Taking a Break

Another great sleep in the bank to start the day off right. I had told my mother I would check out the deals on boat accoutrement at Canadian Tire but I was in a more relaxed state of mind to start the day. I made a leisurely breakfast of perogies and bacon. The real highlight of the experience today was the sauce. I don’t always use a dip or sauce with my perogies but in this case I happened across one I felt could be interesting.

It was superb. A nice creamy coating like the traditional sour cream but with the familiar ranch flavourings and the pleasant bite of srirachi. I put on a film to view while eating my perogy pile. It was time well spent, when it was done and cleaned up I decided it was time to get back after my novel. I had started Sword of Destiny in the Witcher series but had laid it aside for several weeks now. Predictably, about fifteen minutes in I passed out completely. When I woke, I had a missed call from Ron Ronkman. We chatted about routers, Google Home and streaming on Twitch after the initial pleasantries we’re behind us. I took up the novel once more but soon recalled I’d planned to take the maiden voyage on the slow cooker function of my Instant Pot DUO Plus. I assume the duo aspect is pressure cooker and slow cooker. I combined all the ingredients and got it running and sat down to watch the film Driven. It was entertaining and another one that was based on actual events. My goals for the day included working on my quarterly YouTube compilation and laundry so I set about those two tasks. I was checking the chili all afternoon and starting to fret. It wasn’t cooking as I’d imagined. It also tasted more bland than I’m comfortable with. I adjusted the spice level and eventually figured out how to adjust the temperature. The celery still had some bite to it in the end but the end product was very nice.

The process started with me browning and draining my ground beef. I then dumped a can of whole tomatoes in the pan and squashed them with a wooden spoon, adding some onion salt to the mixture. Adding a couple teaspoons of tomato paste and bringing to a simmer, I set about draining and rinsing the black beans, kidney beans, and six bean medley. I dumped it all in the Instant Pot with some tomato sauce, red pepper flakes and chili powder. I kept coming back every 20-30 minutes to stir it up. The top up of chili powder toward the end was crucial. It sports excellent latent heat. Nothing aggressive to be sure. I’m excited to use the leftovers in other dishes this week. Fibre levels will be skyrocketing. The video is nearly done, watch for it tomorrow. I’ll be having a group chat, movie viewing later this evening or I’d have it for you before bed.