Kelly's Texas Chili

Here's my own concoction of homemade chili, and I call it Texas chili because I live in Texas. Clever, I know. It's always fun to tweak recipes like this and add your favorite ingredients, but this is a good start. I created this recipe on my own, and don't claim that it's perfect, but it's certainly been a hit when we have a hungry crowd to feed. Enjoy!

3 pounds ground beef
2 large onions, diced
2 cans (14.5 ounces) petite diced tomatoes
1 can (15 ounces) kidney beans
1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce
1/2 cup chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons cumin
1 1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced garlic
1 teaspoon onion powder
6 cups water

Optional topping ingredients:

tortilla chips
diced onion
Colby Jack cheese, freshly grated

Brown the ground beef and onion, combined in a large pot. Drain excess fat that cooks off, then add the remaining ingredients and simmer for an hour or so. It can be made a day or two in advance of an event and reheats nicely in a large crock pot. Top with the ingredients listed or add your own favorites.

Comments

Pralines and Dreams

I considered myself to be a decent cook and baker. However, candy making had been unchartered territory until I recently cracked the code of a favorite—chewy Texas Pecan Pralines. This culinary epiphany came only days before I left my home sweet home in Austin, Texas, to return to CU Boulder after an epic hiatus to wrap up my bachelor’s degree in journalism. When I was a little girl, I remember tasting heavenly, creamy homemade pralines, bursting with pecans, handcrafted with love by my mom. She only whipped them up a few times, but I just couldn’t get the memory of those buttery, sugary treats out of my head. They were that good. I asked her if she still had the recipe, but I knew it would be hopeless since my mom wasn’t one for keeping track of her down-home style cooking. I married my college sweetheart, a guy with the same first name as me, and began teaching myself to cook. Becoming “Kelly Times Two” was amazing, and I had ...

It's my birthday!

Here's a cute little picture of me in kindergarten, 1968. All my life, I've never forgotten this shot below in first grade (1969) when the photog asked me to say "peaches" and he snapped the shot at the "ch" sound. If you're trying to get a kid to smile, don't tell them to say peaches. It's scarred me for life. Mom, what the heck happened to my hair? Did I fix it myself? After all, I was in second grade and very capable. My grandma crocheted that groovy vest for me, but who is responsible for the hack job on my hair? Hello, 1970! Who knows where my third grade picture is. We moved so often, changing schools, that I might have missed picture day. Next is my fourth grade mug shot. I must have sworn off bangs by then. Thank goodness for those plastic barrettes to deal with the in-between length. Notice how every year I wore green? Yeah, it's been my favorite color for as long as I can remember. I don't have an actual school pic of me in f...

The BIG REVEAL!

We LOVE our new pool! There are a couple of problems that need to be fixed, so we're crossing our fingers that they get it done right, and soon, considering we have given them the final check for the balance of the pool, and we don't have any leverage. Three of the waterfalls work. This is the main one and I like the natural look. Below, here's the deep end waterfall, and it's flows nicely. The water sheer like this one, that flows into the shallow beach area, is the fall that is not working. It's frustrating, but hopefully they'll fix it soon. The fountain in the spa is blocked too. Here's the small rock waterfall, which works just great. It took about 18 hours to fill the pool and we practically watched it gallon by gallon. I stayed up all night long, making sure it didn't overflow. We swim in it every day. Last night we went on a midnight swim and it was beautiful. The water temperature is perfect. I'm extremely thankful that we have our new...

Kelly Times Two

Search This Blog