chili.

to celebrate the first official day of fall i decided to make chili. i paid no mind to the fact that it was 80 degrees and humid yesterday. or that i had to turn on the air conditioning, don a tank dress and drink large gulps of ice water to eat said chili. maybe it was just that extra kick of spice that was overheating me just a tad? no, it was little miss summer creeping back into my lovely fall friend's space with a kick in the pants. sort of reminded me of when sarah would divide our room in half when we were kids with a piece of string. at the time i was too dumb to realize that getting the side without an exit wasn't such a hot (ha!) idea when you're five years-old and constantly have to go to the bathroom. but enough segues. doesn't summer know that i've put away most of my sundresses? and i really, really don't want to keep making my feet "sandal ready" because flip flops are the only option in this swamp? and yeah, how about that i'm totally over the grill and salads and want comfort food? well summer, here it is. i am moving the string! i will now have access to the bathroom!
um....yeah. so i made chili on an 80 degree day.

so i read over a bunch of recipes before starting, but none of them were matches for the ingredients i actually had so i semi-made up my own recipe. this recipe adequately feeds a jesse, nelzo and phil after a long day of work and school.

first heat up a large soup pan, drizzle a little olive oil and cooking spray and then add 2/3 lb ground turkey. break up the turkey with a wooden spoon and warm through.
once fully cooked, add 1/3 chopped onion and 1 whole red pepper.

stir the veggies around a bit and then add about 1 cup of diced and fire-roasted tomatoes.
stir to combine and bring up to a simmer before adding your spices.
yes that is cinnamon on the side! let the wild rumpus start! that was a happy accident the last time i made chili. i believe i was on the phone with leeann, drinking some wine and totally distracted. thinking it was cumin, i grabbed the cinnamon and poof, magic was born. now my chili always contains a bit of cinnamon.
so add:
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper falkes
1/4 teaspoon cinammon

once you add the spices, give it another good stir and let it simmer some more. at this point in a lot of recipes you add chicken stock, but we were out, so i manned up as the kids say and pulled out nelson's accoutrements:
a good palm full of some burger blend spices and about 2/3 of a bottle of bass. i may have had the rest of the bass. may have. i admit nothing!
now that the chili had some liquid, i left it alone for about 20 minutes to meld. in that time i drained a can of black beans and found some frozen corn in the deep freeze. score!
the entire can of beans was added and about 1 cup of corn kernels.

i continued to let all of this cook in hopes the boys would make it home to join me for grub, but my hunger got the better of me and i dug in about 15 minutes after the bean and corn additions. to cheer myself up i broke out my J mug:

and prompty filled it twice with chili topped with grated extra sharp chedda:
the boys did return shortly after my scarfing incident and finished off the remainder of chili goodness. there's something so satisfying about finishing off a whole pot of warm, spicey chili that makes you sleep like a rock till your alarm wakes you with a bang to start the next day.