Barrack’s Cooking: One Pot Wonder Chili!

I wish that I had done this a week ago, in time for the Super Bowl. Chili just seems like one of those football party foods. But I ordered a pizza instead.

Chili is one of those comfort foods that embraces our soul and warms us up from the inside. It’s one of those things, like meatloaf, where everybody has their own tradition for preparing it. For some, it can be particularly comforting for those who are away from home and don’t have any family around, as it reminds us of memories cooking in the kitchen with loved ones or having a family party.

 

Barrack’s Cooking: Coconut Curried Beef Braise

I haven’t been shy about my love for the crock pot. The slow cooker is one of many highly used tools in my kitchen arsenal that I find an absolute pleasure to use. There’s something about slow cooking that appeals to me. Our society places way too much priority on work, money, careers, social media, any media, that we often put food on the back burner. Many cultures celebrate food daily and center their culture, families, and social interactions around food. American culture views food as a means of sustainment and rarely anything more than that, save for around the holidays.

Which is why I love Slow Food. Slow Food is a movement that was started in Italy and has made its way over to the US. As a whole, slow food celebrates the process of bringing food from the farm to the kitchen to the table. It’s a bit of a grass roots movement to get people involved in their food and close the gap that people have when associating the food they eat with actual ingredients. For me, though, Slow Food is more about a cooking process that involves putting time and love in so one appreciates the flavors as much as they appreciate the effort they put into their food.