Cincinnati Chili killed a wedding gift

Tuesday Lisa Kay, my niece, posted on Facebook a picture of Papa Jack, Yolanda, and Lisa's daughters eating  Cincinnati Chili.   They were at a Skyline Chili parlor.  Marty and I looked at the picture and drooled just a little bit.  We love Cincinnati Chili.  Marty has a great recipe he makes, but that is hours of cooking.  I have secret seasoning packets that family sends me periodically.  I add meat and sauce and I have chili.  My chili is quick only about an hour and a half of cooking.  So I made chili!

After everything is dumped into a pot, the directions say to beat the ground beef with a fork.  That is to break the meat into tiny pieces.  Big problem when I beat the ground beef, this is what happened.

My cooking fork broke apart.  This was part of some kitchen wedding gifts in 1967.  The fork had given its all, and died on the job.  Poor poor fork.

This is the evil Cincinnati Chili that killed the fork.  If you look closely, you can see large hunks of ground beef that deserves to be beaten.

That said, the chili was so very yummy.  Marty and I like ours served up differently.

Marty likes the three way: pasta, chili, and cheese.

I like the four way chili: pasta, chili, cheese, and chopped onions.  Some people like the five way and add beans on top of the chili.  Neither of us like that.

But back to my poor fork.

Marty is doing a Redneck fix with duct tape.

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

All fixed and ready to use again.

Well maybe not.

Good bye hard working cooking fork.  Go and be recycled into something wonderful.

RAIN, COOKING, RAIN, COOKING, MORE RAIN

Marty and I have always been into cooking. We each have meals that are "ours" to cook. We have meals that we cook together. And then there are the everyday meals, loser cooks tonight. We are cooking more and eating out less. Maybe for two reasons: the economy, the rain.

I don't want to think about the economy, so on to the rain. And we have rain again. The dark days make you want to cook comfort food, and at the same time cook complex dishes. So we are doing both. In the last 2 or 3 weeks, we have had Chili Mac, Cincinnati Chili, Pool Hall Chili, just plain chili; homemade soups; pot roast; Cornish Hens; cake; Chinese meals; Mexican meals; Italian meals; and last night's killer meal. (I mean that in a good way. ) A lot of rain, a lot of lunches and dinners to cook. By the way, Cincinnati Chili is really complex flavors as is my Pool Hall Chili. So don't laugh at all the chili dishes.

As I have mentioned before, we test recipes for Cook's Illustrated. Last night was Pub Style Steak Tips in Onion Mushroom Gravy. Oh my word, it is so good. Just the aroma while cooking was wonderful. Sirloin tips cooked medium ( that was one flaw in perfection, cook those babies medium rare ) in this rich deep flavored gravy and serve it over rice. It is almost as good as a Beef Bourguignon. Yet there is no wine in it. The flavors mainly come from porcini mushrooms, the beef broth they soaked in, and soy sauce. We have leftovers in the frig and it is all I can do to stay out of it. Marty cooked the recipe as they wanted us to. The next time we will use beef tenderloin, cooked rarer and make more of the gravy. We like our rice wet with gravy.

This will be Marty's to cook. Usually we test the recipes the night before the deadline to report. Not this one, it sang out winner just reading it. He had to cook it NOW.

So Richard and Louis, when are you coming up for dinner? This is your type of meal.