Chili Con Canne Wanderlusting With the Whalers

At least once a week someone comes up to me and says "Tender, dude, how do you do it? How do you find time to cook these dishes? I'm just too busy." I usually reply with something along the lines of "Do you have hands? Can you work a can opener? Then you can cook." Sure, there are times where I throw down crazy dishes that take hours to cook (like tonight, working on hour three) and I have to go online to find the new episode of the Real Houswives of Texarkana because I couldn't catch it live. Chili Con Canne is not one of those recipes. Just put the ingredients in a pot and forget about it. Literally. Chili Con Canne is another mistake that went terribly, terribly right.

Chili Con Canne

(printable version)

-3 potatoes, cubed

-olive oil

-onion, chopped

-3 cloves of garlic, minced

-28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

-2 cans Lentil Stew

-1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

-1 1/2 cups frozen corn

-2 tsp. cinnamon

-1 1/2 tsp. cumin

-1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

1. Boil the potatoes until semi soft, about ten minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.

2. Heat oil in a sauce pan. Add the onion and saute until translucent, about three minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.

3. Stir in the potatoes, tomatoes, soup, black beans, cinnamon, cumin and red pepper flakes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring stew to a simmer, reduce heat to medium low, and cook for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally to make sure that it doesn't stick.

4. Add the corn and cook for an additional two minutes. Serve at once.

During the twenty minutes that this Chili cooks, explore the world in the form of Austin's Whalers. These guys have a great new EP, How the Ship Went Down, that features a number of songs that I can't stop listening too. These include "That Rabbit" (chilly as a cave sing-a-long) and "Sunsets Suck" (like a transient insomnia laced two step). Deal out the dollars and get yourself a copy (or visit IRC for a few free tracks).