AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Just helps balance the flavor a little bit.

Hi, AZ. In these dark days in the midst of this Spambotpocalypse, we need sustenance. Come and take refuge with me to regain your strength. Welcome to my tiny-ass kitchen.


Today today we will be makin' the chillies. Or a singular chilli. Whatever suits your fancy, I guess. This is really easy, really good, really cheap, and moderately not-unhealthy. Chilli and cornbread is kind of a classic southern thing that's fairly popular all over the U.S. now. However Terraem has informed me that the Netherlands (and probably several other European areas) are tragically cornbread-less. We must remedy this, AZ. We must bring them the delicious edible gold.


SHOPPING TIPS: This is so freakin cheap to make That my only recipe-specific suggestion would be that if you don't have the spices for this already, accumulate them as they go on sale. I happened to find all of mine except the cocoa powder in a discount bin for a dollar per half cup.
===As always, you can freeze milk if you only ever use it for baking, but don't want to only have a 19 cent difference between a pint and a half gallon when the half gallon is 1.29 (estimate. I have no idea what your milk costs). I would recommend dividing it first, though, that way you're not having to unthaw a quart and a half of milk later.
===If you choose to use ground beef, and have space in your freezer, buy a larger pack on discount, and then take an extra five minutes to divide it up into more manageable amounts when you get home.


ESTIMATED COST PER BATCH: Ch: $3.50 USD CB: $2.50 USD
ESTIMATED COST PER SERVING: $0.45 a bowl $0.20 a slice (depending on how you cut it.)


INGREDIENTS:

CHILLI
2 cups dry beans
2 cups of tomato sauce
1 medium yellow onion
2 tbs cocoa powder
1/2 tbs cumin
2 tbs salt
4 tbs (1/4C) Chili Powder
Cayenne Pepper (optional)
1/2 lb ground beef (optional) Add 1.50 to estimated cost





CORNBREAD
2 Cups Cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs BS
1/2 Tbs BP
1-1/2 Cups milk
2 eggs
4 oz (1 stick) butter
1tsp salt

honey (optional, but very much recommended)






RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
1 large soup pot with lid
9x9x2 or equivalent volume baking dish
large mixing bowl
2 mixing spoons
measuring utensils








First, set your beans to soak overnight. For chilli, i like to use a whole mixture of beans, but I only had pinto and black on hand, so that's what we used.





Once the beans are done soaking (a least 8 hours) strain out the water and put fresh water in. do about 3 cups. Some of the color rubbed off of the black beans, turning my pintos blue.





If you're using ground beef, then stick it in a pan and brown it.






Add it to the beans and water.





Add in your tomato sauce. You can use whatever kind you want, whether it's canned (I prefer Hunt's, myself) or some kickass concoction your mom makes. Now, I know that back in the rice and beans recipe, I mentioned that you don't want to add acidic things (like tomato) until after the beans were pretty much done cooking. This is one of the times that that is not true. The acid in the tomato sauce (which is dilluted anyway) causes small amounts of the beans to dissolve and turn starchy while cooking, which will thicken the chilli part. Fun fact, chilli refers to the spiced soup part, not the beans or the meat.





Once you've mixed that all up, add your spices. The Chili Powder is what gives it the chilli taste, the cocoa helps to kind of make it smoother and darker, the cumin is to make it more aromatic, and the Cayenne is for the heat. I used 1 Tbs of Cayenne, which gave me what I would call a medium heat. If you're particularly bold and adventurous, then go for more, if you're not so much, use less or even omit it entirely. If you're completely opposed to spiciness (why are you eating chilli, you silly goose), then I'd recommend even taking a tablespoon off of the Chili Powder.



Drop in some onion and let it just kind of simmer (covered) for an hour or so. It won't go anywhere if you cook it a little longer.




You'll know that it's done when A) the beans are soft enough to squish between your fingers, and B) the chilli soup part is able to hold the beans up for a few seconds before they drop down beneath the surface.








CORNBREAD:


The cornbread is even easier than the chilli. One thing though, is that I heard people earlier mentioning that they don't like grainy cornbread. I don't know for sure what exactly you mean by grainy, but I personally like a bit of cornmeal texture in my cornbread. but if you absolutely can't stand it, then swap the measurements for cornmeal and flour. Or just make biscuits: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11985&p=1070236#p1070236

Mix your dry ingredients together.






Then add the wet ones.




Then add your honey. I don't like putting honey into measuring implements, because half of it always stays in the cup/spoon. Just do it until it looks about like a quarter cup. This part's optional anyway, so you can't really mess it up short of pouring a whole quart in.





Pour it into a greased 9x9 pan or equivalent volume. (I was dumb and put it in a pan that was too big at first.)




It should fill the pan about 2/3 of the way up.




Bake it at 300 for about 30 minutes. If the outside is getting dark while the inside is still very much batter, then lower the temp to 250 and check it at 5-10 minute intervals. (sorry, original baking things are always tricky because my oven is very inconsistent with it's temperature)




This is the delightful cornmeal texture I mentioned.






Alright, it's all done so plate up and enjoy.
Suggested toppings include (mix n match):

Shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream
diced onion
salsa (if you're particularly sassy today)
crushed saltines or breadcrumbs

I never would have guessed.

I eat chili without spice because I like putting it on hot dogs.

How does that make it require no spice. It's giving the hot dogs a flavor besides salt.

I meant spiciness. I don't need spiciness when eating chili dogs. I do use spices for more flavor.

Hell yeahhh cornbread time

Making this right now. Without the cornbread though.

How did yours turn out, D-vid? Do I need to make any of the directions more specific/clear?

It didn't get as thick as you said it would. But it tastes gud.

Huh. I wonder why.

To clarify this a bit, a lot of cornbread recipes either call for very little flour or none at all. For some reason, they all assume that you either have really finely ground corn meal, or think mixing the two is bad. Or maybe they just like their cornbread being grainy as all hell.

As a result, cornbread made with these recipes/mixes end up having the consistency and crumb of wet sand. It doesn't even rise much, and any amount it does rise just compounds the problems of the precariously placed pieces of corn meal.

It'd be like building a house with no mortar and spherical bricks.

It's a sin that needs to be rectified.

Gotta put some cheeeeese on there.

American Cheeeese.

There will be no update this friday because of family and homework things, but all of the updates from next week until New Years will be snack and dessert-type things.

OH SHIT IT'S FRIDAY--I mean, Hi, AZ. I totally didn't forget to update. Welcome to my tiny-ass kitchen.

This kicks off several weeks devoted to snackification. The next several weeks will be devoted to snackfoods and desserts (mainly desserts) through the holiday season. And we'll start off with Banana Bread! This seems to be the saving grace of the banana for several people, so I figured I'd post the recipe that I came up with for it. Really easy and, you know...Yay, dessert!


SHOPPING TIPS: This is pretty inexpensive. Bananas are super cheap in the US, and there isn't really anything else that would be pricey.
===If you don't have enough bananas going brown at the same time, or you have some that you know you aren't going to eat on time, stick them in the freezer. (the freezer is my favorite kitchen invention ever). They will turn straight up black in the freezer, and then when you thaw them, they will be mush, so don't be alarmed.
===Speaking of freezers, as always, don't be afraid to buy a larger carton of milk for the better value. Milk freezes just fine (although I would avoid freezing it more than once)


ESTIMATED COST PER BATCH: $2

ESTIMATED COST PER SERVING: what do you mean the whole loaf is more than one serving



INGREDIENTS


3 brown bananas
2 Cups Flour
2/3 Cup Sugar
1 Tbs Baking Soda
1 Tbs Cinnamon (If you don't like things to be very spiced, you can cut this to a 1/2T)
1/2 Tbs Baking powder
1/2 Tbs Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Cup Milk
5 Tbs Butter (soft)
1 egg



Optional:
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
3 Tbs Butter
Plain oatmeal (no specific amount)



RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT

Measuring Utensils
1 large mixing bowl
1 large loaf pan (or some pan that the batter fills to 2/3)
SPOOOOOOOOOOOOON
Whisk



Alright. So take your dry ingredients and whisk them together.






Then add your wet ingredients




and mix it up goooood




Pour it into your selected pan




It should fill it up to about 2/3





And pop it in the oven for about 35 minutes at 300F. If it's not done, lower the temperature to 275 and check at 10 minute intervals. (sorry, I don't have consistent heating in my oven).






Now if you want, while that's baking, you can make a topping out of lazy caramel and plain oatmeal.


I would suggest using a microwave for this, purely because it's faster:
put your brown sugar and butter into a pourable, microwave safe container, and microwave it for a minute, and then at 30 second intervals, watching for it to bubble up. Once the lazy caramel gets all bubbly, it's done. Stir it to get it back to a more consistent state.





Pull the banana bread out of the oven once the top is solid (about 20 minutes in should be good), and drizzle the lazy caramel and oatmeal on top of the banana bread however you want it to look. Put it back in the oven to finish cooking.




Once it's all done, enjoy your finished banaynay bread! It's very good with butter, or when crumbled over vanilla icecream.