OOoo I don’t know about you, but when it’s cold outside I like to eat warm comfort food. One of the dishes I make that warms my belly is my chili. I only cook chili from October through about March. There’s just something wrong to me to eat hot chili when it’s warm outside. So when the fall rolls around, I am good and ready.

This past snowstorm we had this week, actually 2 snows in a week which is almost unheard of here is perfect timing for bowl full of chili. Here’s how I make chili:

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 small onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1 can chili beans
1 can dark red kidney beans, drained
1 can of light red kidney beans, drained
1 can tomatoes like diced or stewed it doesn’t matter (I use frozen tomatoes* from my garden)
1 can of tomato sauce
2-3 teaspoons of chili pepper (I like more, but the family complains so this is very mild)
1 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper

Brown your meat with the onion, peppers and garlic. Drain and add to your stock pot of all the beans and sauce, herbs and spices. Bring to a boil, stirring often then turn down right away and let simmer as long as you want, stirring occasionally. I usually simmer 30 minutes or so. Make sure you don’t burn the chili when bringing it up to a boil, I haven’t found a way to fix that other than not scraping the bottom and pouring it all into another pot and hope no one notices… haha

So if you’re wondering about my frozen tomatoes read this:  If you’ve never frozen tomatoes, it is sooooo much easier than canning. Just toss your washed and cored smaller tomatoes like roma type in freezer bags and freeze those suckers solid. No blanching, no peeling. When you pull them out of the freezer to use, the skins slide right off as they thaw. Great for sauces, soups and chili’s. So in the summer, when you’ve got too many to eat this is great to save for a cold winter’s day when homegrown tomatoes are no where to be found.

I just saw a resemblance of my picture taken from today of our Black Walnut tree covered in snow and my painting called Snowy Night. Huh. Maybe I had a premonition! Hee hee…

By the way this painting is available for sale in my shop here on my website. The original and prints are for sale starting at $26. You can purchase online now with Pay Pal or credit card. I send it out Priority Mail within one business day.

Have a great rest of the weekend!
Jaime