Some gratuitous photos and what’s been going on with Mr. Trooper “Super Trooper” McCutington, because he hasn’t been up here lately:
Sometimes he gets grumpy when we wake up in the morning, because he loves to snuggle under a blanket. He just loves to be warm, he even sunbathes the way that cats do in a sunbeam.
This explains why so many of my photos of him involve him in a blanket. Being warm and cozy is his perogative.
Dachshunds like to dig and burrow, so we have a big box for him with blankets in it that he can dig his burrows in. He is such a handsome fellow! Something about the blanket around his head and the look in his eyes makes me think of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. Is that weird?
There is a windowsill in Mr’s man room that Trooper likes to sit in and watch people walk down the street, or cars drive by. It is really sweet to come home from work and see this little guy barking and wagging his tail because you’re home!
Also, when he yawns he looks like a little dragon!
We love you Trooper Puppy!
Particularly Delicious Chili
500 g spicy chorizo sausage
750 g lean ground beef
500 g mushrooms (I used cremini)
2 onions
6 cloves of garlic
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
2 jalapeno peppers
1/4 Cup chili powder
1 tsp chipotle powder
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp thyme leaves
2 tsp salt
2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 Cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 Cup white wine vinegar
1/2 Cup ketchup
2 – 14 oz cans diced tomatoes
2 – 14 oz cans navy beans
1 1/2 Cups corn kernels
Directions
- Remove the sausages from their casings.
- In a large pan, brown the ground beef and chorizo together, breaking down the ground meat into crumbles with your spoon while it cooks.
- Drain excess fat and set aside. (If you are going to use your slow cooker for the simmering portion, set aside into your slow cooker. If you’re going to use a dutch oven, set aside into it.)
- Finely dice the mushrooms, as well as the onion, garlic, bell peppers, and jalapenos. If you have a food processor, this is a perfect time to use it, just blitz all of the vegetables into a fine rubble.
- Topple the mushrooms into the pan, and cook them down until they lose their moisture and get nice and brown. Browning the mushrooms separately from the rest of the vegetables helps maximize their savory flavor, and also keeps them from steaming and getting slimy. Add the cooked mushrooms to the browned meat.
- Add the onion, garlic, bell peppers and jalapenos to the pan. Soften on medium heat until the onion starts to go transparent. Set the contents of the pan aside with the meat mixture in the slow cooker or dutch oven. Remove the pan from the stove.
- To the meat and vegetable mixture, add the: chili powder, chipotle chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, thyme, salt, pepper, brown sugar, molasses, Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, and ketchup. Stir well to incorporate all of the ingredients.
- Drain the navy beans through a colander, and rinse with cold water until the rinsing water no longer forms bubbles.
- Add the navy beans to the chili, and then tip in the cans of diced tomatoes and the corn kernels. Stir to combine.
- If you are using a slow cooker: set the cooker on low and let the chili bubble away for 6 hours. If you are using a dutch oven: simmer over low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to keep things from sticking to the bottom.
- Enjoy!
This chili is pretty much exactly my favorite kind of chili. It is spicy, but not so spicy you don’t want to finish your bowl. Standard chili powder gets additional complexity from smoky chipotle powder. It is a little bit sweet, but complexly so: molasses, brown sugar, cinnamon, and a whole lot of delicious vegetables, simmered until they are almost melting. Most importantly though, chili needs to be hearty and meaty, and this one is because of a combination of ground beef, chorizo and browned mushrooms. Glory in a bowl!
The navy beans are not the most classic choice for a chili, I will admit, but they are a gentler, more yielding bean than the standardly used kidney beans. Mr also is not particularly fond of kidney beans. If kidney beans are what you like, by all means use them!
This time last year: Salad Rolls
And the year before: Stacked Summery Salad
And the year before that: Stacked Sushi Bowls