Winteritis

I must be suffering from winteritis!  I haven't felt like blogging or sharing my wintry days with you.....I'm sorry friends.  Lack of running or snowshoeing has left me hibernating indoors at work and at home.  The main problem this winter is the constant north or west winds that adds the bitter windchill. I'm going to think positive about the winter conditions and look forward to warmer temperatures soon.

What tastes good on a cold, cold day?  Chili, of course.  Each batch of chili we make is always different....I never use a recipe.  Today's batch consisted of our own canned tomatoes, plus several cans of crushed tomatoes with basil, herbs and garlic, onions, carrots, black beans and pork loin.  Then I seasoned the chili with Penzey's chili 3000, red chili powder, cumin, salt & pepper.  And don't forget the Epazote!

Epazote is a weed (herb) grown in Mexico, Central & South America.  Supposedly, adding this dried herb to your chili recipe will help to relieve the flatulence-symptoms associated with eating lots of beans!  It's also used in many Mexican recipes such as enchiladas, quesadillias, sopes and tamales.   If you do some reading on Wikipedia about Epazote, you'll find some very interesting findings about this interesting weed.  So, I'm testing this out to see if my chili with black beans will be less gassy.  

Another -20 degrees below zero tonight.  My vehicle is once again plugged in so the block heater will keep my car engine warm for tomorrow's early morning start-up.  Thank heavens for block heaters.