Vote or Die (by Fall from Trestle)

My pal Matt wrote to me this morning about a fun poll over at VelocityWeekly.com in which the Pope Lick Goat Man -- I tend to run with "Pope Lick Monster" or "The Goat Man," personally -- is up for consideration for one of those So and So's Louisville banners hanging off buildings around town.

I ran a cover story once on Halloween about The Goat Man. As I recall, it had a good illustration, but no horns. I'm also a big fan of the local indie short Legend of the Pope Lick Monster. I often catch myself singing "I'm a Red Neck" as I shuffle through my daily doldrums.


Here's a really nifty portrait of The Goat Man by local artist Jeffery Scott Holland.

Here's some whacked-out posting of The Goat Man as a D&D character -- apparently he casts no spells, but you do suffer sanity loss if you are unfortunate enough to see him. (I get the same general effect from a another Velocity poll nominee, Rick Pitino.)

But, seriously -- no Denny Crum's Louisville?

"Killer" chili

The Almighty Twinkie ranted unduly about a pot of chili I made recently -- so much so that I was nigh-forced into posting what passes for my recipe.

I'm reposting here, primarily so that I may correct a typo or two. I hate that Blogger does not let you (or I simply can't figure out how to) edit your own comments.

I actually got the soul of this recipe years ago from Cooking Light magazine, so it's not so bad for you.

Caveat: Don't get the whole green chilis and then just run them through your food processor -- they'll end up floating in a gnarly film, due to the thin consistency of the broth. Need chunks to sink.
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One pork tenderloin (comes in a bag; I can never remember how much they weigh -- will be two strips of loin)

About 5-6 cans chicken broth

4 cans green chilies, diced

A lot of white onions (again, hard to say how many -- I tend to use like 3-4 of the giant white ones per batch)

About ½ bulb garlic (or a whole blub -- I still smell like garlic)

Some red chili powder -- no way of predicting how much. At least a half-cup, I'd imagine -- it's a to-taste thing

Sazon Goya (a couple packages, if you can find it)

1 Serrano pepper

1 Jalapeño pepper

About 5-6 cans white hominy, washed (you don't want the gunk it comes packed in)

Salt, maybe (depends on how much chili powder you end up putting in there)

Onion powder and garlic powder (again, these are just for late-stage tweaking -- don't introduce these until it's simmered for at least an 1 ½ hours, if at all)

Cube the tenderloin and brown in olive oil, with one bulb diced garlic and some chili powder for accent. Sazon Goya is never a problem.

Coarsely chop the onions and with a little more olive oil, and maybe a half-can chicken broth, cook the onions and rest of garlic to near translucency.

Dump the rest the stuff in there, including a base level of chili powder. Hold back about one can of chicken broth -- you'll end up using it, probably, but you'll need some juice to tweak out the chili powder levels toward the end.

Just float the peppers (slice a couple little holes in there before you pitch 'em in)

After about 1 ½ hours of simmering, start tweaking out the stew with the various powders. You can expand to various other chili-centric seasonings (cumin, oregano, blah blah), but I find chili and garlic powder to be sufficient here. Since the consistency of the stew is that of chicken broth, feel free to leave yourself a little room to play toward the end -- you can't make it too thin, after all.

Cook it for about three hours, total.

Actually best on third day.