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Joined 6 months ago
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Cake day: December 30th, 2023

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  • So the original 'chili Queens" who brought chili con carne to Texas sometimes added beans. It was often used as a topping for tamales. If you go back further, pretty much as far as you can go on this particular subject, the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans all had precursor dishes that were meat, peppers, spices, and beans. Delicious proto chili!

    Beans have been a part of chili since the beginning. You can’t add them for a lot of competitions, but that doesn’t make the off-competition stuff any less authentic. Central Texas gets weird about it, but they get weird about a lot of shit. They’re the ones who took the recipe from tejanas and removed the beans in the first place.

    That being said, I prefer a chili with no beans. You can skip the rest of this comment because it’s just a guy who is now reminiscing about chili past and thinking of chili future.

    I will take a bunch of peppers I’ve grown (usually super hot, but I have some guajillos and jalapenos in the mix this year) and smoke them, yellow onion, garlic, beer, cayenne, masa harina, strong coffee, a collection of spices to make my own chili powder (not a secret, I just don’t have my recipe card in front of me…it heavily features smoked paprika and cumin), a little homemade adobo sauce, homemade bacon, and whatever leftover beef I have (usually brisket, sometimes chuck, and around the holidays rib roast) cut into little cubes and cooked up. I don’t think I’ve made chili with beef that wasn’t leftovers for a couple of decades.

    It takes probably half an hour of work, then half a day of simmering stirring very occasionally, then mix in the masa harina 15 or 20 minutes before you’re ready to serve.










  • I hate to say it, but Amazon Handmade is the only one stop shop I’ve found that can compete so far. I’m hoping that changes soon.

    Depending on what you want there are specific marketplaces dealing in it. Aftcra tried to do American handcrafted stuff but they closed down recently. Most of the places are just T-shirt or other textile printing on demand or they give you the tools to make your own storefront without the cohesive “search everything we’ve got” format of Etsy.

    That’s what I’ve found, which means I could be way the fuck off base because I’m just a drunk and I’m not passionate about handmade goods unless I happen to run across them locally.




  • I’m not a sports guy but I can agree with this. I’m active (rock climbing and part time work on a ranch) but I don’t personally enjoy doing or watching sports. No hate, it’s just not for me.

    That being said, I’m totally with you on the community aspect. I will go watch pretty much any sports live and I get way into it. It’s less about the game and more about the people around you. I like going and watching both the Astros and the Texans play occasionally and I know nothing about the players or the standings of either.

    I’m really sad we don’t have a hockey team. I don’t care about hockey but my intensity in the stands works really well with hockey.