Recipe: Mom’s chili and beans with grated cheese and onions
Warm up on a late winter night with chili and beans, made with last summer's tomatoes (or purchased canned tomatoes). Debbie Arrington
On cold nights, I crave something warm, a little spicy and spiked with memories. Namely, I want my grandmother’s chili and beans.
I watched Mom (what everybody in our extended family called my grandmother) make this chili from scratch many times before I finally coaxed from her the recipe. Then, I committed it to memory.
I make my version with home-grown tomatoes and tomato sauce, preserved in my freezer, and dried pintos, cooked in the InstantPot. (Winter is dried bean season, after all.)
Canned tomatoes or beans may be substituted. (Use the 15-ounce size of each.) But home-grown tomatoes (even frozen) remind me of summer’s delicious bounty.
Chili isn’t just for dinner (or lunch). Leftover chili makes a wonderful and hearty omelet.
Mom’s chili and beans
Makes 4 large servings
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
Salt to taste (about 2 teaspoons)
2 cups whole tomatoes with juice
1 cup tomato sauce
2 cups cooked pinto beans with ½ cup cooking liquid
Additional water as needed
Grated cheese (optional)
Chopped onions (optional)
Instructions:
In a large heavy pot over medium heat, brown the ground beef. As it cooks, add chopped onion and minced garlic and let them soften in the meat’s juices. Once the meat is cooked and the onions are soft, pour off any excess fat.
Add flour, chili powder, cumin, chili flakes and salt to meat-onion mixture; stir until combined.
Add tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce and beans with liquid. Stir well.
Raise heat and bring mixture to a boil. Cover pot and reduce heat. While stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, let mixture simmer until flavors are well combined, at least 30 to 45 minutes. Add water as needed so chili doesn’t get too thick. Adjust seasoning.
Serve hot, topped with grated cheese and chopped onions if desired.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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