The Gaming Den

I happen to be a fan of both.

For beer, my favorite beer type is hefeweizen, although I enjoy a variety. PBR is the best of the cheap beers (and I admire that they don't try to make you think it's anything else than cheap beer.) When I was an alcoholic, every picture of me DMing has me with an Arrogant Bastard Ale in one hand and a bottle of Wild Turkey in the other (although my progressively worsening reflux has killed any enjoyment for either in my old age.) Arrogant Bastard is highly bitter, but pretty good beer.

As for Chili, I make it myself. The current recipe I use:

Put two pounds of ground beef into a 12 quart stockpot. When the meat is half-cooked, throw in a good cup or so of chili powder, a half-handful of fresh garlic, a good three or four tablespoons of cumin, and about two tablespoons of onion powder. When its 90% cook, throw in a 24 oz can of kidney beans and another 24 oz can of black beans (make sure to drain and rinse both, bean water is nasty and makes you cut), and I throw in a big can of Wal-Mart brand Lime and Garlic salsa. Cook that for 20 minutes, and eat with sour cream and cheese.

Now, all that is cheap crap food for broke-ass bums like me. Feel free to replace any and all of that with fresher and higher quality ingredients.

This recipe doesn't have a lot of heat (because of my reflux, and because I no longer participate in penis waving contests because I'm too old for them), and it has beans in it (which a lot of chili snobs will say is a cardinal sin), but you can make enough to eat for a week or two like that for about 10 bucks. Can't beat that.

The chili I've been making lately is:

2 lbs. round steak
1/4 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons cumin
2 tablespoons black pepper
2 tablespoons salt
1 ... what's the big size? 36 oz? can of diced tomatoes in puree
~15 oz can of black beans
~15 oz can of whole kernel corn
3 red, orange, or yellow bell peppers, diced
1 large white onion, diced
2 heaping tablespoons of minced garlic
3 fresh habaneros, shredded


Cut the mean into 1/2" - 1" cubes and brown.

Toss everything except the bell peppers into a large crockpot, stir it up, and cook for about four hours. Add the peppers and cook for another hour. Serve with shredded cheddar, sour cream, cilantro, and diced avocado.


As an accompanying beer, it's hard to beat a pale ale. I'm fond of the Sierra Nevada and Schlafly ones.

I can't stand chili, so I don't eat it. But I do like some beer - my favorite is Asahi. It makes one hell of a beer batter for fish.

For chili I usually cook about a tablespoon of minced garlic with a small white onion (chopped up) in canola oil in the bottom of a medium soup pot. Then I add about a cup of chopped up peppers, both sweet and spicy, and cook until they're soft. Sometimes I add minced carrot as well. At the same time, in a wok I stir fry a bound of ground bison, and throw in about a tablespoon of cumin. Then I toss the meat (bouncy and seared) into the pot and add a can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato paste, as well as some chipotle powder, salt, sambal olek, and more cumin. Then I add as many cans of different kinds of beans as will fit; usually about three or four. As the Count suggests, kidney and black beans are a must. Add enough water to keep it from burning, and simmer as long as you like. Sometimes I add a tried chili of two of some kind (taking it out when it's done cooking).

I usually eat it by adding enough water to make it soupy and then tossing in a bunch of saltines.

I'm not much of a beer drinker, but for some reason I prefer the Mexican kinds: Dos Equis, Negra Modelo, and even Corona.

And please, for the love of all that is holy, don't put corn in chili

Mmmmm. Corn adds sweetness to chili. I don't know what you're smoking, putting carrots of all things in yours.

NineInchNall wrote:Mmmmm. Corn adds sweetness to chili. I don't know what you're smoking, putting carrots of all things in yours.

Corn, Tomato, Peppers, Chili, Onions, and Carrots are all potential sources of sweetness. Some people also use molasses, and they are not wrong to do so.

I put half a habanero into a curry made of lentils, yellow peas, potato, carrots, onion, and flavored with British curry spice mix, vegetable oil, butter, and salt. They liked it, but felt it was far too hot. I'm looking forward to going somewhere where it is not considered too hot.

-Username17

Well to be fair the habanero does weigh in at over a million SCU and was utilised as a method of torture/punishment by the ancient... Aztecs?

I feel that "It's a bit hot" may be a reasonable criticism.

NineInchNall wrote:Mmmmm. Corn adds sweetness to chili. I don't know what you're smoking, putting carrots of all things in yours.

I prefer the texture of tiny little orange colored bits to 'bursty'. Also, carrot adds a lot more nutrition.

[Edit]And anyway, corn just tends to be too fuckin' sweet.[/Edit]

My wife puts honey in her chili (a trick her father taught her), and it is excellent. I'll see about grabbing the recipe when I get home.

Also, kidney beans are nasty...we use pintos and sometimes black beans.

I no longer drink (and was never a huge beer fan anyway), but I actually enjoyed Corona with lime.

FrankTrollman wrote:I put half a habanero into a curry made of lentils, yellow peas, potato, carrots, onion, and flavored with British curry spice mix, vegetable oil, butter, and salt. They liked it, but felt it was far too hot. I'm looking forward to going somewhere where it is not considered too hot.

Oh, so you'll be visiting Thailand soon, then?

I could never live somewhere with food that is too spicy. I was born with a hietal hernia and spicy food tears me up. (Got some reflux and some erosive esophagitis. I really need to be back on insurance so I can afford my reflux meds and have my throat reamed out again.)

There are foods and medicines for that. I know, poor. But in some places, there's this thing called socialized medicine.

-Crissa

Crissa wrote:There are foods and medicines for that. I know, poor. But in some places, there's this thing called socialized medicine.

-Crissa

It'd be nice if I could relocate and gain citizenship somewhere that has that. I don't see Americans pulling their heads out of their asses anytime in my lifetime though.

Although I am not aware of any foods that would help (other than avoiding foods that make it worse. Stupid, delicious Orange Juice and the pain it causes me.) Depending on the food, it might be something I can swing if it's not too expensive, mind sharing?

I don't know if it works any but my grandmother always used to tell me that three cups of buttermilk in the morning would dull the acidic pain she felt all the time.

Things like milk, chalk, baking soda, some yogurts, cream of tartar (which really isn't a cream at all but a mineral)... You should be able to balance acids with watery things like lettuce or vegetables, or breads or whole grains, which will react and lower the acid content. Look for orange juice with high calcium content, for instance.

Everything you've said is just an intolerance to acidic foods. The only time I had that was pretty horrible, getting acid reflux from an orange is pretty lame.

-Crissa

chalk is calcium carbonate. THat shit causes lung trouble when ingested.

I think that by "ingested" you mean "inhaled."

In any case, calcium carbonate is a perfectly serviceable short-acting antacid.

It's usually silica dust causes lung trouble. Calcium carbonate (chalk) is just annoying when inhaled because it's hydrophilic, but it isn't sharp like silica or poisonous. Of course, it'll still going to aggravate breathing related ailments. And chalk not created for eating may be contaminated, so that's a fair point.

I have a bit of experience with breathing the stuff and related precipitates - I've lived in Black Rock City.

-Crissa

heh, yes. inhaled. Sorry. I had just finished telling a bunch of kids not to play with their sidewalk chalk in strange ways. Like in their mouth and nose. So I just took that vim, vigor, and exasperation and turned it onto Crissa without thinking too much.

Sorry, Crissa.

That's okay. That's why children are walking disease vectors.

-Crissa

A couple of easy ways to add depth to a given chili's flavor profile: don't eat it the day it is cooked, a bit of cocoa, a few ounces of espresso, and several shots of a servicable bourbon, only some of which is for the pot. A small amount of nut butter, preferably introduced as a slurry, can help tremendously with mouthfeel as well.

I have heard of adding chili powder to chocolate (my mom's recipe for chocolate cookies does this), but not adding cocoa to chili. Interesting.

aztecan chocolate milk is famous for some chilli and cinnamon. mmm. tasty.

I might have to try adding an ounce of espresso to it.

The Mexican dish, molé, is a type of chili sauce made with a base of chocolate sugar, and varies from green-tan and tangy to brown and spicy or black and sweet.

Remember, chilis and chocolate originated with the Mesoamericans. The original hot cocoa was made by grinding chocolate nibs (the inside of the dried chocolate seeds) and dried chilis and then boiling and drinking the result.

-Crissa