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Hosting on a chili night
I had a nice, if busy, evening. After school, I tried to track down a girl my fiancee was supposed to tutor but couldn't (failed) and a girl who had left her keys hanging from her jump drive, left in a computer (got lucky), then walking out to look for a gift for the girl my advisory group "adopted" (again, no luck).
I came home, walked the dog, and immediately started cooking. As a former choral conductor, I felt a need to insinuate myself onto my choir's music committee and work to choose the music we perform. They agreed to meet at my place since Lauren had the car until late tonight.
When I offered my place, one of the committee members wrote back "My biggest concern is always about food. Can we bring a pizza or something?" to which I fired off the following tongue-in-cheek reply:
Whoa, whoa, whoa! A pizza?! Are you suggesting that I cannot fully meet all the obligations of a host, in particular providing the main course for the necessary feasting component of our business meeting? I like pizza as much as the next guy, but this sounds like you're covertly questioning my culinary competence--and you should just as soon look askance at my alliterative abilities as at my alimentary aptitude!
In other words, I would be happy to provide the main course if everyone else could bring some side dishes.
I ended up making a chili that went over really well. I call it Barnyard Chili:
Dice one large onion and saute it until softened. Add one pound stew beef, one pound ground turkey, a chicken breast, and one pound of chicken sausage. Brown meats. Add two 14-oz cans of diced tomatoes and 1 can tomato paste, 3 T chili powder, 2 tsp cumin, 1/2 T oregano, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, and 1 T cocoa powder. Simmer for roughly two hours on low heat, stirring occasionally. Add 1 can black beans and 1 can pinto beans and cook for another half hour.
Or, if you're thinking 6 p.m. when everyone else is actually coming at 7:15, make that another hour and a half. It's still very good.
I made this with my Weight Watchers Corn Bread, which is only health food in a relative sense. Relative to eating sticks of butter coated in corn meal and deep-fried, this is health food. No, seriously, it's better for you than the regular stuff, I promise. Lauren calculated the WW points (since she's the one doing WW) and it's not too bad for you. I call it WW Corn Bread, but my ego insists that I clarify that I made up the recipe myself by playing with the recipe on the back of the Quaker corn meal cannister.
Mix 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups corn meal, 1/2 cup sugar, 4 tsps baking powder, and 1 tsp salt. To this, add 2 cups skim milk, 1/2 cup apple sauce, 2 T olive oil, and 2 eggs (beaten). Mix until just moistened. Pour batter into greased 9X12 cake pan and bake 20-25 minutes at 400 F.
I was making this for company, and this makes a lot of thick cornbread. The recipe can be halved and put in an 8x8 or 9x9 pan, yielding thinner cornbread. Serve with butter and forget weight watchers for a while!
We had a nice time eating, sharing company and, oh yeah, deciding on the pieces we'd like to perform. Most of them were from the Renaissance, which suits me quite well.