Home made chili

I have not made chili for a long time, but like you everything that i make is different from the last time, because i usually do not follow a recipe and each time i make something different things are used or things are added that were not in it the last time i made it.

I usually cook for myself, but when I cook, I don't follow a recipe. I tend to read multiple recipes to get an idea of what goes into a certain dish, then improvise at the stove. I rarely measure anything precisely, and often I'll substitute things when I'm not looking for a specific result, if I don't have what I need or don't want to bother. My mother, on the other hand, when she does cook, tends to follow a single recipe, but allows for reasonable changes based on what she has on hand. As far as chili goes, in my mind there are two ways to make it: quickly as a use of whatever you have around (ground beef, sausage, cans of beans, frozen veggies, chili powder); or slowly as a proper stew (braised chuck, dried beans, fresh chiles, toasted and pureed dried chiles, whole toasted ground spices). I'll make the former when I want something to eat for dinner, but if I really feel like good chili, I'll take the 2 days to make the real things, and have all the accompaniments to eat it with - cheddar cheese, sour cream, green onions, red onions, salsa, hot sauce, tortilla chips, and on and on. A full pot of good chili can last me weeks, and it goes through many incarnations. On nachos, over a baked potato, over rice, with hominy, on a burger, on hot dogs; basically, paired with any other starch, or used to top something.

I think that is really cool that just about everytime to make chili you use a different type of ingredient in it. That would make it a surprise to the people other then yourself who are eating it. It would definitly keep it from being boring. I acutally never tried chili until about a month ago when a friend of mine had a Christmas playgroup and made vegetarain chili. I tried some and LOVED it. I just bought some morning star grillers recipe crumbles and looked up a recipe for vegetarain chili. If I have all the ingredients I might make the stove top recipe tonight for dinner. If not I will get the ingredients another time and make a slow-cooker vegetarian chili. I am getting hungry just thinking about it.

I think one of the interesting things about cooking is that you can change recipes depending on what you have around. I started cooking by recipes a long time ago but then discovered the importance of NOT following a recipe.LOL Specially since in some of them there are ingredients you don´t have or some your family doesn´t like. I love chile. Please sned me some. LOL