chili: a preview

I haven't fed the troops in a few months, so I decided to make some chili for a Friday luncheon. Tonight, I concentrated on making the chili itself, the salsa (which, like my tzatziki sauce for gyros, always comes out awesome), and the guacamole. First, the chili:

I'd call this a pretty standard, run-of-the-mill suburban chili. Not particularly Tex-Mex, and certainly not original, classic Texas chili (no tomatoes, no beans, no ground beef). My boss wanted the beans, and what the boss wants, the boss gets. The addition of beans makes the chili non-keto, but I think Friday is going to be my lone off-the-chain day before I return to the Newcastle discipline. Next—the salsa:

Using a food processor made this chunkier than it would have been had I used a blender. The ingredients all taste fresh and distinct, which to me is the sign of a good salsa. The cilantro is what keeps the salsa within the Tex-Mex flavor profile because the peppers I used tonight—as is always true when I make salsa in this country—are all Korean. And I think that's just fine; I don't miss jalapeños at all, even though Korean groceries do sell sliced and bottled jalapeños.

Below: guacamole.

I confess I went with frozen avocado again, but this time, I did a better job with the thawing. The resultant guac is still not great, but this one is, at least, edible. I had bought fresh avocados on Wednesday, but they're not ripe yet. I'll check them tomorrow morning, but I don't think they'll be ready until after the weekend. If the crew doesn't like the guac I made with the frozen avocados, I won't be offended. I'm not that thrilled with it, either. It looks okay, and for all I know, it might go well with the chili and trimmings as a background note. But on its own, it's not much to write home about.

Still to do: shredded lettuce (I hear a lot of YouTube cooks saying "shredduce" these days), diced tomatoes, and chopped olives. I've got sour cream and pre-shredded Costco cheese (their so-called "Mexican mix," which always makes me cringe since it contains neither Oaxaca, Cotija, Manchego, nor Chihuahua... the Costco mix is a safe blend of Jack, cheddar, Asadero, and Queso Quesadilla, so half of those are gringo cheeses). I think that's about it for the trimmings. Doritos chips will form a nacho-like base for the chili; I might even have a bowl like this* before moving on to my cornbread, which I'd originally intended to be my keto substitute had the chili itself been more keto.

I also have to bake my keto cornbread, but I need to shop for more eggs plus some almond milk. The grocery in my building doesn't open until 10 a.m., but if I wake up early enough, I can get most of the cornbread ingredients ready, then swoop down to buy the eggs and plant milk, leaving me plenty of time to bake the bread, which needs only 30-40 minutes' baking time. I'm excited to see how the cornbread will turn out.

More pics in the morning. Maybe.

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*One of my favorite ways to eat chili is on a bed of Frito Lays, but Costco didn't have Frito Lays this time around, so I settled for a big-ass bag of Doritos.