last week's chili

my mac book charger died last week-hence the delay.  

any who's 

last week i slow cooked. twice! but i kind of forgot what i was doing with this blog and didn't take many pictures. but hey, learning. i cooked again today and was a much better photoblogger and that will be posted as soon as it is done roasting (and it smells so good!)

Both of these recipes came out of Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook  to be clear - not your mother's.  i am a sautee-er by nature and the slow cooker - while i've had it for forever and always wanted to use it - is new to me. i  followed these recipes as written as my first try with them, but both could use some edits in my opinion.

Lucky Chili (i heard somewhere beans are a New Years luck tradition or something? can anyone verify this?)

the only picture i remembered to take

2 cups freshly brewed coffee

2 cups vegetable broth

2 28-oz cans crushed tomatoes, with their juice

1 medium-sized yellow onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, chopped

4 15-oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cups firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

2 tbsp chili power, or more to taste

1 tbsp ground cumin

3 or 4 cloves, to your taste (now i only had ground cloves so i don't know if this is where i messed up)

salt to taste 

(1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro was also suggested to throw in at the very end - but i'm not a fan of cilantro and this might also be where i failed) 

put it all in crock, cook on low for 8 - 12 hours, stirring occasionally if possible.

for serving:

sour cream

cheese

avocado

rice/orzo 

now this ended up very soupy - way too liquid-y for my taste by far.  and still... something is off about the spices.  not spicy HOT at all, and earthy.  not bad, but just... not right.  something either doesn't belong - or it needs a lot more of something.  i'm not familiar enough with spices to make an educated decision.  was it the coffee? the cloves? more chili powder? skip the sugar? idk. definitely cut back on the liquids for realsies.  maybe 1 cup coffee. 1 can of the tomatoes with juice. no broth. 

the next day i added 1 1/2 lbs of ground turkey to about 3/4 of the chili.  it helped with the heartiness (that was when this picture was taken i think) but it was still more like a really good sauce over orzo.  not how i like my chili. 
maybe it would be a good taco filler?

how do you make chili?

strawberry ice cream with peanut butter and blueberries.
consumed in the heat of frustration. :)