My Ritual

I don't play golf, so I don't flip a golf club before every shot I make. I don't play baseball or softball anymore, so I don't avoid stepping on baselines or anything. I have some socks I really like, but I don't have to wear any certain pair at any certain time. I do, however, have one pretty specific ritual that I seem to practice.

A couple of nights ago, the temperature dropped down into the 50's. That's not exactly normal in my neck of the woods for mid-August. (Good call on that whole global warming thing, Mr. Gore.) So, I decided to make my first batch of chili this year. You won't find me grinding cumin or dicing onions when I make chili. I guess a better term for my preparation is that I assemble chili. Although it's always somewhat consistent, I assemble it a few different ways, depending on my mood. Since there is a little variety in what I put in a batch, that is not really where my ritual comes into play.

My chili ritual occurs in how I prepare my bowl. I hadn't paid too much attention to this before. Fixing a bowl of chili is pretty simple, right? Well, after seeing 4 people build their bowls 4 different ways, I realized something rather curious. How people fix a bowl of chili is probably about as unique as the people themselves. That is, as long as they are provided with something more than a bowl, a spoon, and some chili.

What someone puts in the bowl can be quite diverse. Some variables in ingredients include crackers or corn chips, saltines or oyster crackers, cheese or no cheese, shredded cheese or sliced cheese, onions and/or peppers, sour cream and/or salsa. I could probably go on, but I'll stop there. Then there's whether they go for more meat, more beans, the soupier part, a thicker mix, etc. Finally, how and in what order they actually put the weapons of choice in their bowl can differ greatly. (i.e. Leave crackers or chips whole or crumble them, cheese on bottom or top, so on and so on.) You see, not as simple as it seems, is it?

Right or wrong, my ritual is as follows: 1.) Ladle my chili into the bowl. Amount varies, according to how hungry I am. 2.) Place cheese on top of chili. I prefer shredded, but can do sliced if that's all there is. 3.) Sprinkle whole corn chips along top of cheese. Again, I can substitute oyster crackers for corn chips. If saltines are what's available, they get crumbled along the top. 4.) Finally, if available, I pour a little salsa or picante on top of everything. I also enjoy a few pepperoncinis or jalapenos on the side.

As usual, I put way too much thought into my whole process. Some of my rationale for placement includes: putting the cheese on top will cause it to melt better as the heat rises, it's not on the bottom so it doesn't stick to the bowl, and it provides a barrier to keep the chips from getting too soggy. Some people may want their chips or crackers soggy or may not want the cheese to melt. The possibilities are almost endless.

When I was younger, I would go for as much meat as possible while avoiding beans. Now, being mature and all, I try to get as accurate a sampling as possible of what the overall batch of chili is actually like. I look at things like thickness and meat-to-bean ratio. Then, I layer it up and dig in. So, that's how I do it. How about you?