Scrumptious Sunday: Chili

Scrumptious Sunday Eighth Edition

This is a weekly meme for Sundays. A theme is given each week. You can include a list of the foods, original pictures, pictures you find, stories, how-to’s, recipes…Participants can also add what kind of scrumptious dinner they had on that Sunday or a previous Sunday. Add your post link to Mr. Linky and leave a comment about your post here.

Theme for Scrumptious Sunday

Eighth Edition

Sunday, April 20, 2008

~Chili~

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Easy Chili

1 lb Ground beef
1 Sm onion, chopped
2 t. Chili powder
1 can Light kidney beans, lightly drained
2 cans Chili beans w/sauce
1 can Chili no beans
2 cans Diced tomatoes with green peppers and onions
Hot sauce to taste

Brown ground beef with chopped onions, drain, add chili powder and tomatoes (whole can), simmer for about 5 minutes, add remaining cans and simmer about 15 minutes to let flavors merge. If it seems dry, add some tomato sauce (small can).

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Chili facts

* Chili production has been declining since the mid-1990s. Last year's harvest of 16,200 acres was the lowest since 1982, when farmers produced about 14,600 acres.

* The value of the 1999 chili crop totaled $31.1 million. That was down 46 percent from the previous year. The long mild varieties of chili decreased in value by 40 percent while the long hot varieties decreased by 68 percent.

* Luna County produced the most chili in 1999 with 6,500 acres -- down 800 acres from the year before. Dona Ana County had the largest decrease in chili production last year, down 36 percent to 4,000 acres.

* The only New Mexico county to see an increase in chili production in 1999 was Lea County. Farmers there produced 1,000 acres last year, 200 acres more than the previous year.

* Of all vegetables grown in New Mexico, chili was ranked as the No. 1 cash crop in 1998, bringing in more than $58 million in cash receipts. Nearly 400 farmers in New Mexico grow the hot peppers.

* More than 3,100 tons of Mexican chili passed through New Mexico's ports of entry in 1993. Agriculture officials said that total jumped to more than 47,000 in 1998.

* Farmers begin planting the chili crop after the last frost in March. Harvesting begins around the first week in August and can run into early November.

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