The main dish....

On last Tuesday, I provided lunch for the adult day care program at our church.  There are about 20 in all, including participants and staff.  I have previously posted the dessert and the salad.  In this post, I will feature the main dish.

One of the pans.

The main dish was baked potatoes topped with chili and cheese.  It required a few more steps than the usual.  I was busy on Monday baking the potatoes and making the chili.  Then, I split the potatoes, topped them with chili, and sprinkled grated cheddar cheese on top.  When it was time to consider serving them, one of the staff members heated them, covered, in the oven until they were hot.

I am sharing the chili recipe with  you.  I have used this recipe for many years and cannot remember the source.  It is what we use when we have hot dogs.  I imagine I could also use it as the base for the chili with beans that we like, but I haven't ever done that with it.

CHILI (HOT DOG)
2 Tablespoons butter
2 large onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 pound ground beef
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
- Saute onion and garlic in butter until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add beef; cook, stirring until meat loses its red color.  Add remaining ingredients and 1/4 cup water.  Bring to boiling; reduce heat and simmer covered 30 minutes.  Number of servings depends, of course, on how you plan to use it.  For this particular occasion, I made four times this recipe and had very little left over.

I was recently away for a few days, attending a series of Conference UMW Committee meetings.  The route I needed to travel to reach the site of the meetings was through some beautiful Southwest  Virginia countryside.  It would have been a wonderful time for pictures, but unfortunately I was driving by myself.  It didn't seem to be a very good idea to try to take pictures while driving.:-)  You will just have to take my word for it - fall is definitely arriving!:-) 

Thank you for reading.  I really appreciate your comments.