My Mind's External Hard Drive

Adapted from Big Ranch, Big City Cookbook: Recipes from Lambert’s Texas Kitchens by Louis Lambert and June Naylor, copyright © 2011. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.
(makes 6 to 8 servings)

1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 lbs. coarsely ground venison or beef
2 large yellow onions, diced medium
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chili powder
2 tbsp. paprika
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. sugar
2 14.5oz cans whole tomatoes in juices, cored and diced medium reserved juice
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 (12-ounce) can of Miller High Life
3/4 cup water
2 tbsp. cornmeal
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup finely diced yellow onion

Heat a large, heavy soup pot over medium heat and add the 1/4 cup vegetable oil. First add the onions and cook until they become soft about 5 minutes. Add venison with another 1/4 cup vegetable oil and cook until it begins to brown, about 8 minutes. Make a well within the ingredients in the pot and saute the garlic for 1 minute and then stir into the meat and onions.

Stir in the chili powder, paprika, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, and sugar, and cook until all of the meat is coated with the spices, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes with juice, tomato paste, beer, and water, and bring the chili to a simmer. Cook the chili at a low simmer for at least 1 hour or longer until the flavors come together and the texture thickens. During the cooking, add water to keep the chili moist as the liquid evaporates if needed.

Toward the end of the cooking time, sprinkle the cornmeal into a 1/3 cup warm water and let sit for 5 minutes. Pour mixture into the  the chili and stir in. Cook until the cornmeal is cooked through and has slightly thickened the chili, 10 to 15 minutes. Ladle the hot chili into warm bowls and top with cheddar cheese and diced onion.

Here is the playlist from Margo’s final show last night on 92.9 Dave FM.

• Thank You Friends/Big Star
• New York New York/Ryan Adams
• Watusi Rodeo/Guadalcanal Diary
• Waiting/The Whigs
• Thirteen/Wilco
• Live and Die/Avett Brothers
• Wolves/Josh Ritter
• Drown/Son Volt
• Distant Sun/Crowded House
• Precious/Depeche Mode
• Sleepwalker/The Wallflowers
• The Only Living Boy in New York/Simon & Garfunkel
• Decoration Day/Drive-By Truckers
• Pigs On the Wing Pt. 1/Pink Floyd
• Fight Test/Flaming Lips
• Oh I Wept/Free
• Tree By the River/Iron & Wine
• How Will You Meet Your End/A.A. Bondy
• Lonely In Your Nightmare/Duran Duran
• Everything Merges With the Night/Brian Eno
• Digging for Something/Superchunk
• Backwards Down the Number Line/Phish
• Westfall/Okkervil River
• Where the Wild Roses Grow/Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue
• Angel Eyes/Roxy Music
• Meet Me in the City/Black Keys
• St. Petersburg/Supergrass
• Can’t Find My Way Home/Blind Faith
• ’74-’75/The Connells
• 9 Crimes/Damien Rice
• Wagon Wheel/Old Crow Medicine Show
• Long Way Around/Dixie Chicks
• Lost Cause/Beck
• Wind and Dined/Syd Barrett
• One Step Ahead/Split Enz
• Reptile/The Church
• Bittersweet/Hoodoo Gurus
• I Should Get Up/Teddy Thompson
• Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise/Avett Brothers
• Sing Me to Sleep/Fran Healy & Neko Case
• Landed/Ben Folds
• Meet Me at Mary’s Place/Sam Cooke
• Here Comes a Regular/The Replacements