Super Sunday Feast!

Never in my life have I been daunted by the prospect of a large, homecooked meal.  That is, not before this past SuperBowl Sunday, when I appeared at my girl Danielle's house with ingredients in hand to make chili and cornbread and nachos.   They were supposed to accompany the chicken wings she was going to make.  Next thing I knew, her chicken wings became but one item listed on her menu of 14 dishes.   It was overwhelming, gluttonous, and oh so fabulous.  This is the shortlist of menu items that night.  Add to it roasted peppers and zucchini. olives, cheeses, Italian Salumi, Cheesecake, and deep fried chocolate bars and then you can begin to conceptualize the full extent of our meal.  Needless to say, while the football game was running its course, we were enjoying our time making our 10+ course meal for the occasion, taking pause only to enjoy our few bottles of wine, watching the fabulous half-time show, dancing, orally reciting some prose, and other absurdities along the way.  Peeps of all ages had a blast that day.

Homemade Chorizo Chili Recipe

3 cans kidney beans

1 can tomato sauce

500 ml chicken stock

1 large carrot

1 medium sized onion

5 cloves garlic

4 large crimini mushrooms

4 pork chorizo sausages  (or one entire tube of soy chorizo)

olive oil

red chili peppers

cayenne pepper

paprika

salt

1. Finely chop a medium sized onion and sautee it until clear, with olive oil, adding a few doses of chicken stock to prevent them from browning.  Add chopped carrots and crushed garlic.

2.  Strain the water from the cans of kidney beans, but do not rinse.  Pour beans into the sautee pan with the onions.   Cover with one cup of chicken stock.  Simmer, stirring often, until beans begin to break up.  

3.   Chop crimini mushrooms and add to beans, and remove sausage from the casing and drop into bean mixture in small ground clumps.   Add half to 2/3 can of tomato sauce, 1/2 tbsp of chili peppers, 2 tsp of cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp of paprika, 1 tsp of salt. If using pork chorizo (Whole Foods has fresh, raw- cook on medium for 20 minutes). If using soy chorizo, this is already cooked, so you only need to cook on medium-low for approximately 10 minutes- enough time to infuse the spice flavors into the chili.     Serve with homemade cornbread and/or steamed rice (your preference).

For my children I add the chorizo and sauce, but do not add the spices until after I have cooked the meat and portioned out non-spicy chili into their bowls, before spiking the chili for the adults (oops, I meant spicing:)).