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My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Sat Aug 04, 2018 10:24 pm
by Enzo
I like to cook chili, a big pot of chili is just so wonderful. I have cooked competitively, and even have a first place at teh Curwood Festival one year. I had a big pack of ground beef in the cooler and decided chili would be good this evening.

Now I also enjoy a good bloody Mary now and then. My sister sent us a big jug of Bloody Mary Mix, which was...OK... but really I prefer V-8 juice. But i am real flexible cooking, so tonight I threw in most of the Mary mix into my chili. Tomato flavor with some seasoning, it adds. Chili can vary batch to batch.

Our neighbor Kay went in for surgery, then rehab, then complications, then more surgery, then more rehab. She been gone a month. The wife took our black kitty next door and let her visit Kay's cats, plus give her cats some human attention. Kay was supposed to come home a couple days ago, but still not here. Kay loves the wife's meat loaf, which we stocked up on ground beef to make. A coming home dinner. But no Kay, no meatloaf. Hence a big pot of chili.

SO I made up the chili, it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

Unfortunately, I present a nice steaming bowl of chili, the wife takes half a pound of crackers and crushes them into it, until the texture of goosh is achieved. YUCK. Every time I make chili, she ruins hers.

Dumb broad...

Re: My harpy wire...

PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 5:18 am
by Lance
But if you just made it right to start with she wouldn't need to fix it.

It's highly likely I'd have done the same thing.

Smart broad.

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 7:08 am
by Enzo
No no no. GAWD intended for a spoon full of chili, and a bite of crispy cracker. Not soggy soaked in liquid crushed crackers. Ewg.

Re: My harpy wire...

PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 6:41 pm
by wring
Lance wrote:But if you just made it right to start with she wouldn't need to fix it.

It's highly likely I'd have done the same thing.

Smart broad.

I've always liked you.

Every time I cook, I ask him "how is it" and he says "not as good as (my) own". So he deserves everything I do. He does "allow" me to make meatloaf saying I need the practice (IOW- he likes it just doesn't want to admit it).

Re: My harpy wire...

PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 9:25 pm
by Lance
wring wrote:
Lance wrote:Smart broad.

I've always liked you.

And I you...

If you want to dump that watery-chili-cooking bastard and run away together just let me know... _I_ know how to cook a pot of chili that is so rich and full of meat that no crackers are required, but I use them anyway because it's better that way.

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Sun Aug 05, 2018 10:54 pm
by wring
:mrgreen:

I suspect your wife would object.

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 12:31 am
by Enzo
She knows enough to stay away from here.

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 1:50 am
by Lance
wring wrote::mrgreen:

I suspect your wife would object.

Perhaps, if I had one. But since Cyndi and I are not married, no problem...

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 9:23 pm
by wring
:shock:

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 10:16 pm
by Lianachan
Has Kay appeared yet?

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 12:59 am
by wring
she just came home yesterday, we saw her today as we were leaving for my doc apt. Promised her meatloaf for tomorrow. (after we vote, of course).

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:55 am
by Enzo
Kay likes my chili too, and she doesn't fill it with extraneous cracker mush.

Now that she has returned, our kitties should be able to visit with Kay's kitties more often. Wring went over to her apartment with one of ours a week or so ago for a visit. Our black kitty usually heads straight for Sheldon's food dish when she goes there, and when Sheldon walks into our apartment, he usually heads right for the cat buffet. I think we humans are largely incidental.

I generally save my reading material for Kay, and put it in her railing. But her shoulder is healing and she can't handle holding and folding the newspaper. But she still gets my National Geographic and Scientific American.

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 8:17 am
by Lianachan
Good to hear Kay's back, she'd kind of vanished into the background of the thread.

Like most people, I also make good chilli! I don't used ground beef though, I cut up steaks (or any beef) very finely, and add some similarly cut pork, sometimes similarly cut turkey - any meats, basically, but always with mostly beef. I end up with fine short strings of meat, which I vastly prefer to using the ground stuff. It also makes it a very dense, very filling thing to eat. Heat varies depending on who it's for, from vaguely spicy to setting off the sprinklers spicy.

Crackers..... I'm assuming those are something different from what we call crackers over here, because our crackers in a chilli would be fucking revolting. My chilli is usually just served with bread (French stick variety).

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 3:38 pm
by Arneb
Bravo.

Are y'all talking about these crackers? I can (just!) imagine to bite into some along with a good chili, but in the bowl? :shock: What do I buy good meat for?

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 3:49 pm
by Lance
We're talking about Oyster Crackers or Saltines. They're pretty much the same thing except for the shape. I like them both.

They go in soup too. Mmmmmm!

You need a consistency where it will stick to the spoon.

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 3:51 pm
by Arneb
They look nice enough.

Lance wrote:You need a consistency where it will stick to the spoon.

What, the cracker or the chili?

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 3:54 pm
by Enzo
Mushy crackers in my chili...(shudder)

He probably likes ketchup on his Chateaubriand too.

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 4:33 pm
by Arneb
Yeah, but on a 50 cent hamburger it's an abomination :roll:

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 9:21 pm
by Lance
Arneb wrote:They look nice enough.
Lance wrote:You need a consistency where it will stick to the spoon.

What, the cracker or the chili?

Yes, exactly. You shouldn't be able to tell where one ends and the other begins. The crackers become an ingredient in the chili. And if it's made right in the first place, you don't need to add them.

:mrgreen:

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 12:42 am
by Enzo
Nope nope nope. Sog is not a good texture for chili. Thickeners like crackers or masa is cheating. if you want thick chili, cook it down and reduce the broth part, But that is not the same as piling bread into it.

If you are a griller, it is the difference between a hamburger and a meatloaf. You wouldn't add eggs and bread crumbs to your hamburger like you would a meat loaf.

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:12 am
by Lianachan
Enzo wrote:Nope nope nope. Sog is not a good texture for chili. Thickeners like crackers or masa is cheating. if you want thick chili, cook it down and reduce the broth part, But that is not the same as piling bread into it.

If you are a griller, it is the difference between a hamburger and a meatloaf. You wouldn't add eggs and bread crumbs to your hamburger like you would a meat loaf.

Yup, exactly this - and this is why I use chopped instead of ground meat too. My chilli sticks to the spoon, without the assistance of weird ingredients.

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:56 pm
by Lance
Enzo wrote:You wouldn't add eggs and bread crumbs to your hamburger like you would a meat loaf.

Um, you might. I loved these when I was a kid. My grandmother made them flatter, patties, just like hamburgers. Frikadeller

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:16 pm
by Enzo
Then it is no longer a hamburger, it is a salisbury steak (mini meat loaf).

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 12:14 am
by Lance
Wait a second, you're moving the bar. You said:

Enzo wrote:You wouldn't add eggs and bread crumbs to your hamburger like you would a meat loaf.

But now you're saying that by doing so, it is no longer a hamburger anyway.

The Frikadellers I mentioned above were hamburgers, that had eggs and bread crumbs mixed in. And they were awesome!

ETA: Depending on the quality of the meat and the flavor I'm going for, I also occasionally add eggs and/or bread crumbs to hamburgers I grill. So yes, it most certainly can be done.

Re: My harpy wife...

PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 4:24 am
by Enzo
Not moving the bar. Take a hamburger... now adding stuff makes it something else. My glass of vodka is no longer a glass of vodka when I add orange juice. A burger with the stuff added may be tasty - I certainly love meatballs, which are similar, but then it just isn't a hamburger any longer. I dearly love a screwdriver, but can't call it a glass of vodka. Actually I have been making them with limeade of late and don't know what to call it. A martini has an olive, if I replace the olive with a cocktail onion, it becomes a gibson. I think I'd prefer that to the olive.