Our Favorite Chili with Buttermilk Cornbread

One day last week, we were told we could expect freezing temps and 4-6 inches of snow overnight. Wow, that's a lot of snow in the Willamette Valley considering we are still in the middle of November. We live on a mountain so we get even more snow up here. We decided with the cold weather and snow that chili would be a great choice. I started paging through my 3-ring binders, where I keep with recipes I have made. I found this recipe back in 2002 and made it several times. It has been several years since I made it and it looked like the perfect chili for a super cold day and evening to come. We were leaving the house for the afternoon so we decided to put it in the slow cooker so it would be ready when we got home. Between the two of us, we had the chili put together in about 30 minutes. Most things take less time when there are four hands instead of two! Plus, my dear hubby insists on doing all the clean up. Yes....!!!

This recipe is certainly not hard to make but it does have 19 ingredients so it does take a little time for one person. I pull all the ingredients and line them up in order on my counter and add them one at a time when needed. This speeds up the process and it also gives me a chance to double check that I haven't left out any ingredients.

Since we were leaving the house, we warmed the chili to a simmer and then poured it into the warm slow cooker. We waited until the bubbles started appearing along the edges and then turned it down to low until we got home, about 3 hours. I had never finished it off in the slow cooker before but it worked out just fine and I will do it again! Here is the recipe:

What's better with chili than cornbread! I had made this cornbread recipe for the first time a few weeks ago. It was the best we remembered ever making. It seemed like the perfect match for this chili. Here is the recipe:

Some of our favorite chili toppings are fresh avocado, fresh chopped tomatoes, green onions, grated cheese, sour cream and crumbled corn chips for a little crunch.

For the cornbread, nothing makes it better than a pat of butter and a drizzle of blackberry honey. Yum!

That was more than a drizzle of honey. That was more like a river of honey! The honey container doesn't have a pour spout so it is a little tricky to "drizzle!" I will tell you what I learned about honey another time.

Since there's only the two of us, we like to put half of a recipe in the freezer for another meal or two another time. 


Enjoy!

P.S. My pictures aren't the best right now. My camera needs a tune-up so all my blog pictures are coming from my iPhone.