It’s been a pretty low-key weekend around here. I treated Gil to a birthday dinner at Marea Saturday night, but apart from that wonderful (fantastic! amazing! delightful!) experience, we’ve done a lot of lounging. (Which has been wonderful, etc. in itself, only in sweats, and with football.)

Ordinarily, we don’t let the guys on the furniture, but Otis adopted the fainting couch early on and really…how could we say no?

Ru, on the other hand, wouldn’t dream of setting paw to furniture (while we’re home), but prefers to use Otis as a pillow.

So…food. After such an exceptional dinner, I could barely consider cooking today and didn’t have the heart to attempt anything challenging. What would be the point? But still in need of sustenance as lunchtime rolled around, I made a vegetarian chili loosely based on Heidi’s Pierce Street Chili, adapting it to use ingredients already in my pantry. This turned out to be the perfect dish for our loungey weekend. I highly recommend the original recipe; it was probably the best vegetarian chili I’ve ever made.

Hope you all had a great weekend and managed to stay warm!

If your email inbox was anything like mine last week, you learned that there’s no easy route to planning a Super Bowl menu. I was bombarded with ideas to make my feast special! To add some zip to the game! To stay healthy and still enjoy my favorite football foods! Some missives advocated the tried and true — hot dogs, wings, burgers — while others sought to elevate the whole day by encouraging more complicated fare. Me? I’m a true believer in the KISS principle when it comes to sporting events; the most complicated thing I ever made for a Super Bowl party was a big pot of red beans and some pimento dip for snacking.

This year, I had trouble deciding between a roasted pork shoulder and chili, but came down on the side of chili, mostly because I got started late in the day and didn’t have time to properly marinate and braise or smoke the pork. Keeping with our mostly (red) meatless tradition since the new year, I decided on a turkey chili. I do have a soft spot in my heart for veggie chili, but watching the home town team play in the big game was no time to wimp out and go completely meatless.

But turkey chili can really be blah and lifeless, can’t it? Honestly, it’s never won me over enough to be my go-to chili, so I decided to make a few changes this time to add some character and depth of flavor. For starters, I dug deep in my pantry and pulled out two bags of dried mystery mushrooms I bought on my last run to the Asian food market. One bag was “Chinese Black,” but I really have no earthly idea what the other bag contained. All I know is they smelled earthy and smoky and were practically begging to be part of the meal.

With that part of the equation out of the way, I dug even deeper in the pantry for some dried New Mexico chilies I knew had to be in there. Lucky for me, the bag was still sealed and the peppers still pliable rather than desiccated ghosts of peppers past. So I tried my hand at making my own chili powder! I just threw things in at random, but I was really, honestly, pleased with the results. Next time, I’ll look up a few recipes and buy different types of chilies for a more customized blend, but even my shot in the dark was better than bottled chili powder.

As always, this chili was a boozy affair, liquored up with a bottle of ale and splashes of tequila and whiskey (Jack Daniel’s this time). And, of course, I stirred in some dark chocolate at the end; it elevates the dish to something special without anyone being able to put a finger on what magic you worked, exactly.

Oh, I almost forgot! The Frito Pie part! Many months ago, I was tagged by Jennifer of Last Night’s Dinner to do a writeup of my most embarrassing favorite foods. I’m more embarrassed at not doing the post than by any of the foods it would contain, but Frito Pie would have to be at the top of the list. Properly prepared in a roadside snoball stand in a humid southern state, it features beanless Hormel Chili poured into a split snack-sized bag of Fritos, and topped with cheese (nacho, natch), lettuce, and tomato. Some might add mayonnaise, but I can take it or leave it. Since snoball stands, humidity, and proximity to southern states weren’t available Sunday, we did the best we could and were quite pleased with the results.

recipe after the jump

18-1 Chili

Schadenfreude is a beautiful thing. But like Frito Pie, it’s best to indulge only occasionally; you probably won’t like the person you’ll become if it gets to be a habit. That said, we’re still doing our IN YOUR FACE, BELICHICK dance at the palatial Roth estates.

2 tablespoons
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 lb. ground turkey
1 small can tomato paste
1 large can whole tomatoes
chili powder to taste (recipe follows)
15 large dried mushrooms
1 bottle of your favorite beer
1 big splash of tequila
1 big splash of bourbon/whiskey
a few dashes of Worcestershire Sauce
1 oz. baking chocolate

Place dried mushrooms in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over to cover, and soak for 15 minutes. Remove from water, drain, and chop. Reserve soaking liquid.

In a large, heavy pot, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat until it begins to shimmer. Sauté onions and bell pepper in oil until softened, then add garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Push aside the vegetables to create a “hot spot” and add the tomato paste, stirring until it begins to caramelize — about 30 seconds to 1 minute — then stir tomato paste into the vegetables.

Add tomatoes, breaking them up with the back of the spoon. Stir in the next six ingredients (chili powder through Worcestershire sauce), bring to a boil, cover pot with lid askew, and lower heat to medium-low. Simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.

Just before serving, remove pot from burner and stir in chocolate until melted. Adjust seasonings and serve — over Fritos, if you like, or with your favorite toppings.

Chili Powder

4 dried New Mexico chilies
2 tablespoons cumin seed, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon coriander seed, toasted and ground
1 teaspoon hot smoked pimentòn
1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roast peppers on baking sheet for 4-5 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet. Cut off the stem end of the pepper and remove seeds. Grind peppers finely in spice grinder. Mix with remaining ingredients. (I used about 3/4 of this chili powder in the recipe above.)