From The Garden

Finally! Tomatoes and peppers are coming in! Black Krims, Brandywine, and an Oregon tomato are doing some serious producing. We pulled up the San Marzanos we planted - five plants - because of rot. Plum tomatoes just don't seem to do well, here.

Oh, well.

The peppers - bell, anaheim, and jalapeño - are finally doing well, also. It's taken all summer for them! The Thai peppers have lots of flowers, but I haven't seen a lot of peppers, yet. there's still time.

It's great to sit out front on our new patio and look up at the garden... We have a whole new outdoor room to enjoy, and it's great to look up and see where dinner came from!

 

Dinner, tonight, was a quick pasta dish with peppers, garlic, and tomatoes from the garden - along with fresh rosemary and oregano - white wine, shrimp, red onion, and salt and pepper. As basic as can be.

The tomatoes really shone through - they are just really flavorful - as only a homegrown tomato can be.

 

 

We're hoping for a bunch more to ripen at the same time so we can make a bit more Tomato Paste - the true nectar of the gods.

Cross those fingers.

In the meantime, there's still carrots and eggplant to go through! Lovin' it!


Pappardelle

Meals in the Time of Cholera

... with apologies to Gabriel García Márquez ...

Who knew that going grocery shopping would become such an ordeal?

Having retired after almost 17 years in groceries, I thought I had seen it all - the frenzy of the days before Thanksgiving, the panic-buying before Hurricane Sandy, the run on milk, bread, and eggs the minute 2 inches of snow was forecast. But nothing in all of those years prepared me for this - panic-buying and the constant and continuous empty shelves.

We've been once-a-week shoppers for a really long time - even for fresh produce. Over the years, I've gotten really good at using up those last stray bits in a soup or some such thing. I'd buy our basic staples - flour, beans, canned tomatoes during the winter, bananas, rice, yogurt... we do cook at home pretty much every meal. And once every few months I'd pick up the family-sized packs of toilet paper, paper towels, and tissues, laundry soap, and bleach...

I never gave it any thought. Granted, I'd never shop on weekends or the day before a major holiday, but shopping was always a brainless exercise - I'd go in, get my stuff, mentally complain about three cashiers open out of 23 registers, bag my goods, and go home.

Really simple. A chore, but a really simple one.

And now?!?

All of those things I took for granted are in short supply. And, to add insult to injury,  I stopped my online buying of bulk foods anticipating our moving west... I thought we'd just pick up the odds and ends, here, and restock at the new home. What a horrible time to be practical! All of a sudden, we don't have those bins of lentils, beans, and flour - even core spices are running low. Things I just never thought of running out are getting low.

Being 68 years old, I really appreciate the early morning senior citizen shopping hours at a couple of our local stores, but... on my first trek out, the shelves hadn't been very well stocked at 6 ayem. All those staples were missing. Hopefully, it will be better when I venture out, tomorrow. We're far from destitute, and I could probably get really creative with dried fava beans and sweetened condensed milk if I had to, so I'm not concerned about going hungry. It's just the uncertainty of it all.

In the meantime, we're getting by quite well. We're both stay-at-homes, for the most part, so being in the house isn't a chore, for us. Granted, it is a bit strange knowing that we can't do all of the things we never did, anyway, but... we're getting by - and as long as the flour holds out, we'll continue to eat well, too.

Last night, Victor made the best pappardelle with cherry tomato sauce. Totally awesome!

He used his basic pasta dough from Alon Shaya:

Pasta Dough

  • 1 1/4 cup 00 flour
  • 1/2 cup semolina
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tsp olive oil

Mix flours. make a well and add the eggs, egg yolks, and oil. Slowly mix in the flour and knead until smooth. Let rest 30 minutes before rolling to desired shape.

And the sauce... ::sigh::

Simple Fresh Sauce

  • cherry tomatoes
  • garlic
  • onion
  • anchovy paste
  • kalamata olives
  • oregano
  • S&P

Saute tomatoes, garlic, and onions in olive oil until tomatoes begin to break down. Add anchovy paste and olives, mixing well. Add oregano, and S&P, to taste. Add a bit of pasta water, if it appears too dry.

Add pasta that has been cooked about 9/10ths of the way and finish cooking in the sauce.

We had it with the rolls I made the other day - toasted in the oven with garlic butter olive oil and parmesan cheese. It was totally delicious. I pretty much licked my plate clean.

This morning, I made a batch of Lentil Soup. We've been doing soups for lunch for quite a while, now... they are one of the best and most nutritious things one can make - and they hide a multitude of sins.

Lentil Soup

This is a throw-together of:

  • lentils
  • celery
  • carrots
  • fennel
  • garlic powder
  • onion powder
  • French herbs
  • cayenne pepper
  • S&P

For the large pot, I used 3 cups lentils, 5 carrots, 4 celery stalks, half a fennel bulb, and herbs and spices, to taste. After sweating the vegetables, I added the lentils, filled the pot with water, and brought it to a boil. I kept it at a low boil, adding the cayenne, herbs, and S&P, until the veggies and lentils were tender.

It's pretty fool-proof.

So... keep eating, get creative, and don't worry about not having an ingredient or how something will turn out.

It will be fine. We will all be fine.

Just stay home and limit those outside trips to ones that are truly necessary.

 

 


Parmesan Eggs

Parmesan Fried Eggs

Do you ever see a recipe and decide that you have to cook it right this very minute?!? That's pretty much how I felt when I saw a recipe for a salad with a parmesan egg on top, except I didn't want to make the salad - it was all about that fried egg and cheese. It sounded too ridiculously good not to make right away.

Spoiler Alert: It's ridiculously good.

The concept is frying an egg on top of frico - a parmesan crisp. And a frico is merely taking freshly grated parmigiano reggiano and placing it in a skillet until it melts and crisps. It's an Italian invention - or, at least this iteration is. I'm sure other cheese-producing countries have something similar.

You can't use the green can of faux parmesan or anything powdered. It really needs to be the real deal.

To make the frico and egg:

  • Very lightly oil a 10" non-stick skillet.
  • Place 1/4 cup freshly-grated parmigiano reggiano per egg in skillet over medium heat. Cook about 2 minutes - until cheese begins to melt.
  • Crack egg on top of cheese and cover. Cook about 3 minutes.
  • Remove cover, increase heat, and cook until egg is cooked to your preference.

For dinner, I sliced a beefsteak tomato into really thick slices and put them on the plate with olive oil, salt, and pepper. On top of the tomato went sliced of grilled chicken. On top of the chicken went the cheese and egg.

It was one of those meals that just worked on every level and every flavor worked with every flavor.

Parmesan Eggs

Juicy tomatoes, spicy chicken, and crispy salty cheese wedded to a fried egg on top.

How could it not be good?!?

 

 

 


Butternut Squash

I wasted no time in using up the rest of the squash I cut up, yesterday.

I found a recipe on the NY Times cooking pages for a butternut squash and mushroom wellington that sounded interesting, but I wasn't doing puff pastry, tonight. I thought the idea could be reworked into something that could be served atop polenta - and then I thought that the polenta could be a butternut squash and polenta polenta - using up all of the squash in the 'fridge. I'm brilliant like that, sometimes...

Fortunately, this was one of those rare moments when the brilliance actually worked.

The polenta was really simple. I finely-shredded about 2 cups of the squash and put it into a pot with 2 cups of water and a bit of salt. I brought it to the boil and then took it off the heat and covered it - letting it just sit and steam in the pot for about 30 minutes. I don't think the sitting was really necessary, but I had the time to kill...

I brought it back to the boil, added a half-cup of polenta and a pat of butter and cooked it until the polenta was done. Follow your package instructions - I use a fairly coarse polenta so it takes a while. That was it.

Meanwhile, I cubed a pork chop and seasoned it with smoked paprika, garlic powder, thyme, salt, and pepper. I did a quick browning in a skillet, removed it, and added the cubed squash. I browned them fairly well and then added sliced mushrooms and cooked them down a bit.

Next into the pan went about a half-cup of white wine. I cooked it down, stirred the pork back in, along with some chopped parsley. I covered the pan and put it in the oven at 350°F for about 30 minutes.

To serve, I added crumbled feta on top.

The polenta was really good - it had that deep polenta flavor, but it also spoke strongly of the squash. it was a really good mix of the two flavors. The pork, squash, and mushrooms were the perfect accompaniment. It was rich, meaty, and the flavors blended perfectly. The cubed squash accented the polenta and squash. The cheese on top added a new flavor and texture. The pork and the mushrooms were an excellent combination, as well.

Not bad for a throw-together!


Seafood, Salads, and Stuff

I'm still cooking. I just haven't been writing about it, lately. It seems as if something is always taking precedence over the blog.

Much of it has to do with the fact that I'm not a great typist. I didn't take tying in school because only the [insert stereotypical sexuality slur here] took typing and I just wasn't ready to be lumped into that category way back then. Times change, and I wish I had been brave enough to take that class - it would make all of this easier! Then there are the pictures. I don't style the food for the blog - obviously! I just grab my trusty Nikon CoolPix and snap a couple of photos before setting things on the table. They don't always come out, ya know?!?

And then there's the "I really just threw things together from what was in the kitchen..." There is no recipe. It's just what I did at that place in time. Those are the dishes Victor calls "Stuff." When I'm just throwing things together pretty much knowing it will never be replicated - it's stuff. Like last night.

06-08-16-stuff

Diced chicken breast, carrots, onions, celery, mushrooms, and a bit of garlic, sauteed. A splash of white wine and a bit of heavy cream. Topped with mashed sweet potatoes and baked at 350°F for 30 minutes.

Quick, easy, quite tasty - and we probably won't see this exact dish ever again. It was what I had on hand at that moment in time - and the weather was a bit cool for this time of year, to boot.

We had catfish a few nights ago.

06-08-16-catfish

And a really good rice

Bacon Rice Pilaf

  • 4 slices bacon
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 ribs celery, chopped
  • 1/2 bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 cup uncooked rice
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • Splash Tabasco
  • Salt & Pepper, to taste

Fry bacon until crisp; crumble and set aside. Sauté onions, celery, and green pepper in the bacon grease until tender.

Add rice, tomatoes, crumbled bacon, and seasonings. Cook on top of the stove for 10 minutes. Pour into a buttered baking dish; cover tightly and bake at 350°F about 1 hour, or until rice is tender.

The catfish was simply floured, dipped in egg, and then cornmeal - and fried. Really simple.

And the salad was just a salad...

06-08-16-salad-2

The fun thing about it, though, was the lettuce and broccoli came out of our garden! I'm still in awe that we're actually growing real food in our own yard! Other than peppers and tomatoes, this is a new experience for me. I'm loving it!

So, here's to more fun meals and more writing - maybe my typing skills will improve with practice.

And definitely more pictures of the garden!


Garden Cooking

I have to say I am enjoying this urban gardener-stuff.

In all my 64 years, this is the first time I've actually grown something other than just tomatoes and peppers. Pot doesn't count, of course, although we did do some pretty good baked goods back in the day.

But I digress...

Food - coming out of my own yard. Who woulda thunk?!?

05-29-16-garden-cooking-3

We've had a few happy neighbors as too much became ready at once. I was passing out some beautiful heads of romaine lettuce earlier today. They had to come up so the green beans could go in.

I also picked a celery to make a bit of room. It's early, but tasty! There's some cauliflower out there, as well... It's probably too hot for it, now - it wants cooler weather - but we'll let it go for a while longer.

05-29-16-garden-cooking-4

So looking at celery, onions, radishes, a head of chicory, the last of the broccoli, and a few tomatoes almost past their prime, a dinner was born.

05-29-16-garden-cooking-2

I had a boneless short rib in the freezer so I pulled it out this morning. When I went to check on it at noon, I discovered it was actually catfish. The only two things in the freezer that weren't labeled, I mixed up. Go figure.

Catfish will be dinner tomorrow.

The onions and the short ribs went into the braiser and a few minutes later, so did the chopped up celery - leaves and all. Then the chopped chicory, chopped radishes, chopped tomatoes, and the broccoli. Next went about a cup of red wine - maybe a bit more - and into the oven it went - with a lid, of course.

I let it cook for a couple of hours and then pulled it out and shredded the beef. 30 minutes before dinner I splashed a bit of beef broth on it and it went back into the oven while the potatoes boiled.

It was pretty good. One of those meals that will never be duplicated, but that's okay.

Tomorrow will be catfish - and who knows what else...

 


Stuff

06-02-15-stuff

One of my more fun cooking styles is clean out the refrigerator. The dish is usually an amalgamation of pieces of this-and-that that are hanging around the 'fridge. Things that are too small for an actual meal and too big or too good to toss - things that just accumulate over time. It's the type of meal that is almost always stellar - and will never be replicated because the odds of having these same items in the 'fridge at the same time are between slim and none.

Tonight's meal started with 2 meaty country pork ribs, a single cooked Italian sausage, a bit of leftover flank steak, a green pepper, an onion, half a basket of mini heirloom tomatoes, and a single ear of corn. Oh. And three pieces of bacon.

I started with the bacon. I chopped it up and let it start to brown. Into the pan went the onion - the smell of bacon and onion cooking together is almost olfactory overload - and after browning everything nicely, I added the ribs.

After went the tomatoes, the green pepper, the corn, the sausage and the flank steak - and then a cup of white wine, salt, pepper, and a great spice blend my friend, Tyler, brought back from Florida - Old St Augustine Minorcan Spice. It's a blend of Datil peppers, Seville oranges, garlic, onion... Not too spicy and with a nice hint of orange.

Good stuff.

I covered the pot and placed it in a 300° oven for a couple of hours. It's cold and damp outside - it was nice having the oven on...

I pulled it out of the oven, shredded the pork and tossed the bones, and then added about a cup of beef broth and a half-cup of rice, mixed it all together, and put it back in the oven for another hour. Covered.

The end result was a rich, meaty rice dish with tons of flavor.

Nonna asked if she could have it for lunch, tomorrow. It was definitely a hit!

And there's more Strawberry Pie for dessert.

Life is good!


A Southwestern Pumpkin Sauce

 

Dinner!!

I rarely mention my work when writing the blog because I really do like that separation of work-life and home-life. It's my personal separation of Church and State.

Once in a while, however, the two do come together - Thursday was a perfect case in point. Several times a year we do an employee meeting and Flyer Tasting so the staff can get an idea of the products we're going to be highlighting in the upcoming Fearless Flyer™. The actual tastings can come in various forms, from informal a few products at a time in the break room to more elaborate spreads with 30 or more products being sampled. Thursday was the latter.

Our kitchen set-up at work is aimed towards continually making small quantities of things throughout the coarse of the day. It's perfect for offering samples of things - everything is always fresh, nothing is sitting around. It is not, however, conducive to getting the equivalent of Thanksgiving Dinner for 80 people prepared in a timely manner.

So Elizabeth and I bring things home to prepare. It is just so much easier to mass-produce items at home. And Victor is always there to help clean up!

I brought home chickens and pot roasts - and a couple dozen boxes of breads, bars, scones, and rolls to bake. I accomplished in 4 hours what would have taken me 16 at work.

The fun part was having Nonna keep coming into the kitchen and just not quite grasping why I was making and baking such vast quantities of food - and that I was going to be leaving again to go back to work after already working all day.

Now... because I'm all about all things pumpkin, I think my favorite was the Southwestern Pumpkin Sauce. It was a wing-it recipe that really came out good.

Southwestern Pumpkin Sauce

  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 ctn Pumpkin Soup
  • 1 can Pumpkin
  • 2 bags diced pumpkin
  • 1 btl Enchilada sauce
  • 2 cans Diced Green Chiles
  • 1 jar Roasted Red Peppers, diced
  • 1/2 tsp Chipotle Powder
  • Salt & Pepper, to taste

Saute onion is a small amount of oil until translucent. Add chipotle powder and saute briefly. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until the diced pumpkin is cooked through and the sauce has thickened.

Serve with ravioli or your favorite pasta.

I served Victor's and my dinners with grilled andouille sausage. Nonna had an Italian sausage and tomato sauce 'cuz she doesn't care for pumpkin or spice.

The tasting was a hit and dinner the following night was a hit at home.


Chicken Soup Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes www.tjrecipes.com

Feed A Cold...

Chicken Soup Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes www.tjrecipes.com

The Dreaded Summer Cold.

It really is one of the worst (non-life-threatening) illnesses out there. Ya feel like crud, there's nothing you can take to make you actually feel better, you lose your sense of taste and smell... It is just no fun.

Mine has been lingering in the peripheral of life - just enough to feel headachy and out of sorts. It's hit Victor Full-Tilt-Boogie. Imagine hacking and coughing and mountains of Kleenex and you get the picture.  I merely feel meh - he feels really rotten.

So we started the week with a thin-broth Chicken Soup.  There are a score of studies out there that show the medicinal properties of chicken soup. It really is Jewish penicillin. It hasn't seemed to cure anything this time around, though, but I'm going to make another batch tonight.

I also made some Beer Bread because it's easy and can be on the table in an hour. The recipe is totally no-brainer and can be played with to your liking.

Beer Bread Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes www.tjrecipes.com

I used Guinness in this batch because it's what I had in the 'fridge.

Beer Bread Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes www.tjrecipes.com

Since man - or Nonna - cannot live by soup alone, I stayed with the chicken theme, but added a twist - pureed carrots and peach-pepper jam. Capsasin is also a miracle food. We had the carrot puree at my sister's house in Portland a few weeks back - under her famous crab cakes.

Chicken with Peach and Pepper Jam and Carrot Puree  Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes www.tjrecipes.com

I grilled the chicken and topped it with the Peach-Pepper Jam.

For the carrot puree, I cooked carrots until they were really soft, and then blended them with salt, pepper, butter, and a bit of maple syrup. I saved a bit of the cooking water and used it to get the right consistency.I used my immersion blender but a regular blender will work just fine.

One of my favorite Lundgerg rice blends on the side...

Beef Pot Pie Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes www.tjrecipes.com

Feeling the need for Comfort Food, I next made a beef pot pie with biscuit topping. And I used canned biscuits. Yes, it's true. I was sick. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

And while they weren't horrible, there really is a reason why I make my own. Homemade really are better. The big secret to making a biscuit top is to make sure the filling is REALLY hot before putting the biscuits on and placing everything into the oven. If the filling is cold, the biscuit will burn before the bottom cooks. Ask me how I know.

I made a pretty basic beef stew - another item I really don't have a recipe for - put too much into the casserole, and it bubbled over everything. I did place it on a sheetpan in the oven, so I spared us the billowing clouds of smoke I'm famous for.

Still looking for Comfort Food, I next went for Tortellini with sauce made from fresh tomatoes out of our garden.

Tortellini Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes www.tjrecipes.com

Victor made the sauce. It's pretty much just throwing tomatoes in a skillet with some onion, garlic, red wine, some grated cheese, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs from the garden. Hit it with an immersion blender.

One of the bigger mistakes a lot of people do is try and replicate jarred sauces or flavors from packaged foods. Food manufactures are chemists who manipulate foods, ingredients, enhancers - you name it - to trick the brain into thinking it's good. Even All-Natural-Organic foods can contain ingredients like carrageenan that create an otherwise unnatural creaminess. It's like the biscuits I used. The ingredient list was a mile long - and they're "all-natural."

Real food tastes like real food. It's okay if your sauce doesn't taste like Ragu. in fact, it's better if it doesn't!

In the meantime, I'm off to make another pot of soup.

 

 


Still Cleaning out the Freezer

02-22-13-stuffed-sweet-potato

It has been clean-out-the-freezer-week here at the Dineen/Martorano homestead. It's been more full than usual and a danger every time the door has been opened. Besides the usual meats that I buy in bulk, cut, portion, and freeze, there is a goodly amount of broth, chili, pasta sauce, soup... things I made in bulk and then froze. I've been subconsciously planning for Armageddon and assuming the electricity would stay on indefinitely. Armageddon has a better chance of arriving than does uninterrupted power...

Night before last was baked stuffed sweet potatoes.  The freezer item here was hot Italian sausage. There are /were at least six packages of hot Italian as well as a couple sweet Italian. I get trays of 24 sausages and repack into packs of 4. While there's always a few sausages in the freezer, I hit a couple of sales last month. Lots of sausage.

I baked a big sweet potato and then, when it had cooled, cut it in half and scooped out the innards, leaving a quarter-inch shell.

I sauteed onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil, and then added the sausage out of the casing. I let it cook and when it was done, mixed in the sweet potato and small cubes of muenster cheese. Back into the shells it all went and into a 350° oven for about 30 minutes.

Sour cream on the side...

02-22-13-chili

Last night was Chili con Carne. When Victor was in Dallas last month I made a pretty big batch of chili. More than even I could eat in a week - and I could live on chili, chili burgers, chili dogs... This was thaw, heat, and eat. Lots of raw onions on mine.

01-20-13-chili-1

As I said - a big pot of chili. I don't quite remember the exact recipe, but it was about a pound and a half of white beans soaked overnight to begin with, a couple of pounds of cubed beef, onions, garlic, cumin, chili powder, ancho chili powder, smoked paprika, chipotle powder, tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, jalapeños, diced green chilis, salt & pepper. Simmered for a long time.

And it made a few really good chili burgers with chili fries.

01-21-13-chili-burger

With lots of onions...

Tonight was Baked Stuffed Shells with more of the aforementioned hot Italian sausage...

02-22-13-stuffed-shells

All three of these items came out of the freezer. Thaw, heat, eat, again.

If the kitchen gods are willing, I should be able to see into the freezer before my Monday shopping trek. Maybe something good will be on sale...


Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Escarole and Cannellini Beans

I decided to do my weekly grocery shopping this morning, since I have things to do tomorrow.  Instead of a clean-out-the-refrigerator meal, we had a real one from scratch.  What a concept!

I had recently seen a recipe for escarole and cannellini beans and as I was browsing the fresh produce, there was a head of escarole.  Part of dinner was done!

I then noticed a really small piece of fresh farmer's cheese and the rest of dinner fell into place.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts and Escarole and Cannellini Beans.

Can we say "yum" boys and girls?!?

The chicken was totally no-brainer.  I took the cheese and added some fresh chopped parsley and a clove of minced garlic - and a bit of black pepper.  I made a deep slit into the chicken breasts and packed the cheese in...  At the last minute I sprinkled panko breadcrumbs on top, but they weren't really necessary.  Into a 375° oven for about 30 minutes.

The escarole and beans was even easier!  I rinsed the leaves, did a rough chop, and placed them into a large skillet with a drizzle of olive oil and a pat of butter - and a clove of minced garlic.  When they had cooked down a bit, I added a can of drained and rinsed cannellini beans and a pinch of salt and pepper.  That was it.

They went on the plate, the chicken went on top, and we had a mighty fine meal!

Other than bean salads now and again, we don't really eat a lot of beans during the summer - and I miss them.  I'm looking forward to the cooler weather and a pot of beans simmering on the stove!


Super Bowl Chili

I would love to know how many vats of chili are being made today.  Chili and Super Bowl just seem to go together - even if you're not feeding a crowd.

And we're definitely not feeding a crowd today.  The game just starts too damned late on the east coast for me to even think about a party.  By 7:00pm on a Sunday night, I want everyone going home.  I probably would be feeling a bit differently if San Francisco had made it, but a 7:00pm kick-off is still too late even for a game I'd be excited about.

My vote is for a 1pm Pacific/4pm Eastern start.  But that ain't happening this year.

And while I'm totally ho-hum on the two teams playing, I'm even more down on Indianapolis.  I can't stand the place.  I opened the Westin Hotel there circa 1989 and I tell ya, the city was one of the most racist, bigoted,  and intolerant places I have ever lived.  It just sucked.  It's the kind of place that promotes "Family Values" while having skanky strip clubs on every other corner.  Not to mention the anti-gay married politicians getting caught in their pay-for-gay trysts... (ooops!)

But I digress...

Chili.  I love it.  I even like canned chili.  I tend to live on chili dogs and chili burgers when Victor has to travel for business.  (My otherwise relatively-good eating habits go straight down the tube when I'm left on my own...)  I figured if I made a huge vat o'chili today, I could freeze some and live off it when he travels to Dallas in a couple of weeks.

I don't use a recipe when making chili - I just make chili.  This batch started off with a pound of small red beans that I soaked overnight and cooked this morning.

Into another pot went 2 chopped onions, 1 yellow bell pepper, 3 chopped jalapeño peppers, and 2 cloves of minced garlic.  Then went in cumin and chili powder.  Cumin and chili powder both really need to be cooked to get rid of the otherwise "raw" flavor they can impart.

Next went in the ground beef.  When it was cooked, I added 1 jar of Sofrito sauce, 2 large cans of tomato sauce, 1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilis and a small can of green chilis.  I added some chipotle powder, salt and pepper, and Mexican oregano and let it all simmer.  When the beans were cooked, I added them to the pot and let everything simmer for about an hour.

Heaping bowls were topped with shredded cheddar and dollops of sour cream.

We have chips and dips and other junky foods for later today.

Not to mention more chili, of course!

And, if the game is boring, there's always 31 Days of Oscar on TCM...