Is it just me or does anyone else think it's stressful being a foodblogger? I'll use this recipe post as an example, after cooking this chili for almost four hours and liking how it looks, the time comes to pull the trigger on the meal. After all, this is whats for dinner and I have other hungry mouths to feed, but wait I have to get some pictures before the sun starts to set or everything will just look yellow and blah under the kitchen lights. I chose a small window of time to make a set for some pictures while my wife went to pick up my daughter from an after school class. Perfect I thought, I'll take the pictures and by the time they return I can just serve the food and all will be good. tummies will be full and I'll be a kitchen hero.WRONG!
I didn't take into account the screaming almost two year old who wants to eat right at that second and who followed me out to where I had set up my stage area and who didn't want to play with any of his toys in the yard. No, he just wanted to stick his finger in the middle of my cornbread just as I'm trying to focus in on some nice close up shots! Since I had only taken about three pictures I decided to put the little cornbread vandal back indoors. This was not in his plan but I'm bigger than him so I won. I went back outside to try and salvage the hole, all the while it's getting darker and I can see my pictures disappearing in a haze of dullness which no exposure setting can ever fix and then lo and behold the gardener turns up and I'm sure is looking at me like I'm either setting a place for him and he's having some nice chili before he starts on my yard or I'm just another crazy customer of his.
Either way I didn't look up and kept clicking.I scooped up the food and dived back inside much to the dismay of the gardener probably, and after explaining to the little guy that daddy is not crazy and lots of people take pictures of food I proceeded to start to serve dinner. Everyone was happy and nobody got hurt (except the cornbread).Mission accomplished.....
The cornbread was very good and I was drawn to the recipe because it had buttermilk in it. Buttermilk just cries out moist to me and it has that tangy taste to it. I will definitely use this recipe again. I also added some grated Fontina cheese to it. You can add just about any kind of hard cheese but Fontina was what was lurking in my fridge and had to be used up. Other add-ins could be chopped chillies, bacon or whole corn kernels.
The chili was excellent. Slow cooking it for that amount of time really made a difference. It became a rich thick stew consistency with great flavor. I did alter the original recipe a bit by adding bacon and substituting the water with beer. Anything with bacon and beer is going to taste amazing in my opinion and I topped it with some grated smoked cheddar. I probably wouldn't change anything about this recipe next time I make it, which will be in two days when It will accompany me to a Halloween pot luck party, It was that good! I would love to try it poured over some french fries with cheddar or even mixed in with some Frito's corn chips though!
