It's Chili Weather (Red)

White chili is commonly made in our home during the cooler months of October - April but this time I decided I wanted to revisit a chili recipe I kept from my freshman year at college.

Growing up I was not a big fan of chili. It's beans and hamburger and tomatoes. I was a kid who didn't really like beans and combining it with my arch nemesis sounded like poison. Fast forward to college where cereal and ramen and grilled cheese were commonly eaten, food, real food, had new life to me. This chili was the only item served at a Halloween party I was part of and so I was left to try it. I liked it. For the first time in life, I enjoyed chili.

Luckily for me my roommate had been one to volunteer to cook a batch of the chili so I now had the recipe to repeat. NINE years later, I made it again. It's still tastes good. I doubt it would ever win a chili cook-off but it was easy, offered the two of us 3 or 4 meals, and tastes good.

Traditional Chili
Ingredients

• 2 pounds Hamburger
• 2 Onions, chopped to your liking
• 4 cans Stewed Tomatoes or 2 quarts of home canned
  
• 5 cans of Kidney Beans - I choose the lower sodium version
  
• 1 15 oz. can Tomato Sauce
• 2 tablespoon Sugar
• 3 tablespoon Chili Powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoon Salt

Directions

• Brown hamburger and onions, then drain.
• Add liquid from beans along with all other ingredients, setting beans aside.
• Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer uncovered for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the beans and cook for 15 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

Enjoy! This week I opted to cook only half a batch and used 3 cans of beans and an 8 oz can of tomato sauce. The other items were pretty easy to divide equally. If you are going to make half the recipe use your personal or family preference to use 2 or 3 cans of beans.

And you can serve this with some sweet cornbread. Mmmm. (Is this a Utah thing? Chili served with cornbread.)