Rainy Day Vegetarian Chili

Tampa, Florida


In the big picture for gamblers there are some exceedingly strange things going on in the ebb and flow of money. The dollar is rising fast against other currencies. Oil is dropping like a stone. The credit, economic, equity and housing crises are reinforcing each other in ways not seen even in 1929...deflation, capitulation..what does it all mean? I really don't see an end in sight..margin calls and forced selling from mutual funds drive down equity values...DOW 3500? There was too much bad paper issued during a period of lunatic lending...the only short-term fix is to return to cheap interest and junk loans for anyone who can sign their name.

I remember reading, in 1949, at age six, about deflation. That was only 20 years after the onset of the Great Depression. To the writers of that era, deflation seemed to represent a risk greater than inflation. Nothing happened on the deflation front for the next sixty years because of the Keynesian geniuses regulating our economy. Alan Greenspan failed to commit seppuku during yesterday's Senate hearings... If he had been German, leaving him in alone in a room with a loaded Luger might have allowed him to atone in an appropriate manner.

So it rained all night last night and the courts were wet...during inclement weather I like to amuse myself by an all-day cooking project.

olive oil
1-2 large yellow onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red pepper, diced fairly large
1 green pepper, diced fairly large
2 28-oz. cans crushed tomatoes
1 T. cumin
1 tsp. cayenne (or to your taste)
1 package frozen corn
2 to 3 cans black beans (or other kinds of beans, garbanzo, kidney, northern are good)
1.5 C. picante sauce
salt to taste
grated cheddar, if desired

Saute onions in the olive oil. Add garlic a bit later. After the onion and garlic are have turned golden brown, add cumin & cayenne, and fry for a couple of minutes.

Next, add the peppers and saute them for a few minutes. Put the crushed tomatoes, corn, beans and picante sauce into the crock pot, and add the onion, pepper and garlic mixture.

Cook on low about 10 hours. Pour into a bowl, add the cheddar and serve to someone you love.

So... speaking of pictures, I have hundreds of astounding pictures of Antelope Canyon, Arizona. You go into this amazing slot canyon place on the Navajo Reservation with a Navajo guide. The guide points out the picture opportunities. You want to be there at noon on a sunny day when some sunlight filters into the slot. Our guide threw a handful of sand onto a purple cliff wall...If I had a wall of my own, I'd have this and some other of these pictures blown up...this was our second guided trip...hopefully not the last.