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The other day I linked to a great recipe for Thai Chili-Salt. I made it today(in my bad ass mini-food-processor) and put it on some mangoes. It was delicious, but it wasn’t a salt. It was more of a sauce with the fresh chili’s. If you really want a powder try Cayanne pepper, sugar, salt and, if you’re feeling fancy, some lime zest. That shakes on nicely.

Last week I wrote an article on the Top 5 Snacks For That Afternoon Groggy Feeling over at Dumb Little Man. As a bonus I mentioned an apple splashed with a fresh squeezed lime. Via The Food Section I came across this Chili-Salt that looks awesome. It’s the same idea, make fruit not suck.

I got some champagne mangoes yesterday(a fruit that doesn’t suck all by itself) and I can’t wait to try this out on them.

Plus that chick is hot:

photo credit: loveberry

Men have a natural Zen like quality. We like simple. We like beer and dogs and football, all simple. There is a bit of complexity in football, but luckily we have a ref there to sort it out. If we ever wonder whether something is in or out, the ref removes all doubt. Thanks ref. Simple.

photo credit: Vox Efx

We also like Chili, because Chili is (unbeknownst to the Japanese) very Zen. It’s simple. It’ meat, beans, tomatoes and chilies. It’s balanced, the fat of the meat offsets the tang of the tomatoes and the heat of the chilies is countered by the bulk of the beans. But like most things Zen there’s a lot more under the surface than you would imagine. Chili is very versatile, it goes with any carbohydrate(well, maybe not pasta) and can even be added to whole dishes to bring out their flavor(hence the sublime chili dog).

photo credit: Lan Bui

But the problem with Chili has always been that it takes hours on the stove to cook. Unless you have a pressure cooker, which is essentially an expensive bomb you’re putting over an open flame. Luckily we have a Crock-pot.

With a Crock-pot the cooking time becomes an advantage. We just set it up in the morning and 10 hours later it’s ready for dinner. As opposed to 5 hours on the stove where we have to watch it. Simple.

• Canned
  • 2 cans (15 oz.) kidney beans, drained or(cheaper) 1 pound of dry beans. Don’t even have to soak them.
  • 1 can (28 oz.) tomatoes, cut up
  • 1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
• Spices
  • 2 medium cloves garlic minced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 tbsp. chili powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/8 tsp. pepper
• Meat
  • 6 strips bacon
  • 2 lbs. beef cut into 1 inch cubes
• Vegetables
  • 1 c. finely chopped onion
  • 1/2 cup diced carrots
  • 1/2 c. finely chopped green bell pepper
  • 1/2 c. finely chopped celery

Fry the bacon in your cast iron pan until it’s crisp, then cut it up using a pair of scissors and put to the side. Fry up the meat cubes in the drippings on high. We just want to brown the outside of the meat, it will cook in the Crock-pot.

Throw everything in the Crock-pot on low for about 10 hours(whenever the beans seem done and the beef is tender). Then you’re ready to eat.

By the way this freezes and reheats no problem.