Chili

Chili is great on those winter days when you're snowed in and you didn't have time to go to the grocery store to stock up ahead of time.
Ok, yes, it's true: it takes hours to simmer, but you can do all sorts of stuff while it sits there doing its thing, the actual time you're involved in making it isn't that much, really.

One should always have dried goods around, and I keep mine in mason jars; they're airtight and store foods perfectly. I keep on hand a variety of legumes, like pinto beans, kidney beans and black beans to name a few. Those are what goes in chili most of the time.

Ingredients:
•One onion, any kind, chopped.
•two cloves garlic, minced •Dried beans (see above), how much is up to you, I used four cups to make a big pot for leftovers.
•bay leaf
•red pepper flakes, cayenne, chipotle powder (or whole dried), jalepenos, whatever you've got laying around or want to buy, don't be shy with the heat, it's chili, it's supposed to be spicy hot!
•tomatoes (I used two quarts of the tomatoes I'd canned in the fall, but you can use any kind, whole, canned, whatever).
•cumin (I used 1tsp)
•salt (1 tsp)
•1 tsp chili powder (less if you're not cooking this much, but leftovers can be frozen, too!)

First, get a large pot, and put your beans and water to more than cover them in it. Either soak overnight, or do a quick soak: bring to a boil and let sit for an hour. Drain and Rinse. Put the beans and enough water to more than cover them back in the pan, and bring to a boil, cook for an hour, use a lid if you like, it uses less energy that way, but make sure to turn the heat down so it doesn't boil over! Drain them and rinse them again. Now they're ready to cook. (yes, you can use the canned ones, but they're more money, and have preservatives most of the time).

Put the drained and rinsed and cooked beans in your pot again, add the tomatoes, and cook it on a low to medium heat, enough to make it just barely simmer. (again, a lid will keep the heat in, and you can turn your burner down and use less energy, saving money for other things).

Meanwhile, cut the ends off your onion. Make a shallow slice down the outside, and peel off the dried skin. Cut it in half, lay the open cut sides down on your cutting board. Make long slices and hold them next to eachother so the onion's oils don't make your eyes water. Now cut at a parellel to your first cuts and you have perfect cubes of onions without crying. so easy. Put the onion in the pan with the beans and tomatoes. Mince your garlic, add that to the pan. Add the bay leaf, whatever peppers you want (start with 1/4 tsp of each and taste, work your way up to your individual spicy heat tolerance). Add the cumin, chili powder and salt. Set a timer for a half hour and go do something else with your time. When it goes off, stir it up so it isnt' sticking to the bottom (it shouldn't be), set another timer, another half hour, go back to what you were doing. The idea is, give it a minimum of attention (stir it, check on it, add water if it boils off too much, etc), and watch a movie, do laundry, whatever while it cooks for the next two hours or so. Taste it once in a while, add what you think it needs (remember a little bit at a time, you can always add more, but you can't take it out!). When the beans are nice and soft, serve some up and eat it. I like to put cheddar cheese in mine, or vinegar and crackers.

Enjoy!