Last night I had one of my school anxiety dreams. It’s the last day of school, I’m supposed to be graduating, and my bitch of a math teacher from 6th grade is handing out the final exam… and I realize, Fuck! I’ve never made it to this class all semester, and I haven’t even looked at my book!
I’ve been out of school for almost 4 years now, and yet I still have these dreams… if the actual experience hadn’t already made me want to avoid further formal education for the rest of my life, the dreams would.
I pity my brother, who started his second year of grad school this week. SUCKER!
That's my brother with the hunk of cornbread in his mouth, hogging my effing spotlight!
Speaking of the demon spawn, he’s been hosting a chili cook-off every summer for 5 or 6 years. I’ve only actually competed twice, but this past summer, I took home the gold!
Since it’s FINALLY fall, and today I turned the furnace on for the first time this season, hereforthwith is my Award winning chili recipe:
Ingredients!
And first, some notes…
I specify Dei Fratelli tomatoes because I’ve made chili and pasta sauce and all sorts of other tomato based stuff 1000 times, and this stuff is far superior to any other brand I’ve tried. I’m not usually a brand whore… I’ll try whatever’s cheapest if I know there’s not a difference, but this stuff really is better. If you’ve got a favorite brand, that’s cool, but if not, go for the Dei Fratelli!
I think I’ve mentioned before that I use ground turkey pretty much exclusively instead of ground beef. I’m just not a fan of ground beef, but if that’s your meat of choice, knock yourself out. If you’re a vegina, you can omit the meat stuff or use a substitute… my brother’s cookoff is actually a vegetarian affair, so I just left the meat out completely.
The dried guajillo chile pepper is the not-so-secret ingredient. My dad describes it as the mysterious flavor in authentic Mexican food that doesn’t necessarily stand out on it’s own, but you know when it’s missing (I always wondered why my burritos at home were never quite as good). Our local grocery store actually carries these- or they did… last time I couldn’t find them and had to substitute dried California chiles (and the chili wasn’t quite as good). But you can also order them online- try Penzeys.com. Don’t be afraid about spiciness, either, they’re very mild.
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