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| Newfoundland Cuisine |
So
I made my Chili yesterday and it was underwhelming. One of the problems was
that it was not hot enough – I used a mild chili powder which was just too
mild. But even with a hotter chili powder I am not sure it would have been
exciting.
Sure
it was acceptable – but it tasted very much like my spaghetti bolognaise sauce
– but not as good.
But
this was a basic chili recipe from allrecipes – and there are many more
exotic varieties – so I shall try one of these next.
One
of the things I like about allrecipes is that I get an email each day with a
new recipe idea. This is good because I often suffer from poverty of
imagination when thinking about the next few meals.
I
had two challenges yesterday – the heating stopped working mid-morning – and it
was below zero outside. Fortunately we have five gas fires in the house so can
get it reasonably warm. Dave the heating man came in the afternoon and fiddled
about to get it working. It stopped again overnight and when I got up it was
59° in the kitchen. Shriek.
Dave
is on his way again. He said he will not leave until it is working properly. I
have the guest bedroom ready.
When
we were in Austria we bought two basic kindles – which worked fine but we could
buy books only from the English book section of Amazon Germany.
Since
we arrived in the USA I have been trying to get the kindles to work in the USA.
You can theoretically transfer them from the German store to the USA Amazon store
– but I could not do this.
What
I ended up doing was creating a loop so
that when I went to Amazon USA it said that my kindles were registered in
Germany. When I went to the German store it said my kindles were registered in
the USA.
I
spent hours at a time over the last six months on the telephone to Amazon – who
could not fix my problem. I eventually gave up and ordered two more kindles –
which arrived yesterday.
When
I tried to register them it would take me only to the German store!
Back
to square 1.
I
decided to give Amazon one more go and spent an hour on the phone with Sally. She
was absolutely stumped (never seen anything like this before!) but the last
thing she said before we parted company was – ‘create a new a completely new
email address and try to register with that’.
Bingo!
Really
– I should have thought of this a lot earlier in the process.
Nest
week I am going to test my slow cooker.
Chili is one of those very personal things in this country. It can sometimes take years to workup a recipe, and using someone else's is tricky. Nearly everyone I know started with a basic recipe and then worked ages to personalize it (my own recipe took about 20 years to perfect, and I still mess with it). There are a lot of people who won't even give out their recipes. If you get a chance, locate a public chili cook-off. That's where you'll find some great chilis! The best one I ever attended was at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. A bit far away, but I'd be surprised if Indy doesn't hold a few during the warmer months.
ReplyDeleteI am making chili this weekend and will send my recipe, but honestly I fiddle with it each time. We do like the hotter, smokier type chili with beans. I remember back in the day when I was teaching my brother to cook --I am embarrassed to tell this--I told him the "spaghetti sauce, chili and sloppy joe recipe all started out from the same mother recipe. And really to some degree that still may be true.
ReplyDeleteSK Waller: Thanks - I will keep an eye open for one of those - and in the meantime will start messing with my basic recipe.
ReplyDeletefmcgmccllc: I would love to have your recipe - thanks.
I just use the Kindle app on my iPad. It is fairlyreliable. Of course I don't have the international zone problem that you have encountered, which seems kind of silly as to why Amazon does this, and even more curious as to why they make you jump through so many hoops. I am sure there were lawyers involved.
ReplyDeleteI have made a couple batches of burger mix where I use 50:50 ground buffalo and pork sausage. This latest round I have been adding oyster sauce.
I recently learned how to change an igniter on my gas furnace. I didn't get much heating experience from my HVAC mentor before he passed away mainly due to scheduling conflicts and conflicts of other varieties. The printing business is much less demanding physically than HVAC! But I am mopping floors now so that will keep me in better shape.
One of my favourite places for recipes is smittenkitchen.com
ReplyDeleteTry the 'surprise me!' button on the left side for ideas.
I use pieces of steak in my chili, I don't like ground meat much. Cut up leftover steak, as much or little as you want. Start with canned black beans, or red or pintos or all three, canned diced tomatoes, chopped onions, lots of chili powder, smoke in a bottle stuff, garlic, a little frozen corn, and chopped baby carrots, the meat. Slow cooker, all day. An hour before eating, I put uncooked wild rice in it, maybe half a cup. I love my chili. Then make homemade cornbread to go with it.
ReplyDeleteesbboston: Well I have never tried buffalo but am prepared to give it a go. I am not so sure about oyster sauce - although I use fish sauce in some recipes. I have been getting some exercise shoveling snow. I will try smittenkitchen.
ReplyDeleteMary Anne Rudolph: Sounds good - I will def try the steak thing.
You frozen stiff?
ReplyDelete(Just wondering, it being Tuesday and nothing new on your blog since forever!)
xxx
Btw, i like buffalo burgers, homemade ones, grilled. Outdoors. Very lean, but very tasty, too.
ReplyDeleteMerisi: The buffalo burgers at Fuddruckers restaurants are very good. There are supposedly elk burgers at some Fuddruckers but none of the ones I have made it to. So if you are ever in Houston they have several locations, as well as several other cities. Also Canada, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
ReplyDelete