Selling Chili

My youngest is in the High School’s Show Choir, and they had a Chili sale during the Homecoming game to raise money for the group. I ‘volunteered’ to help sell some of the chili. My first official chore was to help set up the tables needed to put the many crock pots of chili on. The next was to taste all of the different chili to make be able to tell all the customers/donation specialists if a specific chili was too spicy or something like that.

I can say that all of the chili was very good, but there wasn’t a lot of spice in any of them. On my grading scale of chili they all would have been a zero. On the normal people scale, (those who don’t tolerate the spice as well as I do) I guess there would have been a 1 in the group. There were not a 5 alarm chili in the group.

The number of different chili recipes is astounding. I was amazed that each chili had a specific flavor. It would appear that each cook had their own secret ingredient. I didn’t have the time to be able to cook a chili for this event, so I just brought the shredded cheese and crackers. Not sure on the money raised, but the chili was gone before half-time. And there was a lot of chili.

Now for a quick and easy (and not bad tasting) chili recipe.

1 1/2 lbs ground beef browned with 2 cloves of garlic (drained)
4 – 16 oz cans of Brooks Chili Beans ( I like the 16 oz cans for this so I can use different ‘heats’ if desired — I like the HOT)
1 can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup (Progresso is good too)
2 tbls chili powder.
Hot sauce to taste at table.

Combine browned meat, soup and beans and chili powder. Heat through. Done that’s it. Told you it was quick and easy.

The best bean chili I’ve had starts with tomatoes and dried beans. I’m surprised the recipe didn’t call for you to butcher your own cow. I think I supplied a version of a beanless chili to the WCCT cookbook. I can’t remember….