Welcome Back with Chili

I should have known that it would take a rainy day to get me in the kitchen again. Beautiful spring days call for street food, ice cream, maybe the very first spring produce. They're not really cooking days. But the whole way home on the subway Monday night I was thinking how nice it would be for Todd, shaking the rain from his umbrella, to follow the warm, spicy smell of chili down the hall to our apartment door.

So I made it. I like using ground chuck for chili, because I have this theory that the extra fat keeps the beef from clumping, that it helps to break it down into even, small pieces and it helps it to cook evenly. Of course, then you have to drain off huge amounts of melted fat, which I do by spooning the cooked beef into a paper towel–lined bowl, then pouring off the fat into a jar I keep in the freezer (I'm always afraid the temperature contrast will break the glass, so I let the jar warm a little at room temperature, and let the grease cool a little bit). Then I cooked chopped onion and bell pepper in the same deep skillet, and added a couple cans of tomatoes with the juice, one diced and one whole (which I smashed up with a wooden spoon). I added lots of cumin and ancho chile powder, and a little bit of chipotle powder for heat. Salt. Then let it bubble until Todd got home. We shredded Cheddar over the top, and ate it with some leftover bicuits.

Normally I would've added the spices before the tomatoes, to toast them a little, but I'm out of practice and I forgot. I'm not sure it makes a huge difference in the finished product, but I did have to add way more of the spices than I thought. I kept adding and tasting, adding and tasting, until it almost seemed there.