Some days, things just don’t go quite as expected.
Yesterday was supposed to be one of those pretty good days where the schedule was mostly clear — the ORYSO parent meeting, then a quiet afternoon at home getting ready for the week to come.
After church, we stopped at Home Depot to buy some grape vines, but instead came home with a new lawnmower. Kind of an interesting twist, but our old one is pretty much a goner, and they had a great sale.
Then, midway through the day, we got a call from friends in Michigan that they were passing through, and wanted to stop in and see us for a bit. This spurred pure panic, as our house was in no condition for company. Delta and I cleaned like fiends (Gamma was still at ORYSO practice) for an hour or so until they arrived, but there was much that couldn’t be corrected on short notice.
Like needing a new kitchen floor, or new carpets throughout the house. Or even the assortment of stuff that has accumulated on the kitchen table, that doesn’t seem to have a good place to go.
After the visit, I settled in to make the pot of chili as planned, given the cold and blustery day. As I ate my bowl (atop crumbled cornbread) it seemed a little odd somehow, but it wasn’t until Delta and HWTFM insisted that it tasted like cinnamon that I checked for what might have gone wrong.
The spice jar in the space where I keep cumin looked like cumin… but the label said "cinnamon." The jar of cumin — an identical jar — was sitting on my cutting board, as I’d failed to put it away properly at some point.
It won’t win any prizes, but I doctored up the leftovers sufficiently to cover the hint of cinnamon. A little celery salt probably would have done the trick, but I’m out.
Cinnamon chili — when nothing is quite as expected.
Strange as it seems, I’ve deliberately seasoned various meat dishes (well, not chili) with cinnamon. It’s an ingredient in many curries and middle eastern recipes.
If this ever happens again, just tell the family that it’s a new recipe you’re trying out. (You might also add some ground cloves for good measure.)
I think that cinnamon must be an ingredient in Chinese “five spice” seasoning, and I’ve used that with chicken before. Don’t recommend it for chili though — it took a lot of Tabasco and pinches of several other things to get rid of the funny taste.
After adding all the Tabasco, I was the only one who ate the leftovers.
I have actually put cinnamon in chili on purpose a couple of times. I once put way to much but the last time I used less and I really enjoyed the taste.
Cinnamon is great in Chili. I’ve even had it dining out called Cowboy Chili. I once used so much the Chili was bitter so I added a couple tablespoons of Maple Syrup (homemade from my cousins’ farm)and I won 1st place in the Chili cookoff!