Squirrel Creek Stew. (Also known as chili.)

It’s been over two years years since I posted a recipe and suddenly I remembered why. I just spent half my morning trying to make chili (officially called stew) look pretty.

Chili does NOT like to look pretty!

It's time consuming to fight chili’s heartfelt desire to look like glop. You can not put it into a pretty little circle like rice or add a scattering of blueberries like with tres leches cake.

Reluctant modeling career aside, the chili/stew itself is delicious. My Aunt Lynne gave me the recipe years ago. I wish I had asked her where it came from but my attempts to research it just gave me recipes for actual squirrel. Plus now Pinterest wants to show me recipes for venison. I guess Pinterest figures one wild animal tastes as good as the next.

Here's the "stew" which bears a suspicious resemblance to chili, as pretty as I can make it. As you can see, I used shredded cheese to cover some of the chili's flaws:

And here's the recipe -

Squirrel Creek Stew

Ingredients:

2 lbs. ground turkey or beef (I used a half and half)
1/2 onion, diced
4 cloves pressed garlic
1 can pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 can corn
2 cans stewed tomatoes
1 can or 16 oz chicken broth
4 tablespoons taco seasoning
2 teaspoons dried chives
2 teaspoons dill
4 teaspoons garlic powder
4 teaspoons dried onion flakes
4 teaspoons onion powder
4 tablespoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup dried powdered buttermilk
sour cream as garnish

(All canned goods 14 to 15 ounces except Rotel tomatoes. Rotel tomatoes are 10 ounces.)

Directions:

Brown meat with onion and garlic. Drain fat. Drain liquid from cans and add remaining ingredients. Simmer for a minimum of 30 minutes. Serve in a bowl topped with sour cream.

To adjust for instant pot follow instructions but substitute high pressure 10 minutes for simmering. Allow pot to natural release.