Monday
Feb182008
Chili challenge
Monday, February 18, 2008 at 08:58AM
I mentioned that I might try to make some chili this weekend, and guess what. I did! I know, I surprised even myself. I found this simple recipe from cdkitchen's crockpot section, cut it in half, nixed the cumin, and gave it a try. As usual, the thing that annoyed me the most was how much work goes into cooking. This is a crockpot, it's supposed to be all fix it and forget it! But when you add the time I spent shopping for the ingredients, preparing the ingredients, fretting over the results and then cleaning up, I'm not sure it was worth the 15 minutes I actually spent eating.
Here's my problem, and I've said it before: I'm not intuitive in the kitchen. Give me a straight forward recipe with NO guesswork involved, and I'll do okay. But the second I have to think independently about anything involved in cooking, I choke. For instance, with this chili, after a couple hours it was starting to look a little dry, which didn't seem right to me. Instead of knowing exactly what to do and just doing it, I fretted over it and bugged Brad about it endlessly. In the kitchen staring at the crockpot:
S: What should I do?
B: I don't know.
S: Me neither.
.....
S: Should we add water?
B: I don't know. What do you think?
S: I don't know.
.....
B: Maybe you should call and ask your mom.
S: No she's on vacation, I don't want to bug her.
B: I can call my mom.
S: And tell her we're completely incompetent at cooking?
B: Let's look it up online.
[when that didn't help much...]
S: So what do we do?
B: I don't know.
Eventually we added a cup of water, but we had no idea what this might do. For all we knew, it would react with another ingredient and blow up our kitchen. It turned out to be just the trick though, and I rather enjoyed our dinner. Brad, however, reminded me that he wasn't a big fan of chili (oops!) and that when he was little, he used to put peanut butter in his to dilute the taste. First of all, what the hell? Peanut butter? Second... yeah, he put peanut butter in his second bowl of chili last night. Not a good sign.
But I liked it!
Here's my problem, and I've said it before: I'm not intuitive in the kitchen. Give me a straight forward recipe with NO guesswork involved, and I'll do okay. But the second I have to think independently about anything involved in cooking, I choke. For instance, with this chili, after a couple hours it was starting to look a little dry, which didn't seem right to me. Instead of knowing exactly what to do and just doing it, I fretted over it and bugged Brad about it endlessly. In the kitchen staring at the crockpot:
S: What should I do?
B: I don't know.
S: Me neither.
.....
S: Should we add water?
B: I don't know. What do you think?
S: I don't know.
.....
B: Maybe you should call and ask your mom.
S: No she's on vacation, I don't want to bug her.
B: I can call my mom.
S: And tell her we're completely incompetent at cooking?
B: Let's look it up online.
[when that didn't help much...]
S: So what do we do?
B: I don't know.
Eventually we added a cup of water, but we had no idea what this might do. For all we knew, it would react with another ingredient and blow up our kitchen. It turned out to be just the trick though, and I rather enjoyed our dinner. Brad, however, reminded me that he wasn't a big fan of chili (oops!) and that when he was little, he used to put peanut butter in his to dilute the taste. First of all, what the hell? Peanut butter? Second... yeah, he put peanut butter in his second bowl of chili last night. Not a good sign.
But I liked it!
in Brad, So Annoyed
Brad, So Annoyed
Reader Comments (15)
Dude. Next time you're in a cooking quandary, e-mail me. You could even call me, because seriously, I would love to help. Also, adding water is good, but better yet, you could've added chicken or beef broth for a more robust-tasting chili. :)
I always advocate adding a beer.
Haha! Peanut butter? Ohmygosh. I've heard of some different things, but never peanut butter in chili.
I'm so glad that you attempted it, at least. The thing I, too, hate about cooking is the mess of ingredients required to make things. I live alone (as you know) so to have a lot of things "on hand" as someone like my grandmother would just isn't so. So every time I want to make something new, I have to go buy a gagillion different things like spices that I might use once in a blue moon.
Someone suggested to me to get together with friends and do a week's worth of cooking on a Sunday or something. Um, yeah, like my friends with children in tow are going to be up for that. LOL
Ok...so Brad won't even TRY crab cheese, but he puts peanut butter in his chili? sick!
You are soooo right about the pre-shopping/prep/cooking. Then there's cleaning. Bring on the baked-on carbonized onion, yah. But I love my crockpot and will never give it up. It makes winter better.
I hate chili too, but I certainly wouldn't try to fix it with peanut butter! Gross, gross!!
I use a fast-moving chatroom-like message board for these types of impromptu questions. Seriously, I can ask anything in in 60 seconds, I'll have 5 bits of advice and it'll have moved so far down the boards that no one will remember the idiotic question I asked. :o)
Robin: One thing to say: "CRAB CHEESE."
Peanut Butter chili sounds like edible food.
And for the record, I did like the chili. I just don't like chili in general that much, so I thought I'd try my old trick. But it didn't need it.
Actually, in my family we are known for eating a PB sandwich with a bowl of chili. Not sure where that came from. But at least Brad's not alone.
You can totally call me if you're having a cooking dilema. I do my fair share of cooking, and I've helped Robin out a time or two.
Peanut butter in chili - urk. Although to each his own, definitely. And I think you sound like brave kitchen adventurers, randomly adding stuff to recipes.
mmmm peanut butter in chili is marvelous .. i like peanut butter on bread when i eat my spicy chili, there is something about the combination ... tee hee ... a wee bit of chocolate in chili is good too ...
i started cooking and baking when i could barely stand so for me cooking is intuitive but only because i've been doing it my whole life and because both my parents worked, i often came home from school and cooked dinner ... but i think it is a lot like chemistry when you don't know, haven't spent years experimenting ... i would be totally intimidated in the kitchen if i didn't have the experience i have ...
i think you are brave and wonderful : ) and your chili sounds wonderful ...
[...] guys are all so supportive of my cooking attempts that I may just have to write about each new thing I try. I can definitely use the [...]
You never know when something is going to just be perfect. When I first moved to Buffalo to go to school, I was shocked that people put salad dressing on pizza. Now, I can't eat it without it. Yum!
He uses peanut butter to dilute the taste?? Now I feel like I need to try that trick.
And I am the SAME as you. I can't think of my feet when it comes to food. I need exact measurements, exact instructions, etc.
A dab of sour cream on/in my chili = CRAZY DELICIOUS! :)