We make chili year round and joke about it in the spring and summer when it doesn't seem to fit the weather. We just like it. I will admit, though, that there's something even more appealing about it when the weather is cold.
I've grown tired of the chili fans who say that something has to be their definition in order to be "real". Chili, like barbecue, is in the eyes (and taste buds) of the beholder. Chili can have added ingredients and still stay chili as long as the flavor is chili peppers. Variation are allowable within reason. The barbecue I fix in a competition is different from what I fix at home and different from what I get in restaurants. It's all barbecue if it's cooked outdoors over some kind of fire.
I am SO broadminded about what gets put in chili that I allow my wife and grandson to add sour cream to theirs
. I do not express my opinion on this abomination and keep it all bottled up inside. I wouldn't dream of actually eating chili with sour cream in it but I can go eat mine in the other room so as not to be overcome with waves of nausea at the look and smell of it (good on baked potatoes and for chip dip, though). I am so caring of my family that I'll make really good chili fully knowing that some of it will be ceremonially defiled with sour cream. That's unconditional love, right
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Hub