Regardless of world events, this has been a very weird week. As I’m writing this Sunday morning, it’s 40 degrees and raining. However, just four days prior, it was minus 3 degrees with three inches of snow on the ground and the wind was howling.
We’d just posted about the unusual spring-like weather, when an arctic cold front dropped onto Central Oregon. With it came freezing temps and snow. Mostly we just stayed home, sat by the fire, and caught up on our reading. So there’s nothing to post about, sorry.
We do want to share this image of chili getting canned as part of an ongoing winter canning project. We started making soups for Saturday dinner and that evolved into a canning project. Mostly . . . we wanted to get away from commercially canned soups that have shot up in price, have way too much salt, and are actually getting harder to find. Once you have the soup cooked it’s not that hard to load a few pints into the canner.
Over a steamy hot bowl of “Wendy’s Copycat Chili” we are planning next week’s adventures. There is rain forecast, but we’ve got some road trips mapped out. Enjoy your week!
Wendy's Copycat Chili
Equipment
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 29 oz tomato sauce one large can
- 29 oz kidney beans 2 cans (15 oz)
- 29 oz black beans 2 cans (15 oz)
- 1 cup onions, diced 1 medium
- ½ cup diced green chili 1 small can
- ¼ cup celery, diced 1 stalk
- 3 med fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 2 tsp cumin
- 3 Tbsp chili powder Gephardts is our fave
- 1 ½ tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 cups water
Instructions
- Brown the ground beef over medium heat, drain off the fat.
- Using a fork, crumble the cooked beef into pea size pieces (a potato masher works too)
- In large pot, combine beef, plus all remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer over low heat.
- Cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2-3 hours.
Canning
- As the chili simmers, prep your pressure canner and warm 6* pint jars and lids
- After cooking for 2 hours, ladle chili into jars, clean rims with vinegar, set lids and screw on canning rings finger tight. Place canner lid and vent steam for 10 minutes. Bring pressure to 10 psi and hold for 75 minutes. Allow to cool naturally, remove jars, and let sit for 12 to 24 hours.
- * If you don't plan to have a meal from this recipe, you can get 7 pints from a batch.
The chili sounds yummy!
It is … and you could cut the recipe in half and have a meal if you don’t want to freeze or can extra.