Yesterday was a perfect day for chili.  It was cool and damp and a bit dreary.  I was craving chili.  I wanted a good, old fashioned, spicy, red chili.

I bought all the ingredients to make the perfect pot of chili.  I came home from the store and started dicing onion, mincing garlic, browning meat and opening can after can after can of beans and crushed tomatoes.  I filled our big 12 quart stockpot with all the fixings, turned the heat down and left to go to a meeting.  As I was driving home I got the text that something was not quite right with the chili.  Stan said it smelled “off” and just a little burnt.  Not quite the words I was looking for when trying for the perfect pot of chili…

I seriously thought about going out and buying all fresh ingredients and starting all over again but the boys said it was edible…again not quite what I was striving for with a pot of chili.

I got home and immediately smelled the burnt, scorched bits of beans, meat and onion but I decided to try and salvage what I could so I started ladling off giant spoonfuls of charred chili.  I transferred the contents to two smaller stockpots and gave it a taste.  Smoked chili. 

It’s neither good nor bad as far as I’m concerned but God love Zach he actually said it was “Good!”  So now, we have a new recipe in our house for smoked chili but I really wouldn’t recommend trying it unless you’re feeding a hungry 15 year old.  Luckily, we have two more gallons of it so hopefully Zach is hungry when he gets home tonight because it’s on the menu again.

Ahhhhhh, for the love of my children….