Chili

Sometimes I feel kind of silly giving you a strict recipe to follow (well, often actually, because I think cooking is such a personal and experimental process). For certain things, like salad or salsa, or in this case, chili, everyone has their own way of making. My friend Diana doesn't eat meat and makes a killer veggie chili. My mom, however, makes a more traditional chili that consists mainly of chunks of beef simmered in spicy liquid until they fall apart. My recipe is kind of a happy medium, I guess. It has lots of ground beef in it, but also lots of beans and tomatoes, and of course lots of spices.

As I said at the beginning, this is how I make chili. Feel free to change this around. If you have some jalapenos (or chipotle in adobo sauce, which is like my favorite thing) sitting around that need to be used up, throw those in. Or if you have an open jar of salsa that no one is finishing fast enough, toss that in too. If you don't like things so spicy, cut down on the spices. If you like more veggies in your chili, you can add some chopped bell peppers (be aware that this will probably make your chili quite a bit sweeter). It's chili, not brain surgery. Go crazy with it.

Also, in this blog you get to see the first pictures I've taken of my Toronto kitchen for this blog. So instead of the lovely commercial range and marble countertops of my parents' kitchen, you can now be treated to my less-lovely Ikea pots and white plastic counters. But the food will be just as delicious.

Beef and Bean Chili

1 medium onion (or half a large onion), diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 can (~19 fl oz) kidney beans, drain off the liquid
1 can (~19 fl oz) black beans, drain off the liquid
1 can (~19 fl oz) crushed tomatoes
juice of 1/2 lime

Saute the onion and garlic until softened and just starting to turn transparent.

FYI, I probably should have used less onion

Add the ground beef, and cook until about halfway cooked.

 Add the spices, and saute until the beef is pretty much fully cooked.

 Add the beans, tomatoes, and lime juice.

For this picture, I used whole canned tomatoes that I chopped into chunks, because that's what I had. If you like chunky chili, you can definitely use this approach.

 Simmer until it reaches your desired thickness.

You can serve this in a bowl and eat it with a spoon, or you can eat it with tortilla chips like I do. Also, I almost always grate some cheddar over the top, because it's delicious. Any leftovers you have can be frozen for later consumption. Or, if you only have a little bit left, make nachos.

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Today I'm going to review Yeasayer's Fragrant World, which is their newest album (which was released earlier this summer). Yeasayer is one of my favorite bands, because their sound is so interesting. They blend pop aspects with much more esoteric elements, like afrobeat and intricately layered tracks. Fragrant world is their third studio album, and while it is quite good, it isn't my favorite album of theirs (In case you are interested, my favorite album by them is probably Odd Blood, but All Hour Cymbals has some fantastic tracks as well). Fragrant World is weaker, in my opinion, because their sound has become more straight-forward pop, or maybe more like house music (I'm not sure what words to use to describe the type of music I'm thinking of). Well, this isn't to say that it sounds like anything in the Top 40 (or whatever it's called). I just miss the wonderful excursions into different types of sounds that I'd never heard before.

However, this stylistic shift does mean that almost every track from Fragrant World is a whole lot of fun to dance to. This is the kind of music that could make me actually enjoy clubbing (which I usually avoid like the plague). It's infectious and almost impossible to resist at least tapping your foot along, if not shamelessly dancing along. While Fragrant World is great for this, I just miss some of their more far-out stuff.

While maybe this change will benefit them as a band, making them more accessible to a wider audience, I miss their more experimental roots, and hope that they head back in that direction for their next album.

And here is a taste of some of their music, for those who are interested.
From Fragrant World: Reagan's Skeleton
From All Hour Cymbals (though really this is a studio session for a radio station): Wait for the Summer

Lazy Pasta

Sorry for the random long break in posts. I had been traveling a lot, and subsequently not making my own food. Part of my travels included moving back up to my Toronto apartment. While it's exciting to be back, it does mean I have to say goodbye to my parent's lovely kitchen (with it's marble countertops and it's commercial size range and it's extensive, always stocked pantry).

So, since I've just recently moved in, I'm don't really feel up for cooking anything to intensive, so I'm going to tell you my favorite lazy (and cheap) dish. It's something I can easily whip up in less than a half hour, and can feed a lot of people.

This recipe uses a combination of veggies that looked good at the supermarket today, but you can (as usual), use whatever you want. I often use bell peppers, eggplant, asparagus, olives, etc.

Oh, and of course, I forgot to take pictures because I'm a fool. I promise I'll start making more legitimate posts soon.

Veggie Pasta

Makes 3-4 servings

1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 zucchini
4 crimini mushrooms
1/2 pound pasta
1/2 jar tomato sauce (or if you're feeling adventurous, you can make your own. I'll give some guidelines on pasta sauce recipe further down)


Boil ~5 cups water in a large pot. Add a large pinch of salt to the water.

Dice onions, mince the garlic, and chop the zucchini and mushrooms.

Saute the onions in a large skillet until translucent. Then add the minced garlic.

Once the salted water is boiling, add the pasta, and cook for the recommended time (or until it's your favorite texture)

To the sauteed onions and garlic, add the zucchini and mushrooms. Cook until veggies are your desired doneness (I really don't cook the veggies down that much, because I love fresh/crunchy veggies). Add the tomato sauce, and heat through.

When the pasta is done to your liking, strain out the water.

Serve the pasta and the veggie sauce, and if you want, you can top it with some cheese.


Quick Tomato Sauce

This recipe will probably make more sauce than you need for the pasta recipe above, but whatever is left over you can just put in the fridge and use later. And then you'll have delicious home-made sauce and you won't even have to worry about it.

1 16 ounce can of tomatoes (diced or crushed, depending on how chunky you like your sauce. Or if you really like chunky, you could get canned whole ones and mush them up for a bit in the can)
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil (or fresh, if you have it)
1/2 tsp red peppers flakes

Saute the onion and garlic in some olive oil in a saucepan.

Add the canned tomatoes, and bring to a simmer. Add the herbs and spices.

Here is where the recipe gets fun. You can make whatever kind of sauce you like. Do you want cheese in your sauce? Add some grated parmesan or romano. Want to make an artichoke sauce? Take a can of artichoke hearts and throw it in. If you happen to have prosciutto, you could totally add it in, and it would be delicious. Basically, now it the time to add whatever makes you think "Mmmm, that tomato sauce looks fantastic".

And you can specialize the spices as well. Do you think that rosemary would be really good in pasta sauce? Go for it! Do you like spicy tomato sauce. Add more pepper flakes, or some chili powder. If you hate spicy food, leave it out, no worries.

However, if you're feeling pretty lazy, you can just stick with tomatoes and herbs. And the one herb that I recommend not leaving out is oregano. That's what makes people think stuff tastes like Italian food (in my experience), and also it's just delicious.


So hopefully this post/recipe will remind you that cooking doesn't really need to be hard and intimidating. It can be really easy to make yourself a good meal with minimal effort when all you really want to be doing is sitting on the couch avoiding unpacking all your stuff.