Mom's Chili

So my mom (Lisa) has been known to get around the kitchen. A few years ago there was a ward activity that included a chili cooking contest. She likes to experiment with recipes and cook so she decided to make three different types of chili to share and they all ended up in the contest. The judges didn't know who had made each pot as they tasted the chili and her recipe won first place! Then her other recipe was awarded second place. And yeah, the last recipe she entered got third.

So even though it's August Amy has been craving chili. Go figure. She got one of these recipes from my mom for chicken chili (Amy wouldn't eat ground beef if her life depended on it) and we set out to the store to get the ingredients. First of all, what are ranch beans? We didn't know, and our grocery store didn't have them so we had to substitute other beans. All beans are pretty good anyway. Then the recipe called for green peppers. Does that mean green bell peppers or green jalapeno peppers? We figured bell peppers aren't spicy so we went with the jalapeno peppers.

As we started cooking all of this stuff it smelled delicious and the jalapenos (2 medium sized bad boys) didn't smell too hot so I chopped them up and threw them in. By the way, we were halving the recipe since it's just us two.

It was pretty hot. Amy likes spicy food and she had about three bites and threw in the towel. She described it as "so hot that it killed all my taste buds and I may never enjoy food again." I thought it was pretty spicy but I managed to knock out my bowl...and the rest of hers. The next time I have a cold we are making this stuff again and I'm sure it will clear me right up.

I brought some to work the next day for lunch and shared a little with my coworkers and the one girl that really likes spicy food got red in the face, started sweating, and headed straight for the water cooler.

Anyway, it was a little too spicy but delicious, even in August. Maybe Amy will post the recipe for anyone that's interested. But if you decide to make it, go easy on the jalapeno peppers...