Chili Dilution

 I woke early and the gray clouds were promising rain. Upon opening the door to outside so the dogs could go outside the cool air hit me. Made me think a nice pot of chili would be good. I had cooked some ground beef two days ago. It was a package I had not repackaged into smaller portions, so I only used half of it and had the other half lingering in the fridge.

Soon as I had some coffee, I did a little research on the contents of my pantry. No canned beans, but I did have tomatoes. No problem, I always have dried beans on hand. I measured out a cup and put them in the instapot along with a quart of vegetable broth. I set them at 8 minutes and then gathered some spices together. Cayenne pepper, chili powder, smked paprika, and black pepper. I left the salt out since the vegetable broth has salt in it. After the first cyle of 8 minutes the beans were still hard. I added my spices and some water and did another 8 minute cycle in the pressure cooker mode. I chopped onion, Vidalia onion to be exact and added that along with the ground beef and reset the cooker to slow cook mode and let it go for four hours.

I am telling you all this for a reason, of course. I went out to play in the dirt since the promised rain was holding back. The chili smelled heavenly! It actually woke HeWho sleeps a lot. It was done by 2 pm and we were both hungry. I doctored my bowl with a dollop of sour cream and some gouda cheese. It was perfect. Three hours later, HeWho was chomping at the bit to go eat fried fish, as is out Friday routine. I wasn't particularly hungry, but went. 

Next day, as I was pondering food options for dinner, I remembered the left over chili. Plenty left for another meal. I asked HeWho if he wanted it for our dinner (I practice polite behavior from time to time). He was enthusiastic about it, remembering how good it was. Not to toot my own horn, but I am a good cook. Even good cooks have off days and sometimes spectacular days. The chili falls under the latter category.

Time to eat and I got the chili out and put it in a pot to warm, then went out to empty my bowl of compost material, asking him to keep an eye on the chili. I did not intend for him to do anything other than stir and monitor the flame on the stove. My outdoor compost bin is not that far away. Maybe 5 minutes later I come in to see him standing at the stove stirring. Everything smelled right, no burning to the bottom of the pot. I got out the cucumber salad and iced tea....

I looked at the pot of chili to see that it had grown! He added water, about the same amount as the chili! Why? He does like thinner soups, but chili is not soup, is it? After one taste, I wanted to cry. The perfection was gone! Watered down, the beans floating around with chunks of beef. The flavor a mere hint of what it had been. The chili should have been even better the second time around. It was not.

I watched as he ate. I saw him look around to find something to add to it to make it taste better. To my credit, I did not scold him, merely said that the amount of water he added had diluted the flavor to near non-existance. I did not scream "WHY, WHY" Nancy Kerrigan style and cry, but I felt like it!