Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili: Delicious and easy, except when I forget to buy key ingredients

Howdy, y’all! I’m posting today about a meal I made on Tuesday but photographed on Wednesday – this early sun-setting business really puts a cramp in my blogging. By the time I finished making my dinner, the light was pale and weak, so I had to wait until the next day to photograph it.

The early sun-setting was problematic, but it didn’t help that I had a little hiccup in my meal-making, either. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work to pick up a few ingredients, but I forgot one: limes! I realized my mistake about halfway through the cooking process and after a quick internal debate, decided to walk to the grocery store (which is only five minutes away) and pick some up. Because my roommate was out of town and couldn’t keep an eye on my food, I had to turn my stove off and halt my dinner-making. I’m just too paranoid to leave my appliances running when I’m gone! Luckily, I think some of the residual heat from the burner kept the cooking process going.

So, what was I making that desperately required limes? Why, chili, of course! Specifically, this Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili, which was thoughtfully recommended to me by my best friend’s sister. Thanks, Margaret!

Chili-licious.

Now, you might be thinking, “But Kelly, surely you could have just omitted the limes and had a perfectly tasty chili!” And… maybe that’s true. But in the spirit of giving recipes a fair shot at impressing me, I’ve been trying to stay true[r than usual] to ingredient lists during MoFo. And four whole teaspoons of lime juice is quite a lot to omit, you know? I think I made the right decision, too – I could actually taste the sour lime-y tang in my chili, and it was a fantastic counterpoint to the smoky beans and the sweet potatoes. Overall, I really enjoyed this recipe – it was pretty painless to make (excluding my own folly, of course), and resulted in a hearty chili that’s different than most chilis I usually make. I’ll definitely try this again, probably in a few months’ time when it’s cold and snowy and I just need something warm.

What do you do when you realize you don’t have all your ingredients mid-cooking? How often do you follow a recipe to the letter?

Note: This is a scheduled post, because I’m currently in Italy. Apologies for any weirdness with auto-publishing!

Ch-ch-ch-chili!

Man, my internet connection is le suxxorz. I suppose I shouldn’t complain, as I don’t pay for it – it’s included in the rent for our apartment. At the same time, though, if our complex advertises free internet as an amenity, it should probably be usable internet, right? As in, it shouldn’t take eons for a single page to load, and I shouldn’t have to budget a century if I want to watch online TV, right?

Oh well.

Anyway, that’s the reason my posts are a bit sparse – my internet connection is spotty at best, and it takes me ages to write up a photo-heavy post. Sometimes WordPress won’t load the photos or Flickr doesn’t care to cooperate… it’s a tough deal. Occasionally I’ll take a small break at work and put something together, but it’s crunch time for the writers at my company and I don’t have all that much free time during the work day.

Enough complaining. Here, have a photo of some chili.

Comfort food, y/y?

I love chili because it’s so damn accommodating to whatever the heck’s chilling in your fridge waiting to be eaten. This specimen include the dregs of a CSA share and some assorted hot peppers from my plants; in fact, other than the beans, the spices, and a can of fire-roasted tomatoes, everything here is local. Hooray for corn and onions and garlic and hot peppers and more tomatoes!

Chili’s also great because it’s embarassingly easy. You sauté the garlic and onions, add some spices, throw it in a pot with your veggies and beans, and let ‘er go. You come back an hour (or a couple of hours) later, and you’ve got a spicy pot of warmth and yumminess ready for your eating pleasure. It’s almost impossible to go wrong! Although I do have a coworker who swears that his mother makes the absolute worst chili in the world – apparently elbow noodles, cheap beef, and kidney beans do not an edible substance make. I’ll take his word for it, I think.

What’s your favorite chili recipe or combination of veggies? Personally, I’m digging the addition of corn – the plump kernels are a nice contrast to the rest of the veggies, which tend to get soft and rather homogenous in texture.