Look! I'm like a real foodie now!!

I talk enough about food... I should post food pics to my blog like a real foodie-type-person!!!

The caramelized onions I made last week.....

Isnt that a big pot of love??? All you do is slice onions, throw a stick (or two) of butter in the bottom of a crock pot, fill the pot with as many onions as you can fit, stick the lid on, and cook for 12 hours. And you get that pot of love at the end of it. Add some stock and a couple bay leaves and simmer for a few more hours, and you have the best and easiest french onion soup.

How do you start a killer pot of chili??

You brown ground beef, chopped onions and McCormick chili powder and get this...

... then dump in this - don't even drain the beans......

And simmer on LOW for a couple hours covered, stirring every 10-15 minutes, and uncovered for about an hour to thicken... and you end up with.... yeah, I suck at this food pic thing, I was way too excited about the end product to think about taking a picture. Ooops.

And yes... that is undrained beans and condensed soup that goes in to my chili. It was the way I was taught, and damnit, like that odd, creamy Lime Jello mold that is a family tradition - on both sides - it is one of those things that is just good.

(hey... this "adding pictures" thing is pretty easy! Bitchin!!!!)

Chili recipe!

In honor of my hate of the Semi-Ho (yeah... yesterdays new episode had yogurt plus tofu plus VOKDA... this lady is nuts) I've been meaning to post my totally un-gourmet, "king of canned foods" chili recipe. Yeah. It looks kinda sketchy on the surface but it's the way my grandfather made chili, my dad made chili and I learned to make chili.

My husband, the notorious picky eater, just about dances when he knows I'm making chili for dinner. It not only means a couple of tasty bowls of chili for dinner, it means a chili stash in the freezer for chili dogs, chili fries, chili omelettes (yeah, sounds gross but it's damned good) and various other chili applications.

Adding adobo chiles and some hot sauce even made this a winner of a chili contest (yeah, us midwesterners kinda suck when it comes to what we think is good chili, I'll admit it).

Easy-Ass Chili

1 1/2 to 2 pounds ground beef
2 -3 large onions, chopped
1 tablespoon McCormick Chili powder (the brand is important!!)
2 cans light red kidney beans, undrained
1 can dark red kidney beans, undrained
2 cans Campbell's condensed tomato soup
1 tablespoon butter

Brown ground beef and onions in a large pot, until meat is no longer pink and onions are translucent. If your meat was really greasy, drain it. No one needs THAT much beef fat.

Add chili powder and cook 1-2 minutes, stirring, until it starts to smell like chili.

Dump in he beans and tomato soup. I cannot stress "undrained" enough. Trust me, the end result will not be too salty. And just think about how all the preservatives in there will keep your corpse looking good for years after you die.

Bring to a boil and taste for seasoning. Add more chili powder if you want.

Cook over low heat, covered, for two hours, stirring every 15-20 minutes, being sure to scrape the bottom of the pot. Don't let it burn on the bottom of the pot. If it does, all is not lost, DO NOT scrape the burned chili off the bottom, just dump the still-good chili in to another pot and continue cooking. Then quickly clean up the evidence so no one will ever know.

All that sound like too much trouble?? Then dump it in a crock pot. 4-6 hours on high, covered, will cook it nicely.

No matter which method you use, cook an additional hour, uncovered. If it's on the stove, you still need to keep stirring.

Before serving, stir in 1 tablespoon butter. Don't know the chemical explination, but it makes it good.

Serve and eat.

Serving suggestions: shredded cheese, chopped onions, tortilla chips, crackers, sour cream, or my favorite, buttered saltine crackers (like a little canape!!)