Chili. An Evolutionary Tale

We are planning a camping trip in a month or so & being the OCD super organized person that I am, I am already planning our menu.

I am thinking chili for one meal.

Chili these days, is a somewhat complicated endeavor (which is why I try to make ginormous pots of it & can the extra, which is what I am starting tonight).

The whole process got me to thinking how easy chili is for some folks...in fact, how easy it used to be for me.

Way back at the dawn of time, before I could actually cook, "chili for dinner" meant opening a couple cans of whatever brand was cheapest at the grocery store. If I was feeling really ambitious I would 'customize' my chili with grated cheese & fresh chopped tomatoes.

Sigh. It was so easy back then. Not healthy in the slightest or even very tasty realistically but  E.A.S.Y.

Okay, fast forward a few years, my mother-in-law gave me first crockpot (the coolest & most useful invention since the flush toilet) & I started to make 'homemade' chili.

I used canned beans, canned tomato sauce, store bought meat, packaged spices & bullion cubes. Still not super healthy but quite a bit tastier than the canned.

Homemade, but still easy.  That was our staple for quite a while.

The next step in this process was switching over to dry beans. No more cans. No more 'easy' chili. Now I had to think ahead. Plan. Who's idea was this anyway?

So now we soak our own beans, we need to make our own spice mix too right? Right.

And by now we raised our own meat, canned my own sauce , mixed my own spices...that's got to be it right?

Nope. Because now, right now, I am making chili. The beans are soaking & because bullion is full of MSG & my husband is severely allergic to MSG, we can't use bullion anymore.
And because we are low on beef in the freezer I can't just chunk some ground beef in there.
So instead I am soaking beans AND boiling down soup bones. Which will cook all night & then tomorrow I will pick the meat, strain the broth, chuck the bones & everything will be thrown in the stock pot.

Beef, broth, home canned tomato sauce, soaked beans, fresh from the garden onions, *my* spice mix ~ nothing easy or quick about it. (which is why I make gallons of it & can it :) ).

Nothing easy but it's good & it's healthy. No preservatives. No hormones. No MSG. No pesticides. No yucky nothings.

Which is a good feeling.

But I confess... when I have to do all. of. that. stuff. before we go camping & have to plan & prep & & & ...I might, just maybe (kinda sorta)  *miss* being able to stick a couple cans of chili into the trailer & call it good.

:)

Blessings.