My First Pot of Chili....

I made my first pot of chili NOT in the pressure cooker! I never made chili in my life until I started using my pressure cooker a few years ago. Chili is a breeze, inexpensive and fast in the PC because you can use any kind of dried bean and a ton of fresh veggies and chili peppers, no meat, or beef, chicken, turkey, pork and even lamb.....let's not forget you can make enormous batches, and who doesn't like chili?

So, the reason I had to make chili in a traditional pot is that I included a basic red chili recipe in my book for just the reasons I listed, and I have to assume not many people use a PC. I did however cook the beans for my chili in my PC, and then proceeded with the recipe I wrote where I suggest using canned beans. Don't most people use canned beans?

As I mentioned Chili is so versatile and that's why I wanted to include a recipe for one. Chili is one of those dishes that once you start making it on a regular basis you never make it the same twice...unfortunate when you make a really killer batch, but chili is one of those "throw anything and everything" in it meals.

Tomatoes, no tomatoes.

Beans, or no beans...heck you can even use a mix of lentils.

Smoked meats, ground meats, stew meat, no meat.

Tons of vegetables, or nothing but chili peppers and onions.

Mild, or hot.

Red or Green.

Thick or thin.

Personally my favorite chili stews do not have tomatoes in them, expect during tomato season. I love mixing a cup of chili with a cup (or two) of my tomato soup. Tonight I also made a batch of butternut squash soup (also in the book) and mixed 1 c. of that with 1 c of my chili...oh I made a red chili w/turkey version because I had extra turkey stock in my freezer from that dang bird I roasted a couple of weeks ago!

I hope everybody had a great holiday! I'll be up before the crack of dawn to broil some skirt steak I marinated earlier today....(yep...recipe in the book!)