It was one of those days where I didn't want to get out of bed because it was chilly outside, and I just happen to see a bunch of beans and chili powder when looking for breakfast, so I'm making chili.

First thing I did was grab my largest pot with the glass lid and toss it on the stove with the heat turned to med-hi, then I tossed about 2 pounds of 80/20 ground beef in there. The beef was still a little frozen so I turned the heat down to medium and put the lid on the pot.

I don't like to use frying pans for ground beef for a few reasons.

1) I always make a larger mess with a frying pan, the low sides let stuff splatter out
2) I'm almost always using the ground beef in something that requires a pot anyways
3) One less greasy pan to wash

While my beef is cooking I bust out the cutting board and start slicing up fresh garlic. Ever since I saw The Godfather where whats his name used a razor blade to slice the garlic really thin, I slice my garlic instead of chop or dice it. I don't use a razor blade, but I have razor sharp knives and I've gotten pretty good at slicing it super thin. Just like he says in the movie, it just melts when you cook it, so you never end up biting into a little chunk of garlic.

I spend a few minutes with my cake batter spatula and a fork breaking up the now thawed and partially cooked ground beef, then I setup the strainer in the sink and rinse my utensils off before I go and pet my cat and watch TV waiting for the beef to cook. I go back and forth for a little while, rinsing my hands off every time I pet the cat so I don't get cat hair in the food until the beef is cooked.

Once the beef is cooked I dump it in the strainer in the sink and give the pot a quick rinse out. I leave a little bit of water in teh pot and put it back on the store with the heat turned down the medium. I use just enough water so that I can pickup the pot by the handles and swirl around spices and turn it all into a soupy paste.

I toss in my garlic slices, a little garlic powder, some parsley, some fresh ground black pepper, and swirl it all around and get it wet. Once it starts to boil (which is pretty quick) I take it off the heat and set it aside.

I turn my attention back to the ground beef that's draining in the strainer, I pick it up and give it a few good tosses to make sure it's drained, then I dump the beef back in the pot with the spice water.

I like to put the majority of my spices in water or oil and get them activated before putting the meat in with them. I think the liquid helps the essence of the spices get into the meat better. Draining the meat and leaving it sit for a minute lets it dry out a little so that the meat will sponge up that spice juice too.

I use my cake spatula to spread the meat out and then I shake my pot a little so little pieces of meat settle down into the nooks and soak up that spice juice. Then after a minute I start stirring it all up. when I'm done there should be no liquid in the bottom of the pot and I should see remnants of parsley on all of the meat.

It's important to mention that I have to rinse my cake spatula off after using it if I'm going to set it down. Unlike a stainless steel utensil where you can just set it in a dish on the stove and wash everything later, doing so with a rubber and plastic spatula will stain the spatula and make it look dirty.

I put the lid back on the pot and keep the heat at medium while I grab the can opener and a large can of tomato puree.

When I open cans, I don't go all the way around. I leave just enough uncut so that the lid stays attached. I don't like fiddling with a lid that's fallen into the can, I don't like accidentally dropping the lid on the floor and having a splatter mess to clean up either. I can one-hand any can when it's been opened like that. If it's something that needs drained I can just hold one finger over the lid any old way I like and the attached part will make sure the lid doesn't tilt to the side and slip out of my grip.

I take care when dumping the puree into the pot to make sure I spread it around instead of just dumping it all in the center, that way I can pickup the pot and give it a few seconds of shaking to get that puree down incorporated with the meat. That way I don't have to stir it, the puree just settles down into the spaces between the meat.

I put the lid back on and grab some beans. I use kidney beans and black beans. I open both cans and dump them into the strainer because the liquid that they come in is syrupy which means there's something in it other than water. Then I open a can of tomatoes and after draining the watery liquid into the sink with the one-finger-thinger I dump them into the pot.

This is where I realize they're whole peeled tomatoes. Dangit. So I fork them onto the cutting board and crudely chop them up. Razor sharp knives really cone in handy here, if my knife hadn't been sharp I would have had a huge mess when the tomato insides squirted out. Instead, the insides just kinda spilled onto the cutting board where I was able to rinse them away in the sink. I already puree, I just wanted the actual tomatoes for texture.

By now my pot is bubbling so I turn the heat down to med-low, closer to low really. Once I dump the beans and tomatoes in I stir everything up, and using a cake spatula is really nice here because I can scrape the side of the pot.

I just realized I forgot to mention one thing I did when it was just the ground beef and spice juice in the pot. I added two small cap fulls of vanilla extract. Why ? I don't know, it was just in front of my face and sounded like a good idea.

NOW, I added my chili powder and paprika. While the chili was bubbling slowly I coated the top of the chili with both spices. and let it soak in a little before stirring. I also added a light coat of curry powder.

Covered and on low heat, I let it cook for about 15 minutes, then I tasted it and it was a little bland so I added another layer of chili powder and some red pepper. As well as some salt.

I let it cook covered on low for an hour or so, using my cake spatula to scrape the sides and mix the liquid from the top back into the mix every 15 minutes.

It turned out awesome, even though it's spicy I can still taste a small hint of vanilla after eating a bowl.

This is quite the chili recipe!!! I'm glad it turned out for you! I made my first ever chili in the crock pot last week and it turned out okay. I think I'll try a different recipe the next time... maybe yours!