Fire House Cooking

Station 6 Chili

Ok, I guess I have to answer one of the most asked questions I get while meeting the voters... "So you have good cooks at the fire station, right?"

Actually we do have some amazing cooks. I'm fortunate to have Tony Stowe working at Station 6. He was one of the Top 10 finalists at the Tobasco Firehouse Cook Off a couple of years ago. As for me, well I like to tell people that I like to cook. I've never claimed to be especially good at it but I sure like to do it. My wife and I have an arrangement. I cook and she cleans up. We've done that since we first got married (and she came into the kitchen after I was done "cleaning" and re-did the whole thing).

But cooking at the Fire Station is a whole different world. You have to make 7 other guys happy so that means pork or beef. Then there is the fact that most times your cooking is interrupted. Of course that doesn't buy you any slack. If your dinner was ruined because you were called out and came back to it 2 hours later, well that was your fault for failure to plan. So I have taken the approach that dinner recipies have to be simple and flexible. So here it is.

Station 6 Chili

2 lbs of sausage (hot or mild)
1 bag of frozen corn
2 cans of chili beans
2 cans of red kidney beans
1 can white beans
1 can black beans
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cans garlic diced tomatoes
1 tsp cumin
red pepper flakes

Cook and drain the sausage and set aside. Pour all the cans of beans and tomatoes in a LARGE pan and heat to simmer. Add dry ingredients and frozen corn. Bring to simmer. Add meat and season with pepper flakes to taste. Feeds a lot of big guys and one small female captain with a huge appetite.

There you are.