For our chili we chose to wing it rather than follow a specific recipe. We added half a can of diced tomatoes and half a can of beans, as well as some onion and part of a clove of garlic. Then we added some green pepper that wasn't spicy, and one very spicy slender green pepper that may or may not have been a habanero. I'll attempt to identify the pepper next time I'm at the grocery store.
We also added some salt and cumin, as well as a bit of chili seasoning another group brought. We then cooked it for about half an hour for the flavors to blend.
The chili turned out well in that it tasted good, but poorly in the 'chili' department. We didn't have that classic chili taste, which I think is partly from not having meat or cheese, and, from talking to other groups, I think we should have added more cumin. The flavors had blended well, and I was very pleased with the spicy kick at the end of a spoonful.
Our salsa really just tasted like onion, pepper, and tomato - but when we combined our chili into our salsa, we had delicious salsa.
There were two other groups that made chili that I got to try. Neither was as spicy as is my preference, but they had more of a 'chili' taste which I attribute largely to more cumin. My favorite of the two also had many more beans, proportionally.
This was an excellent exercise - I learned that making chili is actually reasonably easy, and I may do it myself in the future.
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Salt is added to cheese to preserve the cheese and intensify the flavor.
Rennet is an enzyme from a cow's fourth stomach that is used to curdle milk, turning it into curds and whey. The enzyme can now be cultivated artificially in bacteria.
Cheeses are typically aged for weeks to months to years, depending on the variety.
I currently don't have any cheddar cheese, and will update my blog when I can give a more detailed account of what cheddar smells like.
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