Chili for Chilly Weather

Yesterday I made the chili I had been wanting to make. I’m such a goofball. It’s a good thing I can laugh at myself.

I’ve been making the same chili as long as I can remember. The recipe is from a friend who is sure he remembers us being in the church nursery together as toddlers. We went all the way through college together and were friends well into our married years. I don’t remember when he gave me his recipe but it’s in a cookbook he published – A Few Of My Favorite Things. There are several recipes in that book that every time I think of them, I have to stop and make them . . Fricot is also one of the recipes in there I love. Yesterday I made his praline recipe. The recipes are all good. He grew up in a cajun family and they’re all good cooks. He’s retired now but was pastor at some rather large churches and one thing about Baptists, they love to cook and have big eating meetings and share recipes.

The photo was taken when I first started so it doesn’t look very chili-ish yet.

Anyway, I made the chili just as I always made it and, near the end, after it had simmered for a couple of hours, when I tasted it to see if the seasonings were ok, it was a bit spicy and I hadn’t put any extra spices in it, other than what I always put. I eat my food more spicy than Vince does so I often add more heat at the table. Vince does usually add a bit of Tabasco to his bowl of chili so when I served the chili, he asked me to get the Tabasco and I said “You may want to taste it first! It’s a bit spicy.” He tasted it and said yes, it was more spicy than normal and he didn’t need the Tabasco.

I sat down to eat and I said . . wait a minute! I think I know why it’s spicy.

When we were at the grocery store, bell peppers that weren’t very big were .98 each and I said no . . not paying that. I knew I had freeze dried bell peppers at home and they would work just fine. I went downstairs, grabbed a half gallon jar of freeze dried peppers that were vacuum sealed in the jar; popped the lid off, put maybe 2/3 of a cup into a bowl of water to let them rehydrate. Then I dumped the water and the peppers into the chili but . . they were jalapeno peppers. That was probably the equivalent of about 6 or 8 jalapeno peppers. The dark green in the pot is all jalapeno peppers.

Vince went on and on about that being the BEST chili I’ve ever made and he wants me to make all the chili exactly like that from now on. OK . . I can always grow jalapeno peppers and almost always grow way more than I can use. I think I have about 5 half gallon jars of freeze dried jalapeno peppers. I do have freeze dried bell peppers too but now, I’ll have to pay attention to which jars I’m grabbing. I’m pretty good about labeling the jars with the year and what’s in it but I guess I missed at least one of them because I didn’t even think about that being jalapeno peppers. Now that I smell what’s in the jar, I can tell they’re jalapenos.

Vince was so happy with the results, I’m glad I made that little inadvertent substitution.