Warm Up With Some Texas Chili

Editor’s note: This is a repost of a previous entry – kinda like a warmed-up bowl of chili. 

We have done this post a few times but with cold, chilly weather gripping most of the country it seems like staying home and makin’ a big pot o’ chili is a good idea.

The classic recipe, supplied by the good folks who brew Texas’ Lone Star Beer, is available above (click the picture for a larger version).  It’s pretty simple, but here is another recipe from the Austin newspaper that is a multi-meat extravaganza.  Just for fun (and, depending where you live, for ridicule) here are some chili recipes from the Food Network. One of the recipes has spaghetti!

On that last link above, you will notice of course that some of these chili recipes contain a healthy helping of beans.  As a native Texan, it is my duty to remind you that our state’s fine lawmakers some years ago passed a law outlawing the use of beans in chili.  I can’t tell you exactly when and, ah, … OK, I just made up that last part.

Just put in the damn beans if that’s what blows up your skirt.  But don’t blame me if that’s also what blows out your skirt.  Either way, keep a window open – no matter how cold it may be outside.

More stuff about chili, with a few more tunes, here.

MP3: “The Chili Song” by Gary P. Nunn

MP3: “Snow (Hey Oh)” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

MP3: “National Chili Anthem” by Isaac Peyton Sweat

MP3: “Cold As Ice” (live) by Foreigner

MP3: “Chili Con Conga” by Cab Calloway

MP3: “Saddle Up The Palomino” by Neil Young

MP3: “You Bring The Heat, I’ll Bring The Meat” by Jonny Z and Bobby Rivera

MP3: “Crusty Rolls and Chili” by the Duhks

MP3: “Cold Cold Heart” by Hank Williams

MP3: “Millie Make Some Chili” by Steve Goodman

MP3: “White Winter Hymnal” by Fleet Foxes

MP3: “Hot Chili” by the Steve Miller Band

Chili time again!

Editor’s note: This is a repost of a previous entry – kinda like a warmed up bowl of chili. 

We have done this post a few times but with cold, chilly weather gripping most of the country it seems like staying home and makin’ a big pot o’ chili is a good idea.  And with football season in full swing, it is especially timely.

The classic recipe, supplied by the good folks who brew Texas’ Lone Star Beer, is available above (click the picture for a larger version).  It’s pretty simple, but here is another recipe from the Austin newspaper that is a multi-meat extravaganza.  Just for fun (and, depending where you live, for ridicule) here are some chili recipes from the Food Network. One of the recipes has spaghetti!

On that last link above, you will notice of course that some of these chili recipes contain a healthy helping of beans.  As a native Texan, it is my duty to remind you that our state’s fine lawmakers some years ago passed a law outlawing the use of beans in chili.  I can’t tell you exactly when and, ah, … OK, I just made up that last part.

Just put in the damn beans if that’s what blows up your skirt.  But don’t blame me if that’s also what blows out your skirt.  Either way, keep a window open – no matter how cold it may be outside.

More stuff about chili, with a few more tunes, here.

MP3: “The Chili Song” by Gary P. Nunn

MP3: “Snow (Hey Oh)” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

MP3: “National Chili Anthem” by Isaac Peyton Sweat

MP3: “Cold As Ice” (live) by Foreigner

MP3: “The Old Country Waltz” by Neil Young

MP3: “Chili Con Conga” by Cab Calloway

MP3: “You Bring The Heat, I’ll Bring The Meat” by Jonny Z and Bobby Rivera

MP3: “Crusty Rolls and Chili” by the Duhks

MP3: “Cold Cold Heart” by Hank Williams

MP3: “Millie Make Some Chili” by Steve Goodman

MP3: “White Winter Hymnal” by Fleet Foxes

MP3: “Hot Chili” by the Steve Miller Band

Fixin’ up some chili

Here come those weird days of winter, after the holidays and before the Super Bowl, where we promptly forget about our New Year’s resolutions and do just about anything to stay warm and interested.  If you live in a part of the country where it’s cold – and that’s pretty much any place except Texas or Florida – you may want to give some thought to cookin’ up a big pot o’ chili.

A number of regions lay claim to creating the humble bowl of red, but the story I’ve heard most often is that the spicy meat concoction was created by the chili queens of 1880s-era San Antonio who came up with the recipe we still use and enhance to this day.   And of course, different cooks will put different ingredients in their versions of chili.

The big argument is whether or not to add beans to chili.  Now most enlightened thinkers say no, beans take up space that more meat could better occupy.  My in-laws, who live up in New York state, swear up and down that true chili has beans in it but what do they know – they consider grilled weenies real barbecue.  I suppose you can put anything you want in chili – including turkey, pork, duck, even beans – as long as you can find someone to eat it.  Count me out! (I saw a TV movie one time, I think it had Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson in it, and although the title escapes me I will never forget what one character said: “I’d have to kill somebody who put lima beans in my chili.”  Or something like that.)

A righteous pot of chili ought to contain some sort of beef, chiles (or chili powder) and maybe some tomato sauce if you roll that way.  For years I have used the recipe you see at the top of this post (click to enlarge it), supplied on a handy post card by the Lone Star Brewing Company of San Antonio, Texas.  I am fairly sure you can buy everything the recipe requires pretty much any place in the country; if you can’t find coarse ground beef you can always slap in a pound or two of hamburger.  My daughter went off to college and now she’s on some kind of anti-beef kick; now when she’s home I gotta use ground turkey in my chili.  That works, too.

The Terlingua Chili Championship - you've been warned.

Years ago I got this book, A Bowl of Red, by Texas writer Frank X. Tolbert and that’s supposed to be the bible of chili heads nationwide.   I kind of think this guy was full of bull (or Lone Star beer) when he wrote this book, because he even sings the praises of chili made at Chasen’s restaurant in Beverly Hills for movie stars, and he talks about how great some brands of canned chili are.  Well, I am partial to Wolf Brand in a can – but with no beans!

Anyway, the followers of this Tolbert fellow (he died a while back) still operate some kind of International Chili Appreciation Society and stage cookoffs in a place called Terlingua, along the Texas-Mexico border in the middle of freakin’ nowhere.  I never was a follower of organized religion, so I really don’t know what these chili heads stand for but like those beans, you are quite welcome to explore on your own.

Chili is of course the national dish of Texas, and when you are in Austin there is one great place to get some chili.  It’s called the Texas Chili Parlor, and it’s located on Lavaca Street near the Capitol.  They have all kinds of chili and other stuff (their enchiladas are pretty tasty) and they’ll even put beans in your bowl for you while looking the other way.  If you order their super-hot XXXX chili, before they serve it you have to sign a release saying you won’t hold them responsible for a heart attack or any catastrophes in your underwear.

I like the chili over at Shady Grove too, that’s a pretty nice place.  San Antonio has a bunch of great places to get chili (try La Paloma or Casa Rio on the Riverwalk) and in Houston, well, the best chili I’ve had here is at my house.  Check out the recipe above and play some of these tunes.  Enjoy your chili, with or without beans (remember to open a window), and here’s hoping it keeps you warm this winter!

MP3: “The Chili Song” by Gary P. Nunn

MP3: “Dublin Blues” by Guy Clark

MP3: “Good Texan” by the Vaughan Brothers

MP3: “What I Like About Texas” by Jerry Jeff Walker

MP3: “National Chili Anthem” by Isaac Peyton Sweat

MP3: “The Old Country Waltz” by Neil Young

MP3: “You Bring The Heat, I’ll Bring The Meat” by Jonny Z and Bobby Rivera

MP3: “Millie Make Some Chili” by Steve Goodman

MP3: “Hot Chili” by the Steve Miller Band

Required reading:

The Saga of Terlingua and Texas Chili – from the Dallas Morning News

Frank X. Tolbert’s original Texas chili recipe

Chili Appreciation Society Inc.

Chili info at the Tabasco website

Famous Chili Recipes

Our Guide to the Essential Texas Party Albums

More than once someone has asked, “If I wanted to throw a party at my house and I wanted that Texas sound, what should I play?”  Well if your house is in Buffalo, New York, then you can play the Goo Goo Dolls and probably half the crowd would say “Yeah, that’s Texas.”  Hopefully the other half would correctly recognize the Goo Goos are a local band from Buffalo.

And unfortunately that’s sort of the situation here in Texas.  This state has many transplants who really couldn’t identify a true Texas artist outside the obvious (Willie Nelson, Dixie Chicks).  So I’m stepping up to your service, a native Texan with a working knowledge of our state’s great artists, with a collection of albums made by our native boys and girls.  And true to Texas, you can ask someone else from around here and they’ll come up with a completely different list – and want to kick the ass of the guy who came up with this one.  So let’s party and forget where you got this list:

1. Texas Tornados Live From Austin TX – Recorded for the venerable TV show “Austin City Limits” in 1990, by the supergroup featuring Doug Sahm, Freddy Fender, Augie Meyers and Flaco Jimenez.  A brilliant gumbo pot of blues, country, Tejano and rock and roll with memory-tugging versions of Fender’s “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights,” the Sir Douglas Quintet’s “She’s About A Mover” and a rollicking “96 Tears,” this single CD spans the incredible breadth of Texas music.   It’s worth the price of admission just to hear Fender sing “Baby What You Want Me To Do.”  This CD is a party all by itself.

MP3: “Who Were You Thinking Of” (live at Austin City Limits) by the Texas Tornados

2. The “Chirping” Crickets – When four Lubbock boys cut this album way back in 1957, they had no idea how much this music would transform the world.  Songs like “Oh Boy!,” “Not Fade Away” and “That’ll Be The Day” made their writer and singer Buddy Holly a star and the latter would become a hit.  This is the birth of rock and roll as we have come to know it – written and performed by members of a rock band.  In fact, the record caught the ears of four young musicians in Liverpool, and in a few more years the world would change yet again.

MP3: “Oh Boy!” by Buddy Holly & the Crickets

3. Texas Flood – Okay, we can’t get too deep into the list without name checking the late, very great Stevie Ray Vaughan.  He was perhaps no more electrifying than on his 1983 debut.  Texas Flood was instantly a success, and one of the most popular blues albums ever recorded, but Vaughan was more than a mere blues artist.  His technique and ability on the guitar instantly put him toe-to-toe with legends like Hendrix and Clapton – and since his death in 1990 virtually nobody has even come close to Stevie Ray.

MP3: “I’m Cryin'” by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

4. Honeysuckle Rose: Music From The Original Soundtrack – Yeah, it’s a soundtrack.  And yeah, it has the dreaded “On The Road Again.”   But it’s prime Willie Nelson, recorded in 1980 live as the movie was being made.  It has the hell-raising energy of Nelson’s best Texas roadhouse shows, as he and his rockin’ band charge through classics like “Whiskey River,” “Bloody Mary Morning” and the whacked-out anthem “Pick Up The Tempo.”  Guest appearances by Texas legends Hank Cochran and Kenneth Threadgill are a bonus, and I swear you won’t even notice the songs featuring better-seen-and-not-heard actresses Amy Irving and Dyan Cannon.

MP3: “Pick Up The Tempo” by Willie Nelson & Family

It’s Chili Time Again!

Now that the Thanksgiving eatin’ is done, you may want to turn your attention to making some chili – particularly if it’s cold in your part of the country.  Legend has it that the spicy meat concoction was created by the chili queens of 1880s-era San Antonio who came up with the recipe we still use and enhance to this day.   A righteous pot of chili ought to contain some sort of beef, chiles (or chili powder) and tomato sauce if you roll that way.

The big argument is whether or not to add beans to chili.  Now most enlightened thinkers say no, beans take up space that more meat could better occupy.  My in-laws, who live up in New York state, swear up and down that true chili has beans in it but what do they know – they consider grilled weenies real barbecue.  I suppose you can put anything you want in chili – including turkey, pork, duck, even beans – but don’t put any of that stuff in mine.

Years ago I got this book, A Bowl of Red, by Texas writer Frank X. Tolbert and that’s supposed to be the bible of chili heads nationwide.   I kind of think this guy was full of bull (or Lone Star beer) when he wrote this book, because he even sings the praises of chili made at Chasen’s restaurant in Beverly Hills for movie stars, and he talks about how great some brands of canned chili are.  Well, I am partial to Wolf Brand in a can – but with no beans!

Ain’t Nobody Feelin’ No Pain

Back when I had HBO I saw this movie, it was called Lost Horizon.  It was about these people, they all had some kind of hole or emptiness deep inside their lives, and they wound up in this mythical place called Shangri-La.   It wasn’t on any map, it was tough to find and in fact it may have existed only in some people’s imaginations.  If you didn’t have the right kind of attitude, the right kind of feeling in your heart, you could walk past it all your life and never find it at all.  There’s a place like that in Texas.  It’s called Luckenbach.

Luckenbach is a town that has a history and a legend.  The history is that the town started in the 1800s, and at one time it had about 400 people living there.  It’s located in Gillespie County, near Fredericksburg, about 50 miles north of San Antonio and about 70 miles west of Austin.  In the 1960s the place was for all intents and purposes a ghost town – it’s not located on any major highway and even then there were precious few road signs directing drivers to the place.

The Texas Top 10?

Austin public radio station KUT has announced that it’s determined the best songs about Texas, as voted by its listeners.  Asleep At The Wheel leader Ray Benson openly campaigned for votes on his MySpace page, so it figures that the group would be No. 1.  Here’s the list:

“Miles And Miles Of Texas” by Asleep At The Wheel

“New San Antonio Rose” by Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys

“Waltz Across Texas” by Ernest Tubb

“Deep In The Heart Of Texas” by Gene Autry

“London Homesick Blues” by Gary P. Nunn (w/Jerry Jeff Walker)

“El Paso” by Marty Robbins

“Luckenbach, Texas” by Waylon Jennings (w/Willie Nelson)

“That’s Right (You’re Not From Texas)” by Lyle Lovett

“La Grange” by ZZ Top

“Amarillo By Morning” by George Strait

Nice list, but we tend to think it leaves a little to be desired.  After the jump, we offer some of our own suggestions; they, too, are pure Texas and sound great at any weekend barbecue.

The National Beer Of Texas

 

Lone Star Beer – it’s a Texas thing.  Since the end of Prohibition, Texans have enjoyed this brew which shares the nickname of our state.   As long as I could remember, it tasted frankly like horse piss in a can.  For a long time it was brewed in San Antonio but in 1996 the company was bought out by Stroh Brewing of Detroit.  After that, you rarely saw Lone Star any more.

And it was too bad: Lone Star’s brewery in San Antonio was one of the greatest places in the world to visit.  They had exhibits featuring all kinds of exotic animals, a crazy walk-through wax museum depicting the history of Texas (complete with an Indian scalping some stupid settler) and a real cowboy bar where they gave you little cups of beer.