cornbread and chill?

real maple syrup, neighbors.
yeah.
that's what i do.
new england cornbread is semi-sweet, with a hint of that tree-sap happiness
drizzled into the grits and grains.
mmhmmm.
cornbread is good.
like,
deliciously moist, and crumbly,
and with a thin crisp skin where the heat holds it together along the edges
of where corn and bread and pan all collide.
expert!
y'know what makes cornbread even better?
chili.
yeah.
that's no joke.
when the red part soaks into the yellow part,
and both parts get activated a little exxxtra?
that's what's up.
and after a long, bleak, dreary, lugubrious length of an actual,
literal but metaphorically-lacking eleven eleven day?
.......wordimus prime.
i doo-doo that chilly-weather chili hottness in my whole facehole.
go ahead, start with a quick teleport check:

BAM!
onions, browned up a bit,
and then green bell pepper, and poblano pepper,
and one fat carrot, and two stalks of celery,
and five cloves of garlic, all minced into tiny pieces in a hand-crank food processor.
when that got a little too hot to avoid sticking to the pot-bottom,
i deglazed it with a splash of cider vinegar,
and added in a whole mess of diced tomatoes.
when that got naughty, i added a big italian-style vat of crushed tomatoes,
and a splash of tamari, and water with that veggie bouillon business in it, too.
yum.
cayenne, and crushed red pepper, and black pepper, and cumin, and oregano,
and ginger, and dried mustard, and g.p.o.p. (obvi),
with coriander and sage for good measure,
with a bay leaf, or two,
because i guess that's the way to get into the spirit of the thing.
and when it reduced a bit, as all those veggies soaked and saturated
and spread the F* out,
i fired up some light red beans AND some black beans,
and threw in a whole mess of parsley and cilantro.
yep.
i'm deep into that chili scene, kids.
plus, because it was eleven eleven,
i took dinner there, too.
caramelized leeks?
that's that green onions goodness that gets all the people hollerin'.
and pan-fried homemade lightly seasoned seitan strips?
c'mon.
don't even try to front like that's not SO luscious.
i know better, and so do you.
when it's time to rock a chili party,
you know who to call, y'all.
and with exxxtra cilantro sprankles,
and a fattie wedge of that oven-hot still-piping cornbread,
my pre-woodstackin' power-up was totally and completely expert.
the spice level was nose-runnily righteous,
the food temperature was tongue-burningly toasty,
the heartiness of every element was like an earth elemental from the future,
and all of it had all the flavor, and then some,
that i hope you've come to expect and appreciate, in words and pictures,
from the homeliest homeboy in the heart of these here hills.
yeah.
***********
this is what makes my day.
talking about food i eat.
eating food i make.
making food to eat and talk about.
it's all really happening,
and the highlights are all edible;
never quiet, never soft.....