This morning I read a post from a friend that was making a pot of chili. You have to know that a good bowl of chili is one of my favorite comfort foods, so my ears perked up--or is that my eyes perked up, since I was reading it?--anyway, I read her recipe. Yumm! I can make a taste-of-home-pot-of-chili here!
Large stock pot (Got it!-- I brought several good pans with me in a suitcase)"brown 2 lbs of ground chuck"(my taste buds almost started salivating. My beef comes in hunks that I watch them cut off the back quarter, or hanging side of beef at the open air market, and is so lean that I have to add oil or water to cook it well. In Home Economics class all those years ago, they called that 'moist heat methods for less tender cuts' )
"with 2 diced onions" (easy-- they are abundant here)
"Worchestershire sauce, and cumin" (yep I have those too
!)"...and drain the grease". (or NOT!)
"Add...tomatoes, and ..tomato paste". We can get large cans of extra thick tomato paste here, as it is a staple in many Malian sauces. The ladies buy it at market, a few tablespoons spooned from the vendor's gallon-sized can into a piece of plastic bag, enough to flavor a large pot of sauce. It is not the several cups that we use to make spaghetti sauce, or chili. And cans of diced tomatoes cost 3 times what I paid for them at home (6 times what I paid at BB's LOL:)) Remembering that the average Malian earns in a week less than most of you make in an hour of work, you understand that canned tomatoes are NOT on their shopping list.
"Add 2 cans of kidney beans"--(mine will be dried beans, soaked and cooked the old fashioned way. I will buy my choice of beans from perhaps 8 or 10 varieties displayed in open bags at one of the stands at market. They will then need to be picked over, to remove stones and other bits of the plant, before that are washed, soaked overnight and cooked. Not quite as simple as opening a can or two, but Hey!..>..>>..Pot of Chili!!)
..and simmer another hour, watching that it does not scorch or burn." Thats the same around the world! So is the "sit down and Enjoy with family and friends" part.
We'll be enjoying chili later this week, after I get to market again. We will also be intentionally naming out our blessings and thanking the God of all grace and mercy for His abundance in our lives. I encourage you to do the same.
I thought about how blessed we are in many ways. Beef is cheaper here than chicken, but the average Malian gets very little of either, while we can afford to buy as much as we want. The beef is very lean, as it is fed on what grass is available in sparse pastures,so it is also healthier for us. (THere was a reason that God said to His people that they were not to eat the fat!)
