A Pot of Chili on the Stove - or There Will Be

There are three quick meals I can make with the pound and a half of ground beef I just started browning. One is chili, one is green beans and meat and the other is meat sauce for spaghetti. I love all three of them, but don't feel like getting a second pan out to cook potatoes (green beans) or pasta (meat sauce), so it looks like chili will be the recipe du jour.

I like that I can make a huge pot of chili full of beans and meat (I know - no real Texan would call that chili, which is good since I'm a Jersey Girl) with loads of onions and peppers and tomatoes. So much goodness to be had in a single pot.

Sure, I could make biscuits to go with it - or have it over pasta similar to Cincinnati - but, I do enjoy it as it is from the pan in a bowl with some buttered bread and some cheddar cheese - maybe even a little sour cream if it's got some kick. I'm debating the "kick" as I write.

OK, debate is done and so is the chili. I used white kidney beans and black beans along with diced onions and diced bell peppers, a small can of Rotel tomatoes (mild), a large can of crushed tomatoes, a large can of diced tomatoes, three tablespoons of chili powder and a half a packet of red pepper flakes that Dominos gives when you ask for them. I only used half because they were so darned hot when I put them on the pizza!! I figured half would let me know they were there and still let me enjoy the flavor. I was right!

So, I'm now noshing on a bowl of red gold with buttered whole grain bread and a cup of coffee. Comfort food to the max!!

Originally published on Bubblews.com yesterday.

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.