CABANA BOY COOKS: A Good Time for Chili

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

A Good Time for Chili

Winter has been winter here (Minnesota)but not near as bad as last year. We're thankful for that. But cold weather gives you the desire for hearty warm food and nothing beats that like "Chili." It seems to warm your inside like nothing else.

Now some will say that chili is too spicy for them. But that doesn't need to be the case. As with any dish you make, you can control the "Heat" level to meet your personal tastes. I have 2 chili recipes in my cookbook, "More Than Your First Cookbook" and several others under the "Soup" tab on this blog. All of them plus the 2 new ones offered this week are easily adjusted to make them mild to hotter than the devil. So don't be intimidated by making chili.

When one hears the word "Chili" they usually think of ground beef, tomatoes and beans in a pot. That is probably the number one type of chili served in the USA. But it is far from the only kind of chili out there to make. There has been a food revolution in the last 20 to 30 years and variety is one of the biggest winners.

This week I'm offering you 2 of those different types or styles of chili. Tomorrow's recipe for "Two-Tomato Chili" uses cubes of beef and 2 different types of tomato but no beans. The heat comes from crushed red pepper and you can control the amount or even not use any.

Thursday's recipe of "White Chicken Chili" again uses no beans. It doesn't use beef or tomatoes either. It's a easy and quick recipe to put together using rotisserie chicken and tomatillo salsa. Any heat it has comes from that salsa and Poblano peppers (which are very mild) so you may want to add something if you like it hotter.

Both of these recipes are done on the stove-top but could be done in a slow-cooker too. You would want to brown the beef chunks in the first one before putting ingredients in the slow-cooker. Remember the last 2 ingredients are for garnishing when you serve the chili. For the second recipe just put everything in the slow-cooker and turn it on.

For both of these recipes in a slow-cooker, I would go for about 8 hours on low and 4 hours on high.

I hope you enjoy these change of pace chilies and "Happy Cooking " until next week. Please be sure to share my blog with family and friends too. Thanks in advance.

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About the Blog

Cabana Boy Cooks is a food blog that gives a little insight and help on Tuesdays. That is followed by recipes on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week. This blog is for all who enjoy cooking but is geared towards new & inexperienced cooks.

This food blog came about because I wrote a cookbook for new and inexperienced individuals wishing to learn their way around the kitchen. It is an extension of that cookbook and offers more than 600 recipes here. The cookbook has an additional 125 recipes plus helpful instruction and advise..

I try to offer recipes that cover all aspects of cooking. You'll see on the tabs above that the recipes are broke into categories. Gluten-Free and Vegetarian recipes are marked behind them with a (GF) or (V) sign. Many of the other recipes can be adopted to meet gluten-free or vegetarian by making minor changes.

Please, don't hesitate to contact me through the comments section of the blog with questions or concerns.

Remember to share my link with family, friends and co-workers.

Thank you for following my food blog and "Happy Cooking."

My Cookbook

More Than Your First Cookbook

Every year, thousands of young people graduate high school or college and find themselves on their own for the first time. Amid all the excitement and freedom that comes with this fresh start, many of these newly independent people will find themselves out of their comfort zone when it comes to one critically important area--food.

This cookbook helps those people establish a new comfort zone in the "Kitchen" and learn to enjoy being creative in their culinary pursuit.

The cookbook draws on all the years of my life to collect the recipes, tips, anecdotes and life advice that will help everyone. From safety and sanitation to menu planning and budgeting, I walk new cooks through all the basics of food preparation. A great gift for children or grandchildren just beginning to cook for themselves and a useful reference for more experienced cooks, this cookbook offers readers 125 mouthwatering recipes to match all tastes and abilities. I believe that cooking should be fun and personal, so all the recipes leave room for experimentation. There are even tips on how to make a few of the dishes fit into a vegetarian diet.

Breakfast, soups, salads, sandwiches, entrees, sides and desserts are all covered, along with a few odds and ends. Whether you're looking for the right way to set the table for a formal dinner, you want to take your grilling to the next level or you just want to figure out how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon, The cookbook will help you find the answer.

GLUTEN-FREE Recipes and Information

A few years ago, my granddaughter discovered she has Celiac and needs to be Gluten-Free. I started doing a special week of Gluten-Free information and recipes on this blog then and they appear every four (4) weeks. So if you happen to be on a Gluten-Free diet or know someone that could this help, please check it out.

There is a recipe tab above that holds all the GF recipes (in alphabetical order). It also holds the information posts in the order they have been posted.

All Gluten-Free recipes have this (GF) mark behind the titles. There are many other recipes on this blog that are or can be easily adapted to be Gluten-Free. So you may want to check other recipes too.

I also try and mark VEGETARIAN recipes with a (V) behind the titles as well. I hope these features help many of you that want or need these options for your lifestyle.

About the Blog's Author

I spend over 40 years in the food industry doing everything from pot scrubber/dishwasher to managing around 250 employees. In 2009 I retired from my career to start a new adventure. That adventure was to write and publish a cookbook for new and inexperienced cooks. Many of my years in the industry involved working in "Higher Education." I saw a need for such a cookbook as I watched college students move on to a life on their own. So it has become a mission of mine to help anyone that wants to improve their cooking skills and learn to enjoy being in the kitchen.

In April of 2011 I started my food blog "Cabana Boy Cooks" as a continuation of the cookbook. The blog covers many areas and topics. It also offers at least two (2) recipes a week not found in the cookbook. There is now over 200 recipes for you on this food blog.

Once a month, I write a food column under "Cabana Boy Cooks" in the weekly newspaper, Nodaway News Leader in Maryville, MO that includes a recipe. Some of the recipes are from this food blog and others come from my cookbook "More Than Your First Cookbook"