It's Chilly, I should have some Chili.

Man, I brought up alcohol and the world exploded on my computer! Oh well. People have strong feelings about alcohol. I don't.

Up here in the Arctic, it's getting pretty chilly at night. I mean, the other night as a cardboard box was banging against our house, I walked downstairs with my .357 and went to shoot the intruder. (P.S. Note to thieves...please don't come to my house in the middle of the night, I like to keep a gun next to my bed...oh, and my son does too. Oh yeah, so does my husband, so...its not a good idea.) Finding out it was cardboard was great. Except that I crunched some frost on the deck. Ugh. FROST. Like as in, it's cold at night here.

Darn. I thought we were having global warming and maybe, JUST MAYBE we wouldn't have a winter this year!!? Shucks. That wasn't the case when the thermometer read 33 degrees out.

What's better than chili on a cool autumn evening? Not much in my book, especially if its my kind of chili. Which, by the way, is COMPLETELY different than my mom's. I mean, I like chunky chili and she likes two ingredient chili (meat and beans) that's runny.

So, when a friend of mine asked me, via Facebook, cause you know that's our mode of communication now to make Chili, I was on it!

Here's MY recipe for the BEST chili ever.



Maija's BEST-EVER Chili (!)

A medium onion, chopped
Three or Four carrots, chopped
A TBS or two of oil
Cook until the onions are translucent in the bottom of a large pot.
Cut up one whole section of Reindeer Sausage. Polish sausage works just as well. Slice into disks, then quarter and add to carrot/onion mixture and brown.
Add to it two pounds ground moose or caribou meat (And if you MUST use beef, I'd cook it first, then drain the crap out of it, rinse it with water and then cook the onion and carrots, adding the cooked beef (gag.) afterwards. Cook until your meat is browned evenly.
Add your chili spices. (I use a combination of prepackaged mix and chili powder)
Open an industrial size can of Kidney Beans (for four or five small cans) and pour off about half the juice, then add to the pot.
Add half an industrial size can of corn (or two or three small cans), drained.
Add three or four cans of Chili Ready diced tomatoes.
Cook the crap out of it until its reached the thickness you want.
We serve ours with Corn Bread and Sour Cream. Yum.

OK, don't say I never gave you anything now! Enjoy your Chili on those Chilly nights!