A couple weeks ago we made an attempt at some normal fall food storage. Since I have yet to persuade my mom to actually give up her canner and ship it up here, this generally means freezing food. So John and I made a massive batch of chili, stuffed it full of corn straight off the cob and fresh farmer's market garlic, ate a lot for dinner, and still managed to freeze 6 containers.

Then we started eating them. I think there's one left. (Note: we're eating it in about fifteen minutes.) That chili will certainly last us though the cold, cold winter nights. Good job, us!

Of course this also means we ate lots of delicious, delicious chili, so I think I can deal with it.

You can do many things with chili in the freezer. First, you can obviously just warm it up and eat it. You can puree it and use it as an enchilada sauce. You can mix it into some mashed potatoes. Or, in my current favorite version, you can make chili with an egg on top.

Chili with an egg on top

chili
an egg per person
butter
greens/maybe herbs for garnish
maybe some tomatillo salsa if you have some left
maybe some sambal oelek if you want super-spicy egg
maybe some chips if you want it with some chips
salt, pepper

Ok. First, warm up your chili on the back of the stove. Make sure it's hot by the time you start cooking your egg. Easy.

Now make your egg. I think a fried egg is best on top of chili, although scrambled eggs have also been tested and found acceptable. Cook your egg however you like it, adding salsa or sambal if you so desire. Keep it on the undercooked side so the yolk will run nicely and the white won't turn to leather in the chili.

Get out a couple leaves of decent greens and chiffonade them finely. I used some raw chard, which was an excellent plan.

Now ladle some chili into a bowl. Gently slide your finished egg on top. Salt and pepper, garnish with greens, and eat it.

I totally love to break the entire egg up and stir it through the bowl, so the yolk dissolves into the mix. You get an egg-thickened soup without doing any of that annoying tempering. The greens wilt a little in the heat of the soup, and the egg white stays nice and hot.

If it's this awesome in September, how awesome is it going to be in January?