Crockpottery

So... a few posts ago I mentioned that I won a slow cooker, well, I got it. AND I LOVE IT. It doesn't make my life any easier... I'm not gonna lie. It takes about the same work as a normal meal, but slow cooking your food can bring out a whole different taste. It allows the flavors to mingle and the textures to crumble (in a crumbly moist way, not a crumbly no-no way).

I plan on making a bunch of recipes in this bad boy, but for starters I went with chili. And again, I challenged myself to only use what I had in the kitchen ready to go.

I threw in a huge can of pinto beans (you can use fresh, but of course give yourself much more time to cook it), a whole chopped onion, small handful of garlic cloves and I had a couple zucchinis that I decided to chop up and include. In my cast iron skillet (a must have if you don't already own one) I browned about a fist-pump sized lump of cow flesh, put aside, then fried up 3 strips of chopped up pig bacon, and tossed all that meaty goodness in.

Here's where it gets good: I found a bag of sun dried tomatoes (from the garden) the boyfriend made a few days before... I put them in the blender with a little water and added the yummy sauce to the mix. THEN, I chopped up a pimento pepper and one cayenne and cooked them in my iron skillet with a little olive oil until they had a few blackened spots. Sidenote: although it sounds like a great idea, do not stick your face all up in the pan to inhale the pepper fumes deeply. End of sidenote.

Add the peppers to the chili and let simmer for a few hours. Salt and pepper to taste.

BAM!

(said in a Rupaul's Drag Race way, not a cooking show way)