My Favorite Things-Chili
“Next to music there is nothing that lifts the spirits and strengthens the soul more than a good bowl of chili.” Harry James, band leader (1916-1983).
Chili is a wonderful comfort food. A concoction of beans and tomatoes and peppers with other spices simmered for hours in a crock pot, it can make a cold winter’s day melt away. It can be made with or without meat and in any variety the chef chooses. It can be as mild or as spicy as your taste desires. I have fond memories of my dad making chili con carne growing up. Being not quite the “pepper belly” he and my mom were he would scoop out a small portion for me before seasoning the main pot with healthy dose of chili powder.
While the history of chili is widely debated, the only thing that is for certain is that despite the name and seemingly indicative ingredients, it was not started in Mexico. Records were found by Everrette DeGolyer (1886-1956), a Dallas millionaire and a lover of chili, indicating that the first chili mix was concocted around 1850 by Texan adventurers and cowboys as a staple for hard times when traveling to and in the California gold fields and around Texas. Needing hot grub, the trail cooks came up with a sort of stew. They pounded dried beef, fat, pepper, salt, and chili peppers together. This amounted to “brick chili” or “chili bricks” that could be boiled in pots along the trail. DeGolyer said that chili should be called “chili a la Americano” because the term chili is generic in Mexico and simply means a hot pepper. He believed that chili con carne began as the “pemmican of the Southwest.”
Whatever the origins, it is one of the few dishes that can be modified and served to both vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. It can served with tofu or beef, or without any type of protein save for the beans. It has a wide variety of recipes and tastes, but the results are always the same. You have a warm & happy belly that has the cares of the world behind it.
