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