I was in the mood for chili this week. Since the house is cool now (AC all fixed, thank you very much), we don’t need to eat salads and sandwiches every night. Every now and then I can cook the sort of thing you don’t necessarily want to eat when it’s hot and steamy out. There were three avocados on the counter that had ripened to perfection (really) and we stopped at Jalapeno Heaven on the way home to get a bag of their excellent chips. My guacamole is simplicity itself: three ripe avocados, one (or two) cloves of pressed garlic, the juice of one lemon. Mash avocados with a fork, add in the garlic and the lemon juice, mix well. That’s it, truly. It’s the best.

My friend Greg taught me how to make real chili a long time ago — the kind with chunks of meat instead of ground beef. He grew up on the west coast and believed that real chili contained little more than chunks of beef and fresh chili peppers. Then you simmered it until the meat was ready to melt in your mouth. We’d experiment with that recipe all the time — add some tomatoes, add some beer. It never did have chili powder in it though. And it never had beans. Sometimes it was almost too spicy to eat, in which case we’d just drink the margaritas or beer that always accompanied such feasting. The problem with this type of chili is that you need a long afternoon in which to cook it as it takes several hours to simmer it to just-rightness.

What I like about this chili recipe is that it’s really quick, and it’s made from things you’ll usually have in the pantry anyway. If you don’t have (or don’t want) chips, you can always make a pan of cornbread to go with.

Weeknight Chili

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 lb ground beef
• 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• chili powder
• cumin
• salt and pepper

Heat the oil over medium heat and cook the onion until soft. Turn the heat up a bit, add the ground beef, and break it up with a wooden spoon, cooking until it’s no longer pink. Season with salt and pepper. Add chili powder and cumin, stir, and cook for a couple more minutes. Add the tomatoes and the beans, and simmer for at least 20-30 minutes, longer if you’d like. Serve accompanied by chips or cornbread. Also good — guacamole, sour cream, grated cheddar or jack cheese, salsa.

You’ll notice I didn’t specify an amount for the chili powder or cumin. I’ve seen recipes for chili that call for a scant tablespoon or two of chili powder. I’m not sure what the point of a tablespoon is — I rarely use less than 1/4 of a cup. In any case, the point is that all chili powders are different (I like Penzey’s medium hot) and everyone’s palate is different. So use as much chili powder as you like. I usually keep the cumin to a teaspoon or so since it’s pretty pungent and there’s likely some in the chili powder anyway.

Similarly, use whatever kind of beans you like. Sometimes when I double this recipe, I use two different kinds of beans, but I tend to like black beans better than kidney beans, so that’s what I usually use. I’ve been known to use cannellini beans, too.

Cold beer washes it all down nicely.