Chili. Because it's chilly!

I lied about having a chili recipe that includes pictures. FAIL! I can't find my battery charger + extra battery for my camera. I thought it was in Steve's camera case, but it wasn't. He thinks that it might be in his laptop bag...which is who knows where. I better find it soon because my brother emailed me yesterday and told me that I needed to quit blogging about food and post some pictures from our shack weekend (which was like 4 weeks ago, to give you an idea how behind I am). I am going to do my best to get it in my possession by this weekend so I can play catch up. In the meantime, here is my sad, lonely, picture-less (but still delicious) recipe for hearty chili! PS - this is based off of the recipe that my mom told me about years and years ago. Which means that one day, I called her to find out how she made her chili, and she said, "I use spicy V8 juice as the base." And that was about all she could tell me. Because it is impossible to get a full recipe from my mother. She simply doesn't believe in them. So I had to figure the rest out myself! Hi Mom!

Chili: (serves 6)

• 1 lb of meat. Usually I use venison, but I didn't have any and I had ground beef on hand, so I used that. You could also use ground turkey, or round stead cut into cubes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 - 6 stalks of celery, chopped
• 3 - 4 tablespoons chili powder (maybe more depending on the quality of your chili powder)
• 1 - 2 teaspoons of oregano
• salt and pepper
• 1 - 2 teaspoons (or more, if you are feeling spicy) cayenne pepper
• One bottle of Spicy V8 juice
• 1 can of dark red kidney beans, drained
• 1 can of light red kidney beans, drained
• 1 can of medium or hot chili beans, undrained
• 1 can of butter beans, drained (these are optional...I just really like butter beans!)
• 2 cans of tomatoes, stewed or diced (I used one of each), undrained

Brown your meat and saute your onion and celery in a large dutch oven or soup pot (drain grease if necessary).  Throw everything else in and let it simmer for 30 - 60 minutes. Taste and add seasonings if necessary (sometimes I add a little sugar, paprika, garlic, or more chili powder). And that's it! Easy weeknight meal! Make it before summer comes!

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