Yeah, it's been awhile

I just finished a term position at SIAST in Moose Jaw; commuting two hours a day.  However, I really enjoyed the job and am sorry that it's ended.  I'm now unemployed.  So... why is my To Do list so incredibly long?  So far this morning I have: driven Bram to where he meets his car pool, done my banking, filled the car with gas, done all the dishes, started laundry, started five slow cookers of chili (snack for 75 for The Party tonight), started 7 dozen buns, talked to my lawyer, watered the plants, played my latest bunch of scrabble games (my reward for doing some of the other chores), taken out the garbage, unloaded the dishwasher, put away laundry.  Still to do for today: my bookkeeping, tidy living room and kitchen, three more loads of laundry (at least), bake the buns, make lunch and supper, start a quilting project (another reward).  It'd be nice to work out too.  That's a long list!  I have a lot of other things that I'd like to get done - but that's another day's list.  The important thing is to keep the list a manageable length.

So.. here's the recipe for Chili for 75

5 lbs (more or less) of hamburger - fried
5 (or more) large onions, diced and fried with the hamburger meat
1 really large can (100 oz) of diced tomatoes (I made a mistake and bought crushed tomatoes this time instead, so that's what I used, but I prefer the diced tomatoes).
12 - 19 oz cans (540 mL) of kidney beans (I could have bought the two 100 oz cans, but the smaller ones were cheaper.  For that matter, I could have soaked the kidney beans and done it from scratch, but the cans worked out to the same price and much less work.)
Chili powder to taste (about 1/2 cup I think).

Now it's possible to add lots more ingredients (I like mushrooms, for example, but not everyone does), but that's the basic chili recipe.  Because I don't have a pot big enough to combine all this, I used all of my slow cookers; the three small pots and my two big pots - and have them plugged in throughout the house because if I plug them all in the kitchen I'll blow a breaker.  I cooked the hamburger in batches in my largest frying pan with the diced onion and divided it among the slow cookers.  I layered things in the slow cookers; a couple cups of tomato stuff in the bottom, then the hamburger meat with the onions, then the chili powder, then the cans of beans (smaller slow cookers got 2 cans, larger ones got 3), then more tomato stuff, stir well.

I'm quite pleased with myself.  This weekend I was doing the planning for making the chili and was thinking that it was a real pain that my largest frying pan didn't have a lid that fit it.  So I measured it - it's 12" in diameter - and when I was a Great Canadian Wholesale (which is where I bought the ingredients for the chili), I looked in their commercial cooking section and bought a pot lid the right diameter.  It fits just right and I'm happy!  (I need to mention that the meat was all donated.)

Now it's time to punch down buns. My goal is to have fresh buns ready for lunch and it's already 11 am so I need to get cracking.