"Cooking is therapy for me. Now I'm going to have to have therapy from cooking." -Coolio (yes the rapper)

Never thought the day would come when I quoted Coolio in my blog, but I was watching Celebrity Cookoff this weekend and yes Coolio is a contestant and honestly he actually knows how to cook. And even better he has a cookbook called Cookin' with Coolio....and I do not own it but my curiosity may get the better of me and I may have to purchase it. Or at least try to find one of his recipes on-line and see what this Coolio is all about in the kitchen. Yes, this is from the girl who also purchased and read the Snooki book and surprisingly it was horrible. I know you are all gasping in surprise, right!!! I know you all thought it was going to be a work of literary brilliance but alas it was not and that was time I wil never get back...sigh.

So I have been a little under the weather and come to find out its hard to cook when you can't really smell or taste...ahhh the joys of a cold. However, since this is day 2 of laying on the couch I decided I had to do something at least slightly productive and I thought to myself hmmm what can I taste? So I decided spicy food would be my best bet and since I don't have a ton of energy I opted for a crock pot chili recipe. This recipe for Texas Chile is from Food Network and you know me I buy all of the ingredients without reading the recipe.

So I am browning the meat before it goes in the crock pot, chopping my onion and dicing my garlic. I start to saute my onions all fat, dumb and happy and then the recipe says I need to add cumin, garlic and chile powder....well this is where my panic sets in. The recipe calls for 3/4 cup of chile powder...and I start sweating profusely at the very thought of that much chile powder. I triple check the recipe, pull it up on-line to verify the book doesn't have a typo and low and behold the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of chile powder. My contemplation then begins...should I put less in the recipe? Should I just go for it? Should I just panic and sit on the floor and cry? Well I opted for lets go for it...hell Food Network knows their food, right?



I pull out the measuring cup and dump the chile powder into the measuring cup and 3/4 cup of chile powder even looks worse in a measuring cup then it sounds in the recipe. So I close my eyes and dump it into the pan and then quickly add the diced tomatoes and water to try and hide the immensity of the chile powder. Turn on the crock pot, cross my fingers and let my chile cook for 7 hours....hoping that the chile powder doesn't burn off my taste buds.


So the chile powder doesn't quite burn my taste buds off but this is one spicy chile. This is not for those individuals who do not like spicy food. The sour cream is definitely a welcome component and serving this chile with beer is also recommended. However, overall yes the chile is spicy no doubt about it but it is very flavorful. It has a nutty flavor from the chile powder and cumin and since the meat has been cooking for 7 hours it truly melts in your mouth. The flavors are really robust and this is a great comfort food recipe.