The Big Red Pot: Probably Not A Blue Ribbon Chili Recipe. But a good one.

There's something about this time of the year. All I want to do is eat. I think it's the weather. My body goes into some kind of self-preservation mode. My brain starts sending out the signal to make blubber. "Keep a layer of fat. You need to survive the winter that's headed your way." Maybe I'm part Inuit?

The problem? BSD is not here. I have nobody to feed me. I wasn't kidding when I said I could eat cereal for dinner if I wanted to. I can. And I do. But mostly it's because I'm too lazy to cook for myself. So after a week of eating crap...

It was time to drag out The Big Red Pot. 

I tried a new chili recipe. It's good. It has some unusual ingredients like cinnamon sticks and cloves. Is it THE BEST ever? No. But it's good. And with a few extra spices it could probably be REALLY good. For now I'm just grateful I have a fridge full of real food to eat for the next week. Sorry. I have no photos. But I will include the recipe. Because really. It is good. And it's easy.

We're supposed to have a Chili Cook-off with our neighbors. I can play around with this recipe, but I'm kind of hoping maybe one of you out there has a killer chili recipe to share? I'll give you full credit if I win. Pinky promise.

Probably Not A Blue Ribbon Chili Recipe. But a good one.

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 chile pepper, chopped (this may be why mine isn't prize-winning? I omitted this.)
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 pounds lean ground beef
• 3 (14.5 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes with liquid, chopped (I used a 28oz. can ground peeled tomatoes plus a can of diced tomatoes.)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 whole cloves
• 1 40oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Directions:

1. In your big red pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Saute onion, chile pepper and garlic until soft. Add ground beef: cook and stir until meat is browned.
2. Pour in tomatoes with liquid, salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, paprika, cinnamon stick and cloves*. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. 
3. Remove cinnamon stick and cloves. Stir in kidney beans, and cook another 15 minutes. Serve. I like mine over cornbread or brown rice.

* I put the cinnamon stick and cloves in a little tea ball to keep them from getting lost. I was really hesitant about these ingredients so I wanted to be able to take them out easily and quickly if I thought they tasted yuck. I actually liked the flavor, but I did take them out before adding the beans rather than leaving them in til the end as the original recipe was written.