October. Caleb's first real Halloween is approaching. He's too young to trick-or-treat but not too young to wear a costume, and the debate about what to dress him as has become the most contentious issue in the Abernathy household.
Ryan: 'He should be a Marine.'
Me: 'He's ten months old. He should be something cute.'
Ryan: 'Marines ARE cute.'
Me: 'A dinosaur. He should be a dinosaur.'
Ryan: 'A Marine riding a dinosaur.'
We compromised: he's going to be a pumpkin. Because pumpkins are non-political and available at Target for $12.
The blog is settling into a rhythm: one post per week, published Monday mornings. Stories and recipes, always paired. This week: Mom's recipe binder piece. How it started as one binder in Norfolk and grew to five volumes across five bases. How she wrote cards in her looping handwriting and organized them by category. How she gave me a binder of my own when I got married.
The response was the biggest yet. Five thousand views. Comments from women who said, 'I have a binder too!' and 'My grandmother had a binder!' and 'I need to start a binder.' The recipe binder, it turns out, is universal. Every family has one, whether it's a physical binder or a box of index cards or a folder on a phone. Everyone carries recipes.
I published Mom's chicken and dumplings recipe with the post. Full recipe, detailed instructions, the notes about dumpling size ('teaspoon, not tablespoon') and liquid ratios ('extra half cup of broth'). Three hundred people saved it.
Three hundred people have Mom's chicken and dumplings recipe. Three hundred kitchens will make Mom's food. The thought makes me dizzy.
Soo-Jin suggested I do a 'Cooking Through Deployment' series — a weekly series about meals that deployment wives can make alone, on budget, with minimal equipment. 'That's YOUR expertise,' she said. 'That's what nobody else writes about.'
She's right. The food blogs I see online are written by people with marble countertops and stand mixers and $200 worth of ingredients. Nobody writes about the $6 stir-fry on a two-burner base housing stove. Nobody writes about the crockpot chicken that gets you through the day because you're alone and pregnant and can't cook from scratch.
Until now.
I made Mom's chili tonight — the deployment version, the budget version, the one with cocoa powder. I photographed it. I'll write about it next week.
The blog is a thing. It's MY thing. The thing Dana said to own. The thing Carla sensed. The thing Professor Kim cultivated.
I own it now.
This is the chili I made that Tuesday night in October — Mom’s recipe, the deployment version, the one with cocoa powder stirred in because she swore it deepened everything and she was right. I didn’t have a marble countertop or a stand mixer. I had a two-burner stove and a package of tortillas and about forty minutes before Caleb woke up from his nap, and I layered the whole thing into a stack because that’s what you do when a casserole dish is the only pan big enough. I photographed it under the kitchen light, posted it the next Monday, and that was the week the “Cooking Through Deployment” series became real.
Chuck Wagon Tortilla Stack
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef (80/20)
- 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 6 flour tortillas (8-inch)
- 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
- Sour cream and sliced green onions for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Brown the beef. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook ground beef, breaking it apart, until no pink remains, about 7–8 minutes. Drain excess fat.
- Build the chili base. Reduce heat to medium. Add chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and cocoa powder. Stir into the beef and cook 1 minute until fragrant.
- Simmer. Add diced tomatoes (with juices), tomato paste, beef broth, and kidney beans. Stir to combine. Simmer uncovered 10–12 minutes, until the mixture thickens. Season with salt and pepper.
- Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch round baking dish or springform pan.
- Layer the stack. Place one tortilla in the bottom of the dish. Spread a generous 1/2 cup of the chili mixture over it, then sprinkle with about 1/4 cup cheese. Repeat layers — tortilla, chili, cheese — until tortillas and filling are used up, finishing with a tortilla on top.
- Top and bake. Spread any remaining chili over the top tortilla and cover with the remaining cheese. Bake uncovered 18–20 minutes, until cheese is melted and edges are bubbling.
- Rest and serve. Let the stack rest 5 minutes before slicing into wedges. Serve with sour cream and green onions if desired.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 435 | Protein: 27g | Fat: 19g | Carbs: 38g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 710mg
About the cook who shared this
Rachel Abernathy
Week 185 of Rachel’s 30-year story
· San Diego, California
Rachel is a twenty-eight-year-old Marine wife and mom of two who has moved five times in six years and learned to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with half her cookware still in boxes. She married young, survived postpartum depression, and feeds her family of four on a junior Marine's salary with a freezer full of pre-made meals and a crockpot that has never let her down. She writes for the military spouses who are cooking dinner alone in base housing and wondering if they're enough. You are.
