Game Day Chili

Our first foray into chili experimenting has come! As a Christmas gift last year I received a one-year subscription to Better Homes & Gardens, a magazine which I have quite come to enjoy. I think this means I'm old. Nonetheless, with each issue I receive I find at least a couple of recipes that I would like to try, and in a recent issue there was this recipe for Game Day Chili. I was intrigued by the ingredients of this recipe, which included dried plums, paprika, cloves, and my all-time favorite food...chocolate. (If you're looking at this recipe online, I think you need to also look up the recipe for chili seasoning puree, because that is a mixture of ingredients that you are required to make as part of this recipe). Overall, the recipe was not difficult to put together and then it went into the slow-cooker for several hours, which left me lots of time to play with my boys and watch some good old college football.

Overall, this chili recipe was agreed to be just alright. It was honestly a little bit too sweet, and the sweetness was slightly strange. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy sweetness in a chili, but this recipe just seemed like a little bit of overkill. BJ especially does not like sweetness in a chili recipe, so he was not impressed with this one. One thing to keep in mind is that some chili becomes better as it stands. BJ and I have a tradition of always eating chili dogs with our leftover chili the next day for lunch, which is usually during a nice NFL game on Sunday. We both strongly believed that Game Day Chili was better the next day on top of hot dogs than it was the night before. It really did improve with some standing and chilling.

Grades for Game Day Chili
Jenny: B
BJ: C