I am not known for much, chili, pumpkin pie, lasagna, being murderously honest, and making cute babies.
We have an annual Halloween party with 50+ kids and toping over 100+ total. We started it six years ago and my main responsibility is to clean the bathroom, vacuum downstairs, do the dishes, and make chili.
I've always loved chili, I am not much of a spicy food person but I do love chili especially when it makes you sweat. I don't get too crazy with packing heat because of the kiddies, but you will taste it in the morning.
I didn't think of posting this until I already got started, so I wish I had more pictures. I don't expect anyone will see it anyway so it shouldn't be a problem.
This is how we start, anyone who has made chili won't be surprised here. Two things I learned over the years, Rinaldi sauce is way better Prego and combining cayenne pepper and paprika go much better together. I used to use only cayenne pepper but 5-6 years ago I decided to add paprika and to me, it is a huge difference. There are three things left out in the picture, hamburger, purple onion, and red kidney beans.
It all starts with the hamburger, get the good stuff from a butcher, not the pink slime in grocery stores. I'm serious here, this is important.
I use 2lbs of hamburger when I'm doing a single batch, you want to cook it up but you don't have to go to taco level browning. Just get rid of most of the pink and you are good.
You want 46oz of tomato juice, and 29oz of tomato sauce. Rinaldi is my favorite sauce as I don't make the sauce too often anymore, but Prego is good. I stay away from most of the others. You want to bring this to a boil and then add in your meat. The stuff you cook, don't be ridiculous 
I already added my dry ingredients at this point, as I prepared ahead of time due to the party. You need the following dry ingredients you can prepare well ahead of time.
- 1/4 cup chili powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- tsp salt
- 1 tsp white sugar
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/8 tsp paprika
- 3 tsp oregano
Put it all in there and make sure you mix it up good. At this point, you are going to want to strain two cans of Kidney beans and cut up a medium/large purple onion. Throw it all in, give it a good mix, don't let it the dry ingredients to stick to the sides.
There really isn't anything else to it, you want to bring it to a good boil initially. Stir frequently until you got a nice boil going. Once you know it's all mixed up good, you want to turn it down to low.
You want to cook this for an hour an a half, but longer will result in a more complex flavor and it is well worth any time you invest past the 1.5 hours. I have never gone past 3 hours so but it holds up well if you want to keep it warm.
I never expected to post anything cooking related here but if you make it, I'd love to hear about it.