Oh Yea, by the way, I cook — sometimes. I removed my recipe section of my blog but you can still search for a few on the right.

This is my first time making Chili (extending “firsts” during this year) and it wasn’t as difficult as I thought. I think I’m going to start making it more instead of Stew during the winter. I totally got the idea of having Chili tonight from Tameeka aka TameekaTime on twitter. I live in NYC and since we are going to have around 12 inches of snow (more or less), it seemed like an incredible idea to have that as leftovers while I “work from home” in the morning. By the way, I have no idea how Tameeka makes hers but I know it has to be good (She’s from the islands too)! She posts some of her stuff on her blog.

So, again this is my first time but I’m having it now and I’m thinking, “Why didn’t I make this before?”

I have the basics and then some:

Onions (I chopped up 1/2 of a huge one — I love Onions)
Garlic (I used one clove)
Black Pepper
Chili Sauce Powder (Yes I cheated)
1 1/4 lb of  Tomato chunks sauce
1 lb can of red beans
A Bay Leaf
Frozen mixed veggies (I like corn and all those good stuff)
1/2 Red Pepper
1/2 Green Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper
Hot Sauce
Aged Cruzan White Rum (told you there was some island flava in there)
Cloves
Lean Beef (Although I would have preferred Ground Turkey)/
Cube of Frozen Sauce (Sometimes I freeze the excess sauce when I bake/brown any type of meat)

I browned the meat in a pan and added diced onions, red and green peppers, garlic, seasoned it with the black pepper and crushed red pepper then drained. I added the Chili sauce powder.

I transferred the meat mixture into a pot with heated tomato chunks and red beans. I kept that mix boiling while adding hot sauce to taste, cloves, and the bay leaf.

In a separate skillet, I heated the cube of frozen sauce to make it similar to the temperature in the other pot (directions according to mom to prevent the meal from getting sour quickly). I added the heated sauce to the chili meat mixture.

At this point, I turned down the heat and let the Chili simmer for about an hour more, mixing etc. Finally after taste tests, I added a shot of Cruzan Rum (OMG the difference).

That’s it. Next time, I’d like to add things like Celery and non-frozen veggies. Also, I might experiment with some Chicken Broth in there or Vegetable Stock… I love the Tomato Chunks in this and the Chili tasted spicy with a hint of sweet. I didn’t use salt but there’s definitely salt in the powder. If you’re concerned about this, try a recipe using actual Chili Peppers (I just couldn’t find any in my neighborhood).

How do you make yours?