Meadowlark Chili v 1.0

There is a meadowlark on the Beaudry Park sign. I made this chili after deciding not to paddle in the early winter ice floes on the Assiniboine River on sunny, windy day in November. I started with someone else’s recipe, but I changed so much that I can report this as my own experiment that turned out well. I would change a few things so don’t follow each step unless you have read through to the end. On the question of spices, you may want it hotter or less spicy.

I made it in a 5 quart dutch oven. It is heavy on the tomatoes, light on the beans, spiced for flavour rather than for raw burning power. The quantities filled the pot. I was cooking with a view to freezing some for quick meals later. I served Claire (not yet a vegan) and myself and had enough leftovers to fill 4 25 oz (750 ml) plastic containers. I would say this should be enough, with chips and bread on the side, to make 8-10 hearty servings or perhaps a dozen smaller servings.

I used:

  • 2 large onions,
  • 1 large red bell pepper,
  • 1 large green bell pepper,
  • 2 jalapeno peppers,
  • 6 medium-large cloves of garlic.

I chopped the onion and the bell peppers into smallish pieces – under an inch. I think I could have cut the onions and bell peppers smaller, down to chunks the size of kidney beans, but the idea is to make the pieces small, not necessarily to dice it fine. I minced the garlic and chopped the jalapeno peppers finely.

I heated some canola oil in the dutch oven and began to sauté the fresh vegetables. I gave it a couple of minutes before adding the meat. I used:
1 pound (400 grams) of ground pork, and 1 pound (400 grams) of lean ground beef. I had to stir this a lot to get all the meat down on the bottom, and to keep breaking up the meat into smaller chunks. After the meat was browned and broken up, and onions were soft. I deglazed with most of a can of beer, and added two 28 ounce cans of diced tomatoes. I added spices and flavour ingredients:

  • 4 teaspoons store-bought chili powder
  • a shot of tequila;
  • 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper;
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
  • 1/4 teaspoon of ground cayenne
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce;

I simmered for about 45 minutes – before adding beans. I added a 28 oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained, and kept simmering until I had reduced the liquid down to a thick soup. I added a cup or a cup and half of fresh mushrooms washed and sliced.

I served it with grated cheese, tortilla chips and some bread to sop up the juices.

I found this to be juicy , and it needed a long time simmering to reduce the liquid. I would probably do a couple things differently. I think a can of beer – about a cup and a half was too much, and I would use a little less than a cup. The diced tomatoes have a lot of juice. Two cans made about 7 cups. I might use one large can, or one large and one smaller (the 12 or 14 oz size. I might use two cans whole tomatoes and chop them by hand, or fresh tomatoes – maybe 4 cups. I think I could use a medium can of tomato sauce instead of one of the cans of diced tomatoes. I think it needs to be juicy at the beginning.

I would use more beans. I would probably add a 24 or 28 oz can of red kidney beans, rinsed and drained, at the same stage I added the black beans. I think the mushrooms were optional. I could use less, especially if there were more beans. They don’t need to cook that long so they can go in much later than the rest of the ingrediants.

Paddling in November

The short story is that I didn’t put my boat in the water.
Earlier in the week, the river was open. Ice was forming on ponds and potholes, but the river had been open. The days had been warm, with temperatures well above freezing. I thought I would take my kayak to Beaudry Park, west of Headingley and paddle on the Assiniboine.
I crossed the Assiniboine on Maryland, and glimpsed the river as I drove towards Assiniboine Park on Wellington Crescent. I saw a lot of floating ice. It appeared to be a couple inches thick, in flows from three to six or seven feet across. It seems to have formed along the shoreline at night, and broken up in the current. I thought it was collecting on shallow outside bends, I hoped that it might be more clear where the river ran straigher although I knew the prevailing overnight weather had been much the same across south-central Manitoba.
The ice was being swept close to shore at Beaudry Park. There is a little put-in in Headingley, but it was on a shaded shore and there was ice standing out from the shore. There was a lot of ice moving in the river. I decided that I did not want to try this. Most of my paddling has been on a lake in the summer. I have paddled in strong wind and waves, but I have not paddled in a current, or in ice, and I thought this was not a day to learn alone. Those flows weighed as much as my boat, and they were travelling with the current and wind.
I went home, checked recipes, and cooked a pot of chili.

In the woods

I spent the last couple of days with my brother in the woods, hunting deer. We used to go with our dad, but he decided his time had passed a couple of years ago.
We drive to Russell, a small community on the Yellowhead highway near the border of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. We stay in a hotel, get up about 3 hours before sunrise, and drive to a PFRA community pasture, on the west bank of the Assiniboine River. The terrain is a mixture of sand hills and prairies, with large areas of poplar scrub and some swamps where the water is trapped by ridges. The colours are largely brown, dun, grey. There are a few faded green leaves.

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Halloween and after

The leaves are down, there are frequent frosty nights, sunset is about 5:00 PM and it’s dark by 5:30 PM as we have rolled the clocks back from Daylight Savings time. The weather turned cool, with many rainy days after Thanksgiving, which restricted our evening rides. We have managed to keep up one good ride on the weekends, until today. Mike, Steve and I rode to Bird’s Hill last Sunday morning (Halloween), and returned into a stiff cold breeze. Mike and I rode through Woodhaven and St. Charles on Friday afternoon (Nov. 5), so we have managed to ride in every month from March through November this year. Mike had not posted the most recent rides on Bike with Mike when I composed this post due to technical problems with his server but I think he will fix that.
We had planned a ride yesterday afternoon (Nov. 6), but cancelled under the threat of showers and flurries. It’s a cold sunny day today. I would ride, but I am packing for a hunting trip. If it doesn’t snow too much and the temperatures don’t fall too far below the freezing mark, we should manage a few more rides this fall.

Edge of Winter

For about 10 days before Thankgiving, the weather was warm and generally dry. We were still wearing shorts, T-shirts and light shells on most of our rides. During the week before Thanksgiving we rode Tuesday and Wednesday evening, and Friday afternoon.
The Friday afternoon ride (October 8) was interesting. We rode to Bird’s Hill, into the wind. Crossing the Perimeter Highway at Gateway was a little scary because the traffic is heavy and fast. We stopped at Sobey’s in Bird’s Hill and bought a snack. (There is something obscenely hilarious about me eating a banana in a croissant). On the return trip Mike’s handlebar broke as we were crossing the Perimeter. He was using his old bike because his bike was in the shop for repairs and a tune-up.

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Last Days of Summer

We have had a few days of sunshine and moderately warm temperatures, with deep blue skies, streaked with a few high wispy cirrus clouds. The geese are flying between waterlogged fields, rivers and creeks, retention ponds and assorted bodies of water. The leaves on many trees have turned colour and started to fall. It’s generally warm enough to ride in shorts and short-sleeved shirts or light shells although it gets cool as the sun goes down. It gets dark by 7:30 PM, and my friends and I have taken measures to get an early start for our rides during the work week.
Mike and I had good rides on Friday afternoon, Sunday morning, and yesterday (Tuesday) evening. On Friday we rode the familiar route to the Grace Hospital via Assiniboine Park and the Moray bridge. Yesterday we took the Harte trail to the Perimeter, dodging a few mud puddles on the trail, and driving through clouds of tiny midges and flies that appeared in the evening light. Sunday morning was a glorious ride across East Kildonan to Bird’s Hill, a cross Highway 59 and out into country east of Birds Hill, by gravel roads along the Floodway. He came back into the City in Transcona and across the City back to the Forks.
I am hoping for a several more weeks of clear warm weather, followed by a quick transition to winter with real snow for skiing. I can hope.

Active Life

I have set up a new archive category called “Active Life” which will hold posts about health and fitness, with posts about specific activities – cycling, cross-country skiing, hiking, camping, and hunting falling into their own sub-categories. I changed my cycling category “Two Wheels Good” to a subcategory under “Active Life”.
I am not sure where this is going. It’s a blog and it will be about what I do. It will not necessarily say much about technique and gear, but I may mention the infrastructure of fitness.

Fall Riding

At this time of the year, the light becomes dim by 8:00 and it’s dark by 8:15 PM. The leaves have started to turn colour and fall. It has been a rainy and cold summer. So far, we have managed to keep up our rides in the evening and we have not have to resort to our cycling tights and cold weather headgear, but the MEC shells have been useful. We started our rides at 6:30 PM during the summer, and we have rolled that back to 6:15 as the days have become shorter.

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2000 Kilometers

Mike and Steve both passed 2000 kilometers this past week or weekend, counting back to March. As I write this, Mike has logged 2057 after July 17, and he rode 80 kilometers on our trip to St. Francis on Sunday July 18.
I haven’t been tracking my mileage. I am probably 150 to 200 less than Mike at this point. He put in a century ride with Steve last weekend (July 11) when I was at the folk festival, and a series if short rides to work and with his neighbour. That still means I am approaching 2000 K if I haven’t also reached it.
The weather has been cool this spring, and we have cancelled planned rides due to rain. We began to get hot summer mornings a few weeks ago. It was hot and humid on Sunday July 18 and we turned around at St. Francis. We had found a favourable wind after we reached the White Horse at the intersection of Highway 26 and the Transcanada and were tempted to push on but we knew we would then have to deal with the wind all the way back to the Transcanada, and then with a cross wind most of the way home.
We weren’t sure how we might feel if we did the extra mileage for a century in the heat.
We seem to be in better shape this year. We aren’t necessarily riding greater distances although we have started getting 100 K days when we used to regard 60 to 75 K as a long ride. Mainly we are riding harder and faster. We find that a wind or 15 to 25 K is normal for prairie riding and we try to ride into the wind on the outbound leg of the journey. We are finding that our average speeds as calculated by our cycling computers are in the twenties instead of the teens. Those averages include low speeds at intersections. On the open road we seem to sustain speeds of 24-27 kph with crosswinds and moderate adverse winds, and 30 K with light favourable winds.
It isn’t the speed that the riders on the Tour de France are getting but we don’t see too many guys our age passing us any more.

Highway 26 – a Metric Century

Yesterday, Sunday June 27, Mike and I tried a new route. We rode to St. Francis Xavier and along Highway 26. I have pictures but I haven’t taken the time to take them off the camera and post them. Later. Not today. It’s election day and I am working for a campaign. Check again in a couple days for blue sky and green fields shimmering in the summer sun.

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