Finally.....Chili Weather

We've had a very mild winter until the past week when the temperatures finally began to dip and show some actual signs of winter!! I am much more a cold weather person than a hot weather person (especially if it involves a lot of humidity) and I love making a big pot of chili with all the spices that I can pack in and still make it edible. So it was with a great deal of joy that I put on a large pot of chili this morning and began concocting like a mad scientist with the various tools of destruction at my disposal. One thing I've learned over the years is that I never make any two batches of chili that are exactly the same. I use basically the same ingredients, but somehow, each batch is unique. I've also learned that for some reason, my first batch each year, isn't all that great. Luckily this is the second batch (the first was my attempt to make the weather get cold enough for chili). And I will also eat enough chili to almost make me sick...I just can't stop eating it. I was that way as a kid as well....me and my brother would take to doctoring my daddy's chili (because it was never hot enough) and then we would gorge ourselves until we could barely move and then lay around until we had digested enough to have another helping. For the first time, I tried chili in a bread bowl today. It was quite tasty, but so much bread that you got full too fast on the bread! I won't make that mistake again...because it really should be just all about the chili! And as soon as I can breath again I think I'll have nother bowl.