Chipotle Chorizo Chili at the Beach

We definitely came to Cannon Beach well equipped to be comforted with some of our favorite things for our weekend get away. Including our favorite Chipotle Chorizo Chili recipe.

On Saturday we decided pouring down rain or not we were going for a walk on the beach.

Knowing we would return to our warm cottage with everything we'd need to get warmed up again helped us make that decision.

We headed across the street and down to the beach. We were surprised to see as many people as we did actually.

It was not only raining and cold but the wind was blowing, more like pelting the rain in our faces. We walked as far south on the beach as our faces could tolerate and then turned and walked back on the beach toward the end of town so we could walk back through town on our way back to the cottage.

At least once we got up into town the wind was less abrasive. We checked out the town sites, stopped by the brewery for a pint and some fried clams and then headed back.

Overall it was a good 2-3 hour jaunt braving the rain. We were soaked head to toe when we finally did get back to the cottage. Once we got into dry clothes it was time for some of that comfort...

after warming up we started making our favorite chili recipe. This recipe actually comes out of the Cuisine at Home (our favorite cooking subscription we receive) Slow Cooker Menus. Ever since we found this recipe it's pretty much become "our" go to chili recipe. We do usually make it in the crock pot at home but we didn't bring our crock pot with us on this trip so we improvised. And improvised we did. Our cottage didn't have a dutch oven or even a large sauce pan inside at first we were a bit concerned how we actually would be able to pull this off. But G found the cleaning lady next door in cottage #2 and asked her if there were any larger pots we might be able to use. She found us one that would work.

The combination of fire roasted tomatoes, chipotle, chorizo and and stew meat make this chili our favorite. G especially also loves that the recipe also includes pepper jack cheese sauce with french fries to top the chili. Itt was new to us the first time we made it but it's a must now when G is craving this chili.

Since it was  a celebration weekend we enjoyed our chili with one our coveted splurge wines, Longshadows Feather. This wine is definitely not in our every day budget but when we do make an exception to splurge a bit this one is worth it.

Recipe:

Chipotle Chorizo Chili (from Cuisine at Home Slow Cooker Menus)

1 lb. beef stew meat

Salt & Pepper

1 Tblspn. vegetable oil

1 Can (28oz) fire roasted diced tomatoes

1 can black beans, drained & rinsed (we actually use 2 cans black & 1 can kidney..we like beans in our chili)

1/2 lb. chorizo

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup thawed frozen corn (we left this out time because I forgot to buy it)

2 Tblspn. minced garlic

2 Tblspn. chili powder

1-2 minced chipotle chile pepper in adobo sauce

1 Tblspn. cumin

1 Tblspn chopped cilantro

Season stew meat with salt & pepper, brown meat in oil in a skillet over medium high heat for 5 minutes. Add & cook chorizo with the stew meat. Combine all ingredients (except cilantro in crock pot or dutch oven.) Cook  until beef is tender in  crockpot on low setting 7-8 hrs. On stovetop on medium for 1 hour.