Everyday Chili

This is quick, serviceable, cheap, relatively nutritious, and most children will eat it if you don’t overdo the spice.

Serves 4

Yellow onion, chopped (leave out if you don’t feel like dealing with it)

1 pound hamburger (hers would not have been very lean)

Copious amounts of chili powder (it’s really hard to overdo it with old-fashioned chili powder, it’s not very spicy. Can also use pre-fab chili seasonings, which will probably improve the flavor.)

1 28-oz can whole tomatoes (virtually any kind of tomatoes except ones with basil or some damn thing)

1 15-oz can kidney beans

1 or 2 cups water

Sautee the onion in a little butter or, more likely, margarine, until translucent. It would be better to remove the onion from the pan and add it back in at the end but I doubt that was SueG’s way. Add to it roughly one pound of hamburger, cook till all the pink is gone. Drain off the excess fat (using a handheld sieve that marries up to the side of the pan like ours, if you have one). Dump in a huge amount of chili powder and salt and pepper. (In those days one could not buy pre-fab seasoning packets for chili so one made do with chili powder, which is much more tasteless than you would think. SueG appreciated the taste of things so she used a lot.)

Add the tomatoes, not drained, and break up with the back of a spoon if necessary. Add the beans, drained. Add a cup or two of water. Heat through. Serve with oyster crackers. (We used to drag them in margarine before popping them in our mouths. Why was margarine so prevalent then?) Corn bread, made from two blue-and-white Jiffy boxes in a loaf pan, is also a good addition.