Chilly Day for Chili

I am not ashamed to admit that I have a very weird, some would say warped, sense of humor. I see things a little off center and it makes me laugh. I do believe it is a gift from God, so I have learned to just enjoy it and not make excuses. And most of the time, my type of humor is well received if it is understood or it is ignored (which I think is because it is not understood).

I have been chuckling to myself all day because of a bizarre conversation I had with a friend who has a warped sense of humor equal or perhaps even surpassing my own. I was making chili. And I make chili because it is something I like and not because it is something my children like or ask for. I know, in fact, that they will eat very little of it and I will wind up freezing a huge quantity of it which means there will be more for later and a few more meals that I don’t have to cook. For me, it’s a win-win situation. For my kids, well, they will have a slight grumble in their belly. And I don’t think that is always a bad thing. They are certainly not starving.

Anyway, I added to my chili recipe a pound of ground moose that my neighbor gave me. In August, my kids were creating some sort of fort in the front yard using these milk crates. He pulled me aside one day and asked me about them. I was afraid he was going to be mad that they were messing up the yard but instead he was excited because he has been looking for crates for his propane tanks. He told me he was going hunting for moose very soon and would I sell some of my crates to him?

I considered it for a few days and decided that I had plenty and could certainly spare 4 of them. So, I named my price of five bucks. He was so tickled, he practically danced on my patio. And then he promised me “a slab of meat” when he returned.

Oh-Kay.

I wasn’t sure what I would do with moose meat. I didn’t know anything about how to cook it. So, when he brought four 1 lb paper wrapped and frozen packages, I breathed a sigh of relief because, this I could work with! I wasn’t sure I would make Moose burgers but I figured I could toss it into sauce or chili and my kids would never know the difference.

Back to the weird part. So, I told my friend K that I was making chili with moose meat and he texted me back and asked if I was going to tell my children. I laughed.

Are you kidding? They will barely touch it as it is!

Then he texted that if I could find some squirrel, we could eat chili while watching Rocky and Bullwinkle and then tell the kids after what they were eating. Clearly, he was not going to be over to clean up the vomit on my freshly cleaned carpet!

But I laughed. Really hard and very much out loud. And then I texted back that I could probably hit a couple squirrels on my way to or from work and toss them in.

I have now nicknamed this chili, in lieu of my usual “Tulip’s Almost Famous Chili”, to “Tulip’s Bullwinkle Chili”. And I have been laughing all day.

To make myself giggle even more, I was at an appointment and saw a couple of squirrels scampering across my line of sight. I erupted into peals of laughter.

I am very, very weird. I’m OK with that.