Ch-ch-changing ch-ch-ch-chili …

For me chili has always been a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants sort of culinary adventure. I simply combined what looked good at the market with what happened to be in the kitchen. Simple. If I can put Old Bay in it, all the better.

Enter Marriage. Marriage shows up in the kitchen, and suddenly Marriage is going all old-school on my chili. Marriage is adding cumin. Sphinctersayswha? Cumin? Then Marriage starts adding these things called bay leaves, that look like the stuff my dead plants drop on the window sill. At first, I thought, maybe that’s what happened. However, it ends up these dried leaves are in fact edible, and make up a good portion of my favorite multi-spice, the aforementioned Old Bay. Damn. I thought it received its moniker because it smells like Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on a humid August day. I was right and wrong, technically.

Anyway, I decided to trust Marriage. Marriage hasn’t steered me wrong, so far. So, bring on the bay leaves! Cumin for everyone! More chili powder! We need more chili powder! Power to the chilies!

What we came up with, Marriage and I decided to submit to Miki & Eve’s rockin’ Super Bowl Chili Cook-Off. Our Slow-Cook Veggie Chili was honoured to share second prize (an industrial-sized tub of anti-acid tablets) with Miki’s most excellent chili entries. Deservedly, Josh won the competition. If I wasn’t so busy stuffing the ballot for our dish (kidding!), I would definitely have voted his best of the night. Well done, all.

Anyway, since part of the registration process required us to write down the ingredients that made up our chili, we submit to you (and the public domain) our family chili recipe. The cornbread recipe, however, is still top secret. [editors update: the cornbread has been released!]

Scullys’ Slow-Cook Veggie Chili