Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: I started cooking chili 30 years ago. As a stranger in the world of the kitchen I needed Mary (my late wife) to brown the meat for me as I had no idea how to do this. My first attempts were not what I was looking for. We only had chili a few times a year so my recipe took shape over a decade or more. I wanted something hotter and more flavorful as opposed to the sometimes watered down version in some restaurants. I was also trying to lose weight and I kept a tally of the calories and carbohydrates per serving ending up with 195 and 28, respectively, per cup of chili. I made the chili for a couple office cook-offs and usually finished second or third (the boss's chili always took first place). The chili can be served with some type of spaghetti or noodles. Take care not to overcook because the texture of the tomatoes will be lost. Overall, I’m extremely pleased with the result.
Additional comments from Catheryn:
As a kid I liked chili. It was pretty easy to make – brown a pound of hamburger and some chopped celery (maybe a little onion too) then add a couple of quart jars of canned tomatoes (from the basement), a generous dump of chili powder and bring to a simmer, add 3 cans of kidney beans, reheat and presto you have chili. As I recall, chili was not my father’s favorite meal and something else was also served at the meal, to satisfy him and ensure adequate calories for 1950s farming.
My most meaningful childhood memory of chili involves the annual father/daughter 4-H chili supper. My father attending an event-for-me-only was a big deal and I was happy and perhaps a bit relieved (since I believed he didn’t like chili) when he used an evening of precious “free-time” to go with me. Not that we spent any together time at the meeting – the fathers sat in one room visiting and eating and the “Douglas Daughters” sat in another room having their meeting. But that didn’t matter – the important thing was that my father was there for me.
Expanding my universe beyond the parental home, I learned that chili didn’t always mean what I thought it should. The most shocking deviation was ordering chili in Colorado – arriving at my table was a dish of meat and seasonings and not a bean to be found. Did they bring someone else’s order? In my mind two distinct chili camps took shape –heavy on beans or heavy on meat. Visiting a friend in Cincinnati I found a whole other world of two-way, three-way, and four-way chili – various combinations of chili and spaghetti and cheese.
Frank’s Six Gun Chili does not to belong to either the bean or the meat camp. It focuses on tomato. A tomato lover’s chili. The number of calories is good but, from a heart disease and stroke prevention view, the amount of sodium – 1008 mg per cup, is distressing. You can decrease this by watching the labels when you purchase tomatoes and selecting brands other than those listed.
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This recipe for Six Gun Chili is from