Sweet Jumpin' Chili Beans! And A Revelation.

Cooking Adventure: Black Bean & Chocolate Chili

Source: Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates*
The Bellydance Soundtrack: Lela by James Brown & Featuring Hakim

Prep Time: 20 min.

Cook Time:25-30min.

*A thank you to Carolyn over at Eat Well. Live Well. Be Well. for posting the recipe as well. I went and returned the library book before remembering to copy down the recipe. Not only that, but I had a vegetarian friend coming for dinner last weekend and was really needing the chili directions quick. Thanks, Carolyn for saving my butt twice. :)

"I am not required to write about magick."

This was my mantra this morning for a good while. For a long time now I think I've falsely led myself to believe that just because I'm Wiccan and I run a blog, I need to be jumping into magickal writing. You know. Sharing spells. Exploring the deeper meaning of tarot cards. Dream interpretation. Psychically communing with the spirits of the dinosaurs. Well, not that last one...yet. I suppose that was what Chocolate Month was an attempt to do - an attempt to find the spiritual blogger in myself. Yet, while I appreciate and admire the bloggers who do have the dedication and insight to do this, I just can't keep it up.

My spirituality has been and always will be in the things that I do. I may not bless my ingredients before I cook, or consecrate my crochet hooks. And I may not come up with spells that often. And I may have a really bad habit of forgetting the full moon every single time until one or two nights after. But damn it, I don't really care. Pagans all have their own way of worshiping (Hence why public rituals seem to run on hippie drum circle time: "You know, man. It will all just come together when people show up."). My way of worship is in my cooking, my dancing and my crafting. I don't need rhyming or correspondences to do them, I just go with my instincts. And with this recipe, my instincts told me that if chocolate tastes good, and chili tastes good, then together they must be magickally delicious! ...Okay, I'm groaning with all of you on that one.

I will finish chocolate month because my mom never let me quit anything and that behavior has been drilled into my skull for good("But Mom, I don't want to go to Jessica's party! I didn't know it would be a Mary Kay party & they're going to make me do glamor shots! I'll have to wear a dress and I'll be covered in gobs of hair spray!" Three days later I was the prettiest, most flammable 10 year-old on the block.). So for those of you who enjoy keeping up with the insanity: expect much more to come. And for those of you who do have magickal blogs: know that I love you and that I steal your ideas all the time for personal use. :)

Meanwhile, enjoy the food for the day! This is extremely easy to make and has been husband approved for your convenience. Wo0t for the power of chocolate and love apples!

Ingredients

2 T. vegetable oil
1 1/2 c. chopped onions
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
1 small fresh chile, minced
1 T. ground cumin
2 t. dried oregano
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
1 t. ground coriander
1/2 t. ground black pepper
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 c. chopped bell peppers
3 c. cooked or canned black beans
2 c. undrained crushed canned tomatoes
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1 T. soy sauce
1 1/2 oz semi-sweet chocolate, broken into small pieces
chopped scallions

Directions:
1. In a saucepan, warm the oil on medium heat. Add the onions ad garlic and saute until the onions become translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the celery and chil, cover, and cook for about 5 minutes.e
2. Reduce the heat and stir in the spices and bell peppers. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, until the bell peppers begin to soften. Stir occasionally to keep the spices from burning. If needed, add a little juice from the canned tomatoes.
3. Add the black beans, tomatoes, lemon juice and soy sauce. Bring the chili to a simmer, cover, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in the chocolate. When it is melted, adjust the salt, black pepper and lemon juice to taste.
4. Garnish with chopped scallions.

A Wisconsinite Embraces the Element of Fire

 

It is snowing buckets outside and I have once again joined the hamsters in mock hibernation. And I have to say that I envy the little guys being as bundled up as they are in their cage. Were my body equipped with expandable cheek pouches, I might also scour the apartment for nesting material. I can see the surprised look on my husband's face now as he would slosh in the door from work to find me buried several layers deep in a fibrous castle three times my size. He would dig through the sheets only to find me munching on the pizza I had ferreted away somewhere near the tumor of pillows and stuffed animals.

I'm not exactly sure what it is about Wisconsin winters that allows me to speak so carefree about them during the off-season. Perhaps it's some type of temporary memory loss attributable to the warm summer sun that causes my head to swell and my mouth to spread into a grin in the face of  snow  fearing southerners. Well folks, that grin has hardened into the firm and determined stare of a human trying desperately to survive the colder and typically less colorful months (The gray background on the photo collage above? That was the sky today.). 

Most of December was spent pacing the edges of the apartment, hunched over and rubbing my shoulders. I also may have depleted the water supply of the Eastern dolomite aquifer with the amount of "necessary" bubble baths I've taken over the past two weeks. In addition, I've had to make the choice between cold, and warming my feet in slippers that so desperately need to be replaced that the worn insides give my feet a nice pickled beet and wet dog scent. ...It's been smelly around the apartment lately. All of these strategies have been put into place because the fire element is literally a hot commodity around here. Mostly so for the electric company, who likes to find out just how much we love our internal body temperatures by doubling our December bill.

This, mixed with my stubborn conviction to get healthy, has driven me to the gym at least four days of the week. It gives me the chance to not only lose weight, but also to trudge back into the snow after a half hour workout and stick it to Hades for kidnapping Persephone and leaving us in this mess in the first place. With my warm core firmly established in my jacket, I can trod home in a storm and think, "My, what a pleasant evening it is."

So many times we think of elements in their purest forms. Sometimes people to whom I try explaining Wicca are under the impression that I bow down to a candle flame (Only if there's a power outage.). But elements are so much more malleable than that. Fire is an excellent element to work with when you're exercising because of the warmth we feel as our muscles work and our bodies burn fuel.  It's the element of change that allows us to sculpt and train our bodies. Below is a fire visualization I've been using to help me find my flexible side. Here's wishing a warm winter to all of you.

Flexibility Fire Visualization

Get into the starting position for your stretch. Close your eyes and picture yourself floating in a pool of fire. It warms your body, loosens all your muscles, and draws you into a focused calm. Take a slow, deep breath in through your nose. As you do, feel your legs, spine and torso elongate. Feel the fire helping you along. As you breath slowly out through your nose, go a bit deeper into the stretch. Repeat this several times until you can't go any further without feeling uncomfortable. Take a deep breath in and come back to a sitting/standing position.