Bad Blogger Chili & Cornbread

I am a bad blogger.  Recent C Fierce Life Events that have kept me from Le Blog include but are not limited to:

• Moving apartments.
• A war with the United States Postal Service - "delivering the mail" is not something they do well, let's not even get into this.  However if you need any phone numbers to high-ranking USPS officials just let me know.
• Ninety degree days in October that make me want to do anything BUT turn on the oven.  Last night I had strawberries and sour cream for dinner.  (Trust me: delicious.)
• General lack of effort towards kitchen-related activities.
• Not being able to open up the end of my camera to put the pluggy-inny thingy in it to add photos to my computer because YEAH I work in the IT industry and I'm good at computerz.
• Driving a car.  This might sound strange to our non-DC readers, but it is a Huge Life Change for me.  Stay off the roads.

I know, pathetic.  And inexcusable to our twelve readers (Hi Mom!).  What can I say? I'm a bad blogger.  Sigh.

Here is some chili and cornbread we made yesterday.  

That is queso fresco and avocado on that chili.  (Guess who likes to play with the Hipstamatic iPhone app.  THIS GIRL.  Especially when she can't use her regular camera because she's a dingbat.)

In our new apartment we are close to three wildly varying grocery stores:

1. Whole Foods: we can't go there with credit cards and should only really bring $20 at a time otherwise we walk out with weird chocolate bars and $13 bottles of French hard cider I'mlookingatyou,boyfriend.
2. Ghetto Giant: lots of pork products and animal feet for sale there.
   
3. A strange and delightful place called Capitol Supermarket: this store sells only Korean and Mexican ingredients.  The "ethnic aisle" there consists of marshmallows and cereal.  It is always an adventure at the Capitol Supermarket, tamarind paste for days and queso fresco for miles.  YUM.

Inspired by Grocery Choice 2, Pork Galore, I put some bacon in the cornbread.  I really wanted to make a chipotle whipped butter but as you already know, I'm really lazy.  So I just kept sitting on the couch, looking at the cornbread in the kitchen, and watching football, and thinking "damn this would be pretty good with some butter on it but that's sooooo farrrrrr awaaaaaaaay" (it is four steps away).  

Chef Boyfriend made the chili.  I would post the "recipe" but it goes something like this: Go to three grocery stores, buy way too many Mexican spices from the "ethnic aisle," buy veal and beef, make the apartment smell really good, break a spice grinder halfway through making your chili powder, forget the chocolate (secret ingredient!), go back to grocery store 2, finish the chili, eat it.

And here is the Bad Blogger Cornbread:

Ingredients

4 slices bacon, cut into pieces

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup AP flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

2 eggs

2 tbsp oil (or 1 tbsp bacon fat!!! + 1 tbsp oil)

1 1/4 cup milk (or 3/4 cup milk + 1/2 cup half-n-half because that's all I had)

Shredded cheddar cheese

Method

Fry up some bacon.  Eat some pieces while it cools.  Make the cornbread:

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Butter an 8 x 8 baking dish (or use cute mini bread loaves which I would have except they are not unpacked yet.)

In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients and set aside.  Mix together eggs, bacon fat, oil and milk.  Add to dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Let rest for 15 minutes.  This means you get a nice rise and dome to your cornbread.   Add 3/4 of your bacon to the batter and stir.  Pour into the greased dish. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes, checking obsessively because your oven is new and you have no idea how hot it runs, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Eat with your chili and think about how good chipotle butter would be on it.