Sunday, January 22, 2012

Game Day Grub

As anyone who knows me or who has read this blog for awhile understands, I absolutely hate sports! But my roommate has become a passionate NFL fan, and we have come to an amicable truce which involves her getting to watch her game(s) on Sunday while I amuse myself with tasty experiments in the kitchen. Today, while she rooted for/fretted over the Patriots and then the Giants (aren't you impressed that I know that much? tee hee), I got it in my head to make Cincinnati-style, five-way chili. To make it easier on myself while I juggled three ongoing games of "Words with Friends," I started the chili on the stovetop, but then let it simmer away all day in the crock pot. Man, was it delicious! And even though the weather was in the 20's today, and I could finally turn off the kitchen tap that had been trickling for two days, the chili was very warm and comforting on a winter's day.  This one's a keeper, folks.


Cincinnati-Style Five-Way Chili
(Source: adapted from 
http://americanfood.about.com/od/classicchowdersandstews/r/cinnchili.htm)

1 lb. ground beef
1 large onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups water
2 cups crushed tomatoes (I used one can of diced, spicy red pepper flavor)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 whole bay leaf
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground celery
1 teaspoon salt

2 cans drained beans (I used chili beans and dark red kidneys), optional
cooked spaghetti, optional
shredded cheese, optional
chopped onions, optional

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef with the diced onions. Once the meat is nearly brown and the onions are tender, add the minced garlic and cook for another minute or two.

Add the meat mixture and everything else (excepts the optional toppings, of course) to the crock pot, and cook on low for eight hours or high for four. About 30 minutes before you serve, fish out the bay leaf and add the two cans of beans, if using.

To serve, pile some spaghetti on the plate, top with the chili, then shredded cheese and onions.

The Cincinnati "Skyline" Chili Ordering Code

1-way: just the chili
2-way: chili served over spaghetti
3-way: chili, spaghetti, and grated cheddar cheese
4-way: chili, spaghetti, cheese, and onions
5-way: chili, spaghetti, cheese, onions, and beans
All "ways" is served with oyster crackers.

4 comments:

  1. Gina,

    LOVE Skyline Chili! I think I'll make this for Super Sunday this weekend.

    Oh, and would you PLEASE, oh preety please make a Recipe Index for your site? There are so many yummy recipes and it's hard to scroll through all your posts to find them.

    Thank you dahling! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really don't know how to do that, plus, I'd have to index SIX YEARS worth of posts? I barely have time to do the posts themselves from month to month! Personally, I just use the search bar at the top left when I am looking for a recipe. Doesn't that work?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I hear ya' sweetie! I've come to your site many times and looked, and looked for a recipe, but couldn't remember what the name was, so it's a little frustrating.

    Here's what I did on my site:

    In Blogger, go to Design > Add a Gadget. Make sure the Title of your gadget is something like “Recipes” or “Recipe Links”. Select “Show > All Labels”, “Sorting > Alphabetically”, “Display > List”, and “Show number of posts per label”.

    Then, when you write a post, make sure you create a Label category for each post (bottom field in the New Post text box > Labels:), for example “Desserts” or “Crockpot Fare”. What will happen is a tagged hyperlink for “Desserts” or “Crockpot Fare” will be created for that post. After a while, you’ll have a whole list of labels to categorize each post, and you can categorize many labels under each post (i.e. Desserts, cakes, pumpkin).

    ReplyDelete
  4. I believe your dear friend Mike could help you with indexing your site. (Not that it's my place to be volunteering him for such work, but as he'll be back from a restful cruise in a few days, I should think he would be in a state of refresh and good will.)

    ReplyDelete