Making Chili on a Chilly Day Oct 13, 2005

I found seven 7 bone steaks in the rotten meat department at Fred's.  I immediately thought:  Chili!  Perfect!

So, I bought canned tomatoes as it is too far to The Barn to get a flat of Romas, and I already have these experimental 2 lb onions bought from my favorite Old Lady thrift store.  Seriously!  One of the old ladies' husbands is a geneticist for the onion trade.  Wild! 

The fixins

 

That crazy onion!

 

Grinding allll that meat.   The dogs have lots of bones in the freezer now!

 

Cook it all up.  I'm thinking mincemeat too!

 

This is how much I got: 6 quarts of browned ground chuck.

 

Soaking the beans overnight.

 

The chili saga continues tomorrow.  Right now, I'm thinking that it would be a lot easier to just go to Fred's and buy a can of chili!

 

Oct 14, 2005

OK, here we go again:  I decided I'd can the beans separately from the meat mixture.  They are canned easily.

Cook them at a boil in 2" water to cover for 30 minutes.  Drain.

 

Pack into quart jars. 

 

Pressure can at 10 lbs pressure for 90 minutes.

 

1st batch done!

 

Always label the jars because I guarantee you in 6 months you won't remember when you made these.  Plus, if I enter these in the fairs, I need to know that stuff when I make out the labels.

 

More tomorrow!  This promises to be a cooking weekend.........

 

Sunday, Oct 16, 2005

 

Back to work on the chili.  I sautéed tons of the genetically engineered onions, added the ground beef, chili powder, garlic, tomatoes and salt and simmered 1/2 hour.

 

Put in jars and pressure can 90 minutes at 10 lbs.  This first batch will be 7 jars.  I have enough beef for 7 more, but I might make mincemeat instead.                     Decisions decisions!

 

 

Back to the kitchen