it's been raining here for 10 days straight. and yesterday/today it's just been a full-blown windy as hell thunderstorm, with constant downpour. and it's going to be that way for the forseeable future.

and because i'm a good house-frau, i go to the grocery store and farmer's market every sunday, with my weekly menu and grocery list in hand, and shop for the week.

and i want to make some good rainy-day dinners for the house.

specifically good soups or chili recipes.
or black bean chili that doesn't suck.
(especially for the crock pot/slow cooker, as i have one of those)

what do you like to eat on a stormy night?
and can you post the recipe?

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I don't really know, but it's a good thread as I love to eat when it's rainy. I'll follow the answer hehe...

yea, soups and stews and great on these types of days.

Ok, here's a recipe for a chicken (or pork) type of stew:

-chicken breasts on bone or boneless pork chops
-About 3 cans of crushed tomoatoes
-garlic
-2 or 3 onions
-olive oil
-potatoes (cut into 4's or so)
-fresh green beans
-mushrooms
-bell peppers
-carrots (if you like but not really necessary)

in a stew pot:

cook onions, garlic in olive oil. when cooked through add crushed tomoatoes, meat, potatoes, etc. cook on low for about an hour and a half or until meat is tender. add salt and pepper to taste.

it's a pretty easy recipe. you can play around with the ingredients.

i like things with melted cheese on them

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said thanks for the insults and compliments
you'll never forget my face no more

well, tonight i'm making a southwestern two bean roasted corn & dark beer chili. i tried to make a similar recipie before, but it came out creepily sweet and... not excellent.

so, i made a bastardized version of it today. i'll post the recipe, but i can't tell you if it'll come out or not (i haven't even found out myself yet. it'll be ready round 7:30)

ingredients:
-- 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
-- 1 bell pepper (red or green), finely chopped
-- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
-- 1 cup chicken stock
-- 8 oz. can of diced tomatoes, whizzed in a food processor
-- 1 tbsp chili powder
-- 1 tbsp ancho chili powder
-- 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
-- 1 tsp honey
-- 2 tbsp lime juice
-- 3 tbsp olive oil
-- 1 can of black beans
-- 1 can of cannelini (white kidney) beans
-- 1 cup of roasted yellow or white corn
-- 3 tbsp green chili puree (whizzed in the food processor)
-- 1/2 bottle dark beer (i'm using Newcastle)
-- salt and pepper to taste

directions:
1. heat a large skillet on medium, add olive oil, onions, and garlic. cook until translucent.
2. add chili powders and cumin. cook 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. add beer, cook 4-5 minutes or until beer is reduced
4. dump everything from the skillet into a crock pot/slow cooker, add bell peppers
5. rinse corn and both beans well, add to crock pot
6. in a food processor, whiz together tomatoes, honey, and lime juice, add to crock pot
7. add chicken stock to pot.
8. cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours
9. if it's not spicy enough, add the green chile paste or bottled chili sauce to taste. if it's too sweet, oh well (this is what happened last time, and i've reduced the amount of honey and beer considerably, so hopefully it wont happen with this recipe).
10. add salt to taste, 10-15 minutes before serving (i read that adding salt too early with beans can make them tough and shitty)

it should come out as a really rather rich, densely flavoured, thick chili.


UPDATE:

looks nice, taste like shit.



i even tried to fix it by covering it with copious quantities of sour cream (as is evidenced above), but no.
we recokon it's either the beer that's a bad match, or our fucking cumin.
EVERYTHING i've made with this one bottle of cumin has had this creepy shitty plastic-y taste to it somewhere in the background.
also, this chili is too sweet.

i give up.
clearly, i just can't make decent chili.

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