In Mendota, we didn’t think winter would ever arrive when we were lounging around in 70 degree temperatures in December.  Whoops!  Were we wrong!   It’s here!

We had a weird little snow last night that left things very slick so I took a serendipitous holiday/vacation day from work.   I was about to change my mind and go in around 9 am when WCYB TV came on with a report about all of the wrecks–one near where I work which, apparently, downed two power poles.  My driver said he wasn’t taking me and I wasn’t going to drive my Prius, so it was a day at home!!

So…it was a good day for chili and I’d been looking at a  Wendy’s chili recipe that I found on a website called www.topsecretrecipes.com.    I followed the recipe closely with the exception of medium tomatoes, chopped.   Instead,  I used the southern woman’s secret weapon for any recipe — our home canned tomatoes and then I reduced the amount of water that the recipe called for.    There are few things as good.

I can open the jar and just eat the tomatoes.  I only used the quart jar of tomatoes.

At any rate, I used a quart jar of tomatoes and just reduced the water in the recipe to 1 and 1/2 cups vs. 2 cups.

Here’s the recipe:

2 pounds of ground beef

one 29 oz. can tomato sauce

one 29 oz. can kidney beans (including liquid)

one 29 oz. can pinto beans (including liquid)

1 cup diced onion (1 medium onion)

1/2 cup sliced green chilies (2 chilies)

1/4 cup diced celery (1 stalk)

3 medium tomatoes, chopped (I used 1 quart of home canned tomatoes)

2 teaspoons cumin powder

3 tablespoons chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoons sale

2 cups water (I used 1 and 1/2 because of the water in the home canned tomatoes)

Brown the beef in a skillet over medium heat and drain the fat.   Using a fork, crumble the cooked beef into pea-size pieces.  (I mashed the heck out of the beef with a potato masher).  In a large pot, combine everything and cook about 2 to 3 hours, stirring every 15 minutes.

Here’s what it looked like.  I didn’t have any cheddar cheese to put in it so I used what I had…mozzarella cheese.    Yeah…I eat all my chili out on the porch in the snow.   It’s just our way around here.

This made a ton of chili, and it does taste like Wendy’s chili.    However, I miss those yellow cardboard bowls.

Have any of you heard about a large snow headed for southwest Virginia on February 16?  If you want that snow, you know what you need to do:

• Wear your pajamas wrong side out
• Sleep with a spoon under your pillow
• Flush six ice cubes down the commode
• Brush your teeth with the wrong hand

It works.   This is science.  You can make it happen.