Brielle's Avalon

Great made fresh or with leftovers or even (gasp) from stuff in cans!

So, we start with the beans you have leftover from the other night. What!? You don’t have leftover beans!? OK, we’ll just accept that you used them in all the other fabulous things you made this week. Make some tonight and we’ll make chili tomorrow. What? You’re out of dried beans!? Blasphemy! *sigh* OK, open a can. You DO have a can of beans in the pantry for emergencies, don’t you? Good. So open it, drain it and empty it into a pot. Pinto, navy, kidney, black beans, it doesn’t matter.

 Now go get tomatoes from your garden. WHAT!? OK, so dead of winter or middle of summer in Phoenix won’t yield many tomatoes. No, don’t run to the store. Back to the pantry and pull out a can of diced tomatoes, open it and dump it in the pot.

Pick a big onion (or a bunch of smaller onions) from your garden or the bowl in your kitchen. Chop it up and add it to the pot. OK, they haven’t grown big enough in your garden yet, so just pull one from the basket/bowl and chop it up. What kind of onion? Sheesh! Yellow, purple, white, green bunching onions that you didn’t use in yesterday’s salad…whatever you have is fine. This is home cookin’ after all.

 Now season with garlic, basil, oregano, pepper, cumin…whatever sounds good…and don’t forget the chili powder. I would’ve added Worcestershire sauce but I was out.

Cut up some leftover meatloaf or roast or chicken or whatever and add it in. That’s leftover meatloaf in the picture. What!? No leftovers!? *heavy sigh* What are we going to do with you!? Well, some people don’t put meat in their chili, so this’ll have to do. Come to think of it, some people don’t put beans in their chili, so…let the arguments begin! Yes, you can make do with tofu if you must, especially if it’s leftover.  Mushrooms make a nice meat alternative, too, or zucchini. Yeah, who doesn’t have a surfeit of zucchini at some point? You’ll just call it plain chili, not chili con carne.

Add a bottle of beer or wine and let it stew for a while, til it’s nice and stewy and your tummy can’t stand to wait any longer.

 Garnish with cheese (making it chili con queso), chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, shredded lettuce, chopped cucumber, bacon pieces, sour cream, lemon wedges or anything your hungry tummy desires.

Serve with buttered tortillas (I like flour tortillas, but corn tortillas are good, too) or crackers or cornbread or Fritos or tortilla chips or croutons or bread or toast (yes, I have family in the Midwest and honestly, you really need something to sop up the last of the liquid goodness).

It’s good with beer, red wine, milk or the soda of your choice (I prefer “the real thing”).