valentine's chili + coffee (iced)

I don't know if anyone else out there is like this, but I found this recipe in Good Housekeeping for "Red Valentine's Day Chili" and even though it's August in the middle of a heat wave I had to try it out.

First of all, the recipe called for tomatoes, peppers, onions and beets. Ingredients that I have on hand in the garden.


There were some things that I tossed into the chili pot even though the recipe didn't call for them. Tomatillos for example. I have one tomatillo plant, and I swear, if it could it would take over the entire garden.

I've cut it back several times, but it's still branching out. Its fruit reminds me of Chinese paper lanterns.


Here's some of the ingredients mixed up in the pot. One of the things I love about cooking is chopping up all of the vegetables and mixing them together. This recipe called for a red pepper, a red onion and two large beets.

All of those shades of red looked fabulous combined together. This shot reminds me of some yarn I just spun. The magenta flashes are like the ruby red flesh of a fresh beet. (Beets are one of my favorite veggies, by the way.)


Anyway, I find it always feels good to use something from the garden when I'm cooking. Another great thing about this recipe is that it allowed me to use some of the stewed tomatoes I had stored in the cupboard from last year's garden.

I used two pint jars and let the chili sauce simmer down into a deep red sauce.


It was tough to beat the heat while making this. (I chugged two large glasses of iced coffee.) This chili -- even though it's peppered with hot spices and ground up chipotle peppers -- wasn't hard to eat in the heat.

There's something about spicy food and hot climes. (And I guess anything goes well with an ice cold beer.)