It's chili out there

As a child, I was as fussy about food as you can find. Though my mother was an excellent cook, it didn’t matter. I wouldn’t try anything new. No Chinese or any other ethnic food, no to anything that looked suspiciously vegetative… heck, I wouldn’t even eat pizza when I was young. I would scrape everything off and just eat a wet triangle of bread. Yep, I was that bad.

In college when I lived off-campus and had to cook for myself, I survived on ramen noodles. But once I got married I realized I had to man up and learn some basic cooking skills. And when I started that… my love of cooking took off. The more recipes I tried, the more pride I had, and the more curiosity I developed about food and cooking. So in time I turned into quite a good cook. I’ve catered some awesome parties, and I am now a foodie through and through. So, if you have a fussy eater out there (of any age!) there is still hope. They can be taught, and turned.

Funny back story about my chili recipe. My girls are six years apart, but at separate times, each girl has brought home Thanksgiving schoolwork with their thanks for different things in their lives… and BOTH girls have artwork proclaiming, “I am thankful for my mama’s chili.” Warms you right up inside!

Now, chili can be a very regional kind of dish, with as many recipes as there are regions. So I don’t make any claims to say mine is the end-all of chili recipes. But when your kids cite your chili as one of their "thankful for's" … then you can bet it’s a good one!

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                       Simply Delicious Chili

1 pound hot Italian sausage links, removed from casings

2 pounds ground beef

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 28 ounce can kitchen cut or diced tomatoes

2 soup size cans dark kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 soup size cans light kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 medium onion, chopped finely

2 red peppers or 1 red and 1 green pepper

1 box Carroll Shelby Texas chili seasoning 

Pour the two cans of tomatoes into a large cooking pot along with two cans worth of water. Add the chili seasonings and mix together. Crumble the sausage meat and cook in a sauté pan until browned.

Add cooked sausage to pot. Brown ground beef in the sauté pan with a little salt and pepper. Drain and add to sauce pan. Chop up onion, add to sauté pan with a little olive oil and cook for 5 or so minutes. Cut red/green peppers into small pieces and add to pan with onions. Sauté until softened, then add vegetables to pot. Add drained cans of kidney beans. Let simmer approximately 1 to 2 hours on the stove top, or load all ingredients into a large crockpot and cook about 4 -5 hours on low.

Serve over cooked white rice, and top with shredded cheddar or Mexican style cheese if you like. Cornbread and a leafy green salad make great side dishes.

Please note: I have specified Carroll Shelby’s chili seasoning in this recipe. You can certainly do your own spicing, or buy a different package of chili seasoning that you prefer. This brand comes with a really impressive amount of seasoning, plus separate bags of mesa flour (for thickening) salt and cayenne pepper, so you can spice it to taste.

Chef’s notes:

You can use ground sausage for this recipe, or get sausage links and just take the meat out of the casings. If you do the second option, have a little water in the pan you are going to cook the meat in, and use your hands to break up the sausage into small pieces in the water. It will cook up much more evenly that way.

Chili is a great dish to play ‘hide the veggie’ for those fussy eaters in your house. I use a micro-grater and grate a couple carrots right into the pot of chili. It gives the dish a touch of sweetness, and adds an extra veg to the dish. And no one will ever know! ;)

Serving tips: our family loves chili over a nice bowl of white rice. You can certainly use brown rice to sneak in a few extra vitamins - and even fussy eaters won’t notice the difference under a steaming scoop of savory chili. You can also top it with a little shredded cheddar or Mexican-style cheese, some sour cream, or whatever you like!

Cook smarter, not harder: this recipe works wonderfully in a crockpot. Just prep your ingredients in the morning and come home to a hearty dinner. Also, chili freezes well. So go ahead and make a double batch, and freeze half for an easy-peasy freezy meal!

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Perfecto Cornbread 

1 cup cake flour

2/3 cup yellow cornmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 egg, room temperature

½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 cup milk, warmed

  

Preheat the oven to 400° degrees.

Grease a 9-inch round, 1½-inch deep cake pan.

With a fork, stir together the cake flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and sugar.

Beat the egg, melted butter, oil and milk in a large mixing bowl until well-blended. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and stir until blended. The batter will be somewhat thin and light.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 15 minutes, until a straw inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Press the center of the bread; if it feels slightly firm the bread is done. Be careful not to overbake.

Serve warm wedges of the cornbread with honey butter.

  

Yield: one 9-inch round loaf. Batter may also be baked in a corn-muffin pan or regular muffin tin for approximately 10 minutes. Makes several batches.

Cook smarter, not harder: An easy make-ahead shortcut: sift together the dry ingredients and keep them in a container. Then when you are ready to cook, grab the wetworks, mix ‘em together, and pop your cornbread in the oven.