Angela's Chili

    My dear friend Angela and I share lots and lots of things.  Almost everything, in fact.  We share an office with one another.  We share plenty of friends.  We share mothering woes and tips.  We share a car dealership which is how we ended up with identical cars parked right next to each other at work.  We share books.  We share beauty and fashion advice and often share identical taste in clothing.  I could go on and on and on but I am pretty sure you get the point by now.  We have a whole lot in common.

   One of the best things Angela and I share is our love of cooking and baking.  Consequently, we share recipes.  All the time.

   For my entire life, I was completely satisfied with my recipe for chili.  My grandmother had passed this recipe to my Aunt Donna and she in turn passed it to me.  One of the things I loved best about this recipe was that it made an uncluttered chili.  I have realized that I simply just don't like a whole bunch of stuff in my chili.  I get the whole layers of flavors thing; I really do.  Most of the time I love food that is full of interesting ingredients but not when it comes to chili.  I like it uncluttered, if you will.  So the basic recipe I had seemed to work great.  That is until I tasted Angela's chili.

   I had listened to Angela talk about how good her chili recipe was for years, but as usual, I am very stuck in my ways and thought I really didn't need a new recipe for something so basic as chili.  Again, mine worked fine.

    My husband and I somehow began a tradition of making chili and inviting friends over to watch poll results come in on the night of Presidential elections.  This past year, Angela and her family along with two other couples came over for this occasion.  Angela offered to bring a pot of chili over as well so for the first time, I tasted her chili.  There was no going back.  This now had to be my go-to recipe for chili!  My own mother even ended up switching to Angela's chili.  Like our old recipe, it is uncluttered but yet it has a complexity to the flavor.

   I have asked Angela about the origins of her chili recipe because I love to hear the stories behind where treasured recipes come from.  She doesn't remember and says only that she has a hand-written recipe card with the title "My Chili".  I love this and now think of it by that name!

  The key ingredients you need are kidney beans and stewed tomatoes.  I always and only use Bush's Beans in any recipe that calls for beans.  They really and truly are the best.  This is one place where I refuse to buy store brand!  As for the stewed tomatoes, I will be honest, they scared the hell out of me.  I have no idea why but I have never, ever thought they were something I should buy even though I love tomato products of all sorts.  Luckily, I tasted Angela's chili before I asked for the recipe because I doubt that I would ever have been brave enough to face them.  If, like me, you are scared of these cans, just get past it and make the chili.  I love tomato products from The Fresh Market because they are all grown in the US so that's what I always try to use.  I do use my kitchen shears to cut the tomatoes into smaller pieces once I add them to the ground beef as they usually come out of the can in big pieces.

   This recipe requires very little time to assemble and is great for weeknights after work and school.  I now even keep plastic bags in the freezer with pre-browned ground beef and onions in them so that we have it ready to just set to simmer.  Even if you are completely satisfied with your chili recipe, just give this recipe a try one time so that you can see how delicious it is for yourself!

     Angela's Chili
1 lb ground beef
1 c. chopped onion
2 (1 lb) cans stewed tomatoes
2 (1 lb) cans kidney beans, one light and one dark
2 T. chili powder
1 tsp salt (regular table salt, not Kosher or sea)
2 T. white sugar
2 T. cider vinegar
2 t. garlic powder

In a heavy saucepan, brown ground beef & onions until beef is done and onions are transparent. Drain grease if needed. Add tomatoes and chop with kitchen shears into smaller pieces.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 20ish minutes. 

Angela recommends making this the day before or the morning of the day you plan to serve it so that the flavors have time to develop.