So when I left home and began cooking for myself and my family, we completely eliminated the macaroni.  I love this chili.  I brown the meat, leaving sizeable pieces of hamburger, and it seems to me that it is a little heartier chili.

    Kidney beans were in my mother’s original recipe, too.  I do not like the hard shells on kidney beans in chili.  I eliminated them and now use a can of spicy chili beans instead.  We always drained the kidney beans, but I now use the entire can of chili beans.  There is extra flavor in the sauce.

    When we moved to Kentucky, I found ‘Buena Vida Chili Powder’ and have been using it for many, many years.  It comes in a packet weighing .63 ounces and has chili pepper, paprika, salt, garlic powder, and red pepper in it.  It seems like a good combination of spices for the chili.  It’s a little more complex than the plain old chili powder we used when I was growing up at home.

   We live right across the river from Cincinnati and, of course, you have heard of Cincinnati chili.   It is world famous.   Sorry, but I am not so crazy about their chili.  I am definitely not a fan of cinnamon in my chili like Skyline offers.  I do, however, like my own recipe for chili served over thin spaghetti and topped with grated cheddar.  That is something we never did back in Indiana!   Of course, that is a take from Cincinnati’s Gold Star Chili and Skyline Chili.  ( Perhaps that is where my mother got the idea for the macaroni in her version of chili…)

    At the end of each summer, my mother would can vegetables from our rather sizeable vegetable garden.  She always canned tomato juice for use during the winter months.  That is what we used for chili.  I would like to say that I do the same thing, but that would be a lie!  I don’t have a large vegetable garden and one thing I have not taken up is canning.  The canned tomato juice from the grocery works just fine.

    With just six simple ingredients, this easy homemade chili can be whipped up on a busy night after work, in no time.  Each Halloween night, I make a pot of chili for the family.  They are in and out all night and can grab a bowl when they want.  We always try to make sure the grandchildren have a bowl of my easy homemade chili before they start their trick-or-treating.                     For the recipe click here. ▲