Chili, Stew, or Food in a Bowl?

I was just stunned by how many supportive emails and comments I received after my last newsletter. Thank you all for your condolences and your support. It means so much to me. And thank you to those who have followed me from email to Substack. I will try to make it worth the trouble.

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It’s been so long since I’ve blogged that I’ve literally forgotten how. I found that out when I decided to remake an old recipe and treat it like I was blogging it for the first time—carefully noting down ingredients and amounts, styling the food in appealing dishes, and taking good-quality photos.

Cooking the recipe was uneventful, and when it came time to style the food, I easily found a decent-looking bowl. But where were my napkins? When we moved here, I put my vast collection of them…somewhere. I finally found a storage box of yellow napkins under the bed, so yellow would have to do. And I haven’t used my “real camera” ( a heavy Canon 5D Mark iii, for those of you interested in heavy cameras) in so long that it took me a few minutes to remember how to turn it on. And then the battery was dead. So my iPhone would have to do.

I have no idea what surprises will be in store for me when I open up the control panel to my blog and try to remember how to write something using its interface. For today, just figuring out how to write a newsletter on Substack’s new-to-me platform is taxing enough.

Housekeeping tip: When you chop veggies, keep a dog under the kitchen table to vacuum up any spillage.

Anyway, I decided to revisit my Gold Rush Chili recipe simply because a newsletter subscriber mentioned that it was one of their family’s favorites and I realized that I couldn’t remember it. When I looked at its blog post from 2007, it all came rushing back to me—the blood, the sweat, the tears. The recipe called for peeling and chopping a raw butternut squash, and Sixteen Years Ago Me made it sound so easy, “Oh, just cut the squash in pieces and use a serrated peeler to remove its skin and a grapefruit spoon to scrape out its innards.” Today Me knows that any time I try to operate on a winter squash, some part of my anatomy gets cut, peeled, or scraped. Do you know how hard one of those things is? I’m old and can’t afford the blood loss, so I got two packages of frozen butternut squash cubes out of the freezer.

(We didn’t have frozen butternut squash in these parts in 2007. Unless we froze them ourselves.)

So here’s the updated Gold Rush Chili. The frozen squash makes it easier, and it cooks faster than fresh. I’ve changed the times from the original recipe and included exactly how much seasoning I used. I served it to my husband and mother and they both loved it, though my omnivore mother observed (more that once) that it doesn’t look like chili as she knows it. I haven’t had meat chili in 35 years, so I’ll defer to her on that one. Gold Rush Stew, anyone?

Gold Rush Chili, Stew, or Food in a Bowl

The spiciness of this plant-based chili depends on the type of chili powder you use and how much chipotle chili powder you use. As written, it’s not spicy at all, so increase the seasonings to your liking.

Ingredients

• 2 10-ounce packages butternut squash

• 1 medium onion chopped

• 4 cloves garlic minced

• 1 red bell pepper chopped

• 1 tablespoon mild chili powder (plus more to taste)

• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin (plus more to taste)

• 2 teaspoons oregano (Mexican oregano if you have it)

• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder or to taste

• 2 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes (fire roasted preferred)

• 1/2 cup water

• 1 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (plus more to taste)

• 2 15-ounce cans beans, drained

Instructions

• Heat a large, non-stick pot over medium-high heat, and add the onion and bell pepper. Sauté until the onion is just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. (You may add a little water to prevent sticking.) Add the garlic and sauté for 2 more minutes.
  

• Add all the seasonings, and stir well to coat the vegetables. Stir in the tomatoes (and their juice), water, squash, salt, and pepper. Cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes.
  

• Add the beans, and adjust the seasonings. (I added 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. chili powder, 1/2 tsp. cumin, and 1/4 tsp. pepper.) Cover and cook until the squash is tender but not falling apart (about 15 minutes).

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If there’s a way to make the recipe printable on Substack, I don’t know it. The blog post has a printable version of the original recipe.

Dogs Love Chili Too

Foxley, Salem, and Arlo

I took my chili out to the back porch for its photo op, and of course the dogs tagged along, hoping that I’d spill or trip and they’d get a taste. That didn’t happen, but I appreciated the company and treated them each to a cube of squash.

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I highly recommend Nava’s Cranberry Carrot Cake for its vibrant color and flavor

I’m working on a new holiday dessert that I hope to publish on the blog soon.  Give me a couple of weeks to remember where my cake pans are and at least another week to charge the camera’s battery. In the meantime, all of my healthy, vegan holiday recipes are here: Susan’s Holiday Recipes.

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