Red Bean Chili

Saving the meat in the freezer! I had a little bison meat, a little pork tenderloin, and sausage. It was all getting very close to coming down with freezer burn, and it needed to be used. Lots of beans and tomatoes were in the cabinet.. Not throwing away food, making food for the week in bulk for a healthy week of meals, all a combination of new solstice goals came together into one fabulous chili.

Shopping List:

• Left over meats in the freezer (Some chopped bison meat, pork tenderloin, 3 sausages with the skins removed)
• 1 medium onion
• 10 cloves of garlic
• 4 Serrano peppers, diced with the seeds in (WASH HANDS AFTER HANDLING)
• OPTIONAL: 1 diced Habanero pepper **SPICY**(WASH HANDS AFTER HANDLING)
• 2 14.5oz cans of diced tomatoes
• 1 large can of whole tomatoes
• 1 can of light red kidney beans
• 1 can of pinto beans
• 1 can of canned corn
• 2 bay leaves
• 1.5 tablespoons of cumin
• 1 tablespoons of chili powder
• 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons of parsley
• 3 teaspoons of fresh cracked pepper
• 2 teaspoons of salt

Putting it Together:

1. Defrost the meat. All the meat except the pork tenderloin was ground up, I finely chopped the defrosted pork tenderloin with a large butchering knife to achieve a ground meat consistency.
2. Heat up a big pot with a few tablespoons of olive oil.
3. Add the chopped onion and meat, to brown the meat.

4. Add 10 cloves of garlic, pressed.
5. Strain the beans and corn, add the strained beans and corn

6. Add tomatoes, cut the whole tomatoes in the pot with a scissor to have very coarsely chopped tomatoes. (this is fun!)
7. Add 2 bay leaves, cumin, chili powder, cayenne powder, black pepper, and salt.
8. Put on the cover and simmer for hours and hours.
9. Taste test along the way. It is really important to taste it and see what you think it needs. If it's not spicy enough dump in a few more dashes of chili powder, if it is a bit bland, add flavor with cumin. AND, Remember, salt can help bring out all the flavors in the chili.
10. Serve, top with sour cream, and cheese.

Notes:

- Cornbread is an amazing addition, but tortillas and chips are also a great accompaniment.

- Chili is hard to screw up, but without taste testing it will be hard to make it to your liking!

- If you don't have random meat in the fridge, ground turkey, ground beef, sausage, or any other meat are great options... Also, a bean chili could be made by adding 2 more cans of whatever beans you like, black, navy, kidney..

- See below for removing sausage from casings:

1.Slice a slit down one side with a pair of good kitchen scissors.

2. Peel back the casings and throw away.