Holiday Chilli!

I was never a big fan of meat and haven't ever been a red meat eater. This meant that growing up, generally there was some separate meal made for me. So when I became a vegetarian, I didn't think it would be all that big a deal for my family. Turns out removing chicken (and occassionally ham and turkey) from my diet really threw them a curve ball. I found this most perplexing, as I wasn't having any troubles cooking meat-free meals for myself. For awhile at my Dad's house my vegetarianism was met with veggie dogs, and on one particularly memorable Thanksgiving, an unopened can of kidney beans.

Being handed an unopened can of beans and told to make myself something, minutes before the extended family all sat down to an ellaborate dinner that the entire kitchen facilities were occupied to make, was a wake up call that they weren't going to get this vegetarian cooking business without some direction. So from my vegetarian cook book I picked out a chilli that looked quite yummy and handed over the recipe to my Dad.

From then on, any sort of big family get together was accompanied by this chilli. For years this chilli was synonymous with Christmas for me. It's a yummy chilli, but I don't think many other people integrated it into their holiday dinner experiece. I wonder if they still make it now that I've moved overseas? I'll have to ask.

I'm a bit embarassed to admit that although I've eatten this chilli many, many times, I had never made it before. Not once, in my thus far 6 years of vegetarianism have I actually prepared this chilli for myself! Not even when faced with celebrating Christmas without my family (though, chilli isn't really a summer dish). So finally, FINALLY, today I cooked up some holiday chilli! The result?

Delicious! It's cooked quite slowly, so takes a long time to make. But the preparation time was not nearly as consuming as I imagined it to be (probably because I just used canned beans instead of dried ones like my Dad). And for my efforts I've got 4 delicious chilli meals to look forward to - or 3, since I had it for dinner tonight. I'm going to have to stop cooking and start using up all this food that I've made! Our freezer is getting pretty full!

And on a totally unrelated note...

I know how I'd react if I came across 2 or more people fighting, having had the opportunity to witness a stabbing last summer (and even though I said 911 I dialed 000). But what do you do when you encounter a gang of rainbow lorikeets trying to rip each other's throats out?

Maybe they were mating? (Maybe it's almost spring?? Please??) It's often hard to tell, I think, with most creatures, if their intents are reproductive or violent. It makes me glad I'm gay!