Vegetarian Chili Cockaigne (with a tad of cheating)

I'm lucky to live in an area of Southern California that has an awesome variety of grocery stores. For example, there are 7 markets within 10 minutes of our place that I shop at on a fairly regular basis. I can get pasilla peppers, nopales, quail eggs, Icelandic yogurt, red bean buns, oyster mushrooms, Welsh cheddar and black quinoa with ease. I am spoiled.

Sometimes, though, I feel like getting super classy, and simply opening a can of chili. Fresh & Easy makes a wicked good vegetarian version. Unfortunately, one can doesn't exactly feed two people properly, so Paul and I experimented one weekend, and came up with a pretty darn tasty version of chili cockaigne.

Vegetarian Chili Cockaigne (2-way)

Serves 2

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil over high heat.
Add:
6 oz dry spaghetti (I usually use two handfuls)
Cook for approximately 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Check for desired doneness by biting into a piece.

Meanwhile, put 1 can vegetarian chili into a small pot over medium heat.
Stir in:
2 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlics, minced (or 1 teaspoon jarred minced garlic)
1/6 oz grated Mexican hot chocolate
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
3 ground peppercorns
3 ground cloves
3 ground allspice (for the ground ingredients, I use a mortar and pestle)

Heat, stirring often, for about 5-7 minutes.
Remove from heat, and serve over spaghetti. You can also make this
3-way by grating cheddar cheese over everything.

We came to the conclusion of using approximately 1/6 oz of the Mexican hot chocolate disc by dividing down the recipe in the book. I often will just use half of one wedge of the Casero or Abuelita tablet. Feel free to experiment, I imagine 1/6 oz of powdered cocoa mix could work, if you can't find the tablet kind.