Recipes

What follows are the recipes I make most often. None of them are fancy. All of them have been tested on my family, who are honest critics.

Mla's World Famous Chili

Serves 8. Prep 30 min. Cook 2.5 hours. Updated 10/02/04.

I have been making this chili for about twelve years. It is not a "competition" chili and I am not from Texas, so please hold your letters. It is my chili and my family likes it and that is the only endorsement I need.

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Heat a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the beef in batches, do not crowd the pan. Transfer to a plate. Do not drain the fat.
2. Brown the pork in the same pan. Transfer to the plate.
3. Return the beef to the pan with the pork. Now brown it all again together, stirring occasionally, for about 8 minutes until you see real color. This is the "brown twice" step. Do not skip this. The flavor compound that develops here is the whole point.
4. Push the meat to one side. Add the onions and bell pepper. Cook until soft, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic, cook 1 minute more.
5. Add the chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, and cocoa powder. Stir constantly for 1 minute. You want the spices to bloom in the fat.
6. Pour in the beer. Scrape the bottom of the pan to get the brown bits.
7. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, both beans, and the secret ingredient. Stir well.
8. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low. Cover partially and cook at least 2 hours. Three is better. Four is better still.
9. Taste and adjust salt. Serve with sour cream, sharp cheddar, thinly sliced scallions, and saltine crackers. I am not negotiating on the saltines.

Leftovers are better the next day. This is a universal truth of chili.

Brenda's Pound Cake

Serves 10. Posted with Brenda's permission, 08/2004.

This is my wife's recipe, passed down from her grandmother in North Carolina. I am not going to tell you it is better than your grandmother's, but I am going to tell you that it is better than most of the pound cakes I have had in my life.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a large bundt pan. Cream butter and sugar until very light and fluffy (this takes longer than you think — at least 5 minutes on medium). Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Alternately add flour mixture and cream, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in extracts. Pour into pan. Bake approximately 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning out.

Brenda serves this with macerated strawberries in summer. I eat it plain, as God intended.

Sunday Morning Pancakes

Serves 4.

No recipe. One cup of flour, one egg, a tablespoon of sugar, a teaspoon of baking powder, a pinch of salt, and milk until it looks right. You know what pancake batter is supposed to look like. Butter in the pan, not oil. Flip when you see bubbles on top that do not close back up.

The trick is to make sure everybody is at the table before you start cooking. Pancakes wait for no one.

More recipes to come as I remember them. I keep most of mine in a blue notebook that I cannot currently locate.

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