S Day Recipe

OK, so maybe you live where there are no Snow Days, either because you're in the North where you have the infrastructure to keep the roads clear or you're further south where the roads just don't get bad. So think of this as a Serendipity Day recipe: something you can prepare on a day when you have time, for days when you don't.

Homemade Brick Chili
This one is from a cookbook Skye's parochial school put together as a fund-raiser a few years ago.

5 lbs ground beef
2 oz water
1 Tablespoon salt
1/3 cup chili powder
30 saltine crackers, crumbled
1 Tablespoon cumin powder
2 Tablespoons oregano
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 1/2 Tablespoons paprika

In a heavy pot with a lid, cook meat, water and salt over low heat. Cook for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Add remaining ingredients, except crackers, and cook 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat and add cracker crumbs. Spread mixture in a 9x13 inch pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Chill until set, then cut into 8 "bricks." Wrap each brick and freeze.

To use:

1 can tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 small can tomato sauce plus 1 can water

Add ingredients to 2 bricks. May additional water. Salt to taste. Heat and serve.

While your big batch of chili is cooking, put together the dry ingredients for your favorite cornbread recipe. Jar and label four batches. Then when you're ready to prepare the chili from two bricks, use your homemade cornbread mix to make cornbread while your chili simmers.