Blaise'in Hot Chili

Have you ever had a Saturday night come about where you have to cook for a group of people, you aren’t sure of the size, but you want it to be something easy to cook, clean up after, and that will stand up to sitting out for a period of time unknown? While making finger sandwiches and throwing chips in a bowl might be a thought that comes to mind, making a pot of blazing, even if mildly, hot chili is the easiest and tastiest option! I mean, how much easier can it get than throwing a bunch of stuff in a pot, letting it boil for 90 minutes, and then voila!, you can serve it up!

If you were wondering, last Saturday I had this particular situation come up. I knew that a group of guys, including my boyfriends little brother, were going to be over to play cards and have a few beverages. I knew I didn’t have what I needed in the fridge/freezer to make something without hitting the grocery, so I had to come up with something I could quickly shop for and cook. My light bulb came on and bada bing, I saw chili. So everyone makes their chili differently, and we all know there aren’t true measurements when making a soup, or at least you do now. We like our chili with LOTS of fresh onion and chili powder. I really don’t think you can add too much of either honestly. The first thing I do is slightly brown hamburger with some onions, salt and pepper. While this is happening, I start a big pot for the soup part chili and add the following ingredients: more onion (to your liking), water, ketchup (I know, you have probably never heard of this, but TRUST ME), red & black beans, red pepper flakes (to your liking), lots of chili powder, several generous squirts of Worcestershire sauce, green pepper chunked and diced jalapeno. Stir all of this together and bring to a boil. Once your hamburger is slightly browned, drain the grease off to save a few calories, and add it to the big pot of broth and beans. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1.5-2 hours or until your desired thickness is achieved. NOTE: I just squirt the ketchup out of the bottle and keep tasting until it’s to my liking. Same thing with chili powder. I also add a little garlic salt for flavor. The key is to keep tasting the chili! I cannot stress this enough!

I like to add a little Ohio flare to my chili, and it was a hit when I introduced it to my Chicago friends…spaghetti noodles! Boil your spaghetti noodles until tender. Place them in a bowl or on a plate, cover with chili, cheese and crackers if you like, and voila, you have another delicious meal! You can also have chili the 1st day and create chili spaghetti for leftovers the next. That’s what Rory and I always do anyway.

The chili I made over the weekend was a hit and got tons of compliments! So much that I think I am entering a chili cookoff on March 20th! Until next time…keep your pot simmering.

Ingredients:
2-3 pounds hamburger
1 large yellow or purple onion
1-1.5 cup ketchup (approx…to taste)
1 large can black beans
1 large can red beans
chili powder to taste (more is better!)
red pepper flakes
1 small jalapeno or jalapeno sauce
salt & lots of pepper
Worcestershire sauce
Dash of garlic salt
Crackers
Shredded yellow cheese
1 box spaghetti noodles

bombshell blizzard club

So I am going to do a throwback to the blizzard of 2011 that swept thru Chicago a few weeks ago.  Some might ask themselves, what in the world do I do in the middle of the 2011 snowpacalypse, ahem, I mean blizzard?  We could contently sit on the couch and gaze out the window at the snow blowing completely sideways and the trees nearly falling over while lightening is flashing and thunder clapping…or we could COOK! 

All great winter storms have their place in the kitchen, and this time we decided to whip up the ultimate deli style sandwich to appease our appetites!  Luckily we had visited the local grocery store and stocked up on supplies before the big storm hit.  Now the question begs, whatever shall we put on these absolutely yummy PRETZEL buns that we just purchased?  With so much to choose from, deciding to use pretty much every meat in the refrigerator, seemed like the obvious choice! We quickly pulled out ham, roasted turkey breast, and a pound of bacon…because as we all know, bacon makes everything better right? I started frying up the bacon, as I am the baconator in our house, while Rory started slicing tomatoes and lettuce and then cracking open the mayo and wasabi mustard.  He then started pulling out the variety of cheeses we had…Swiss, white and yellow American, as well as good old provolone.  Already on our way to yummy-town! Once the bacon was fried up, it was time to build! As we started layering slices of ham, turkey and bacon I yelled out, I want mine hot!!  So after layering each delicious slice of ham and turkey on our sandwiches, we piled on the cheese and threw those puppies in the oven for 10 minutes on 375 degrees.  Boy was this a fantabulous idea! After all, who doesn’t love hot melty cheese on a sandwich? You know what happens next, we added the bacon, veggies and spreads to the delight that lay on our plates.  All that was left was to cut that amazing looking pretzel bread sandwich in half and dig in.  

Boy, to our surprise, this was one of the most spectacular sandwiches either of us had ever let cross our lips!  It was a true culinary delight for our palettes. This will now be a staple in the Rankin-Foster household and a long remembered treat on a snowy cold night in, though we did gear up and head out to play in the snowy madness!