{"id":747,"date":"2012-09-27T11:37:27","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T15:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=747"},"modified":"2012-09-29T12:44:13","modified_gmt":"2012-09-29T16:44:13","slug":"chili","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=747","title":{"rendered":"Chili, A Fall Comfort Food"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Chili.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-750\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" title=\"Chili\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Chili-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Chili-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Chili-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Chili.jpg 612w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>It&#8217;s fall. \u00c2\u00a0You can feel it in the cool air. \u00c2\u00a0See it the color and angle of shadows in the late afternoon. \u00c2\u00a0Smell it. \u00c2\u00a0It&#8217;s time for fall comfort food. \u00c2\u00a0On weekend football days (college or pro) I love one pot meals that fill the house with great smells. \u00c2\u00a0 Meals I can cook as I can tend to other chores and watch NFL games or half watch college games. \u00c2\u00a0And last weekend I was in the mood for chili.<\/p>\n<p>This is one of those dishes created more from whim than recipe. \u00c2\u00a0Do I want this one to be more meaty? \u00c2\u00a0Heavy on the beans? \u00c2\u00a0Loaded with tomatoes? \u00c2\u00a0Spicy? There are so many variables to play with, but chili is forgiving. As long as the broad basics are there you&#8217;re likely to end-up with a satisfying dish. \u00c2\u00a0The following is roughly what I did:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2 medium onions (on the bigger side of medium)<\/li>\n<li>3 celery sticks (Now I can hear some of you say &#8220;I don&#8217;t like celery.&#8221; \u00c2\u00a0Fair. \u00c2\u00a0But included it anyway. \u00c2\u00a0By the end of the dish you won&#8217;t know it&#8217;s there, but it&#8217;s inclusion adds critical flavors.)<\/li>\n<li>Four jalape\u00c3\u00b1os<\/li>\n<li>2 or 3 pounds of ground beef (just took a bit chuck out of a family sized pack)<\/li>\n<li>A large can of tomato pure<\/li>\n<li>A can of stewed tomatoes<\/li>\n<li>A large can or two of whole pealed tomatoes.<\/li>\n<li>A large can of dark kidney beans, drained<\/li>\n<li>A can of white beans, drained \u00c2\u00a0(To some this might be chili\u00c2\u00a0blasphemy, but I think adding this bean breaks-up the color leading to a more aesthetic\u00c2\u00a0outcome.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Jalepenos.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-751\" style=\"margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;\" title=\"Jalapenos\" src=\"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Jalepenos-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Jalepenos-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Jalepenos-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Jalepenos.jpg 612w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a>Before doing anything else, I fire roasted the\u00c2\u00a0jalape\u00c3\u00b1os by sticking each with a kebab skewer and roasting slowly over the stove&#8217;s gas burner until blackened. It may be my imagination, but I fee this process adds just a bit of smoky flavor.<\/p>\n<p>An hour or so later I started cooking the chopped onions and celery. After the onions and celery start to get translucent, I put in the meat. Breaking the beef apart with a spoon as it browned, I\u00c2\u00a0added some chili powder and red pepper flakes. \u00c2\u00a0Once the meat was browned, it was time for the canned\u00c2\u00a0ingredients. \u00c2\u00a0As the mixture heated, I chopped the now cooled\u00c2\u00a0jalape\u00c3\u00b1os (chopping while hot can be a bit painful) and added them to the mixture. \u00c2\u00a0I covered the pot and brought to a simmer.<\/p>\n<p>Then it&#8217;s time for football and an occasional stir. \u00c2\u00a0Taste and season as needed. \u00c2\u00a0Don&#8217;t worry about breaking down those whole tomatoes. \u00c2\u00a0Over the next three and a half hours they&#8217;ll break apart with the just the occasional stirs.<\/p>\n<p>With a little homemade corn bread, this was the perfect fall weather meal.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s fall. \u00c2\u00a0You can feel it in the cool air. \u00c2\u00a0See it the color and angle of shadows in the late afternoon. \u00c2\u00a0Smell it. \u00c2\u00a0It&#8217;s time for fall comfort food. \u00c2\u00a0On weekend football days (college or pro) I love one pot meals that fill the house with great smells. \u00c2\u00a0 Meals I can cook as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[84,156],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cooking","tag-chili","tag-comfort-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}