but the image looks very much like what my daughter made.

Meals at Midnight

That's right. You don't have to be a college student to decide to cook dinner at midnight (or just past, in our case). I just didn't feel like cooking yesterday and my daughter had a date, so she wasn't here to eat. But, when she got home from the movies, she asked if I had made anything because she was hungry (apparently, the date didn't include dinner). 


I had thawed a pound of hamburger, but when it's hot and humid, I'm not always anxious to go into the kitchen to work on a meal. So, we will "graze" rather than dine. But, by midnight, it had cooled some, so I offered to make some hamburgers (which I have been craving for a while). Or spaghetti and meat sauce. But, she wanted green beans and tomato sauce. I knew we only had a single can of tomato sauce which wouldn't be enough for this very simple, yet tasty, meal. 

She went to the pantry and pulled out that can and a can of diced tomatoes and two cans of French style green beans and I went to work. I browned the beef, then added the drained green beans followed by the tomato sauce and tomatoes. We usually serve this with fried potatoes, so I quickly cooked up some frozen French fries to go with.


I prefer this with straight tomato sauce, but it wasn't bad. My personal tastes are to use a single can of beans with their liquid plus ground beef and at least one can of tomato sauce. But, my daughter is a huge fan of French style green beans, so we got a double helping. Season to your taste - we added fresh ground salt and pepper. 


Although it was late, it was just what we both were looking for. Something a bit more substantial than tuna or peanut butter, yet reasonably healthy. Yeah, it was late, but heck - you're only young once (well, I can dream, can't I?)