Yo Quiero Chili

Chili is the ultimate improvisational meal. Like a chameleon, it can adapt to the climate, and to your cupboard.  It also has the added bonus of falling under that "so easy even an idiot could make it" category that I enjoy so much.  So what better way to kill a sloppy, chilly Saturday afternoon then by making a pot of nice, sloppy chili?

The starting lineup.

Beer Butt Chicken & Mixed Potatoes

This weekend's meal of choice was a personal favourite of mine, Beer Butt Chicken. Merging beer with chicken is an obvious and delicious combination. It makes the juiciest, most tender chicken I've had. And it would take an enormous moron to screw it up, which is nice for me.

Of course, you don't eat JUST chicken for dinner. Gotta have a side dish. So I dug through my closet and decided to clean out the remainders of my potato stash. I chopped up two sweet potatoes, one regular potato, one onion and a clove of garlic.

I may have busted out the beer a little early, too.

Dr. Pepper Pork Ribs

I'm not usually a fan of making pork ribs - they take a lot of effort to cook, and even more to eat. But when I heard that you could marinate them in the nectar of the gods, Dr. Pepper, I knew I'd eventually have to try. What better time than now, for this blog?

I found a few recipes online, all of which had the same basic idea, so I decided to improvise a little bit.

The Cooking Commandments

Welcome to my blog, Bachelor Chow. I'm a student living on a tight budget who loves to cook.  I'll be writing and posting pictures of the the meals I've created over the my 4 years of university life. While this blog is officially a project for Niagara College's Public Relations & Marketing program, I also hope it serves as a bit of reference for the future.

This is my first official post, so I figured I'd give a bit of insight into my methods. Here are my 10 Cooking Commandments that I just made up right now.

1. Thou shalt use the fewest dishes possible to complete the meal, including making plates irrelevant by eating directly out of the pan/pot/tray/dish.
2. Thou shalt cherish thy slow-cooker and Foreman grill.
3. Thou shalt make any meal more filling by putting it between two slices of bread; sandwiches are proof God loves us and wants us to eat delicious food without utensils.
4. Thou shalt put cheese and garlic on anything and everything possible. (Except desserts.)
5. Thou shalt eat healthy whenever funds allow - Lean meat and veggies is a treat compared to chicken fingers.
6. Thou shalt barbecue whenever possible.
7. Thou shalt be inspired by this guy and these guys.
8. Thou shalt try every style of cooking to prevent boredom.
9. Thou shalt drink beer with dinner in the summer, wine in the winter, and liquor whenever necessary.
10. Thou shalt make enough to share.