Kari Jo Cooks: Vikings Game Day Chili

So I decied to make this chili today for the guys as we watch the packers and hope to god they get rolled. As my boyfriend says, "The packers aren't the best team in the NFL. They're just the best in a division with teams who consistently choke."

Anyways, this can be whatever team's game day chili you want. Its a pantry purger--tons of ingredients from both fridge and pantry. Honestly, the worst part of this is chopping up the peppers and celery because it takes forever and if you don't know what you're doing, your hand will get sore and you'll get pissed off.

Speaking of which.....

Here is a short video of how to properly use a chef's knife. The red pepper shows the wrong way to chop, the green pepper the correct way. You should be moving the knife in a circular motion, not just chopping up and down like the tip of the knife is on a hinge.

That being said, some of you may have a santoku knife, which is curved and blunted at the end, which kind of prevents you from being able to use the circular slicing motion.

And if you have a nakiri knife, I'm jealous and I hate you.

So, if you have a regular pointed chef's knife, pretend the heel of the knife (where the blade meets the handle) is attached to a clock's minute hand, and its going around and around. (the clock is not facing you, its facing the right or left). Does that make sense? I can't find the stupid diagram I learned it from.

demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boL-DU9Svio&feature=youtu.be

You can see how when you just chop up and down as if the tip of the knife is on a hinge, it doesn't slice through the pepper. When you use a circular motion, perfect slices.

Time for ingredients!

2 pounds ground beef chuck
1 pound italian sausage
45 oz chili beans (one large can or three small)
2 cans diced tomatoes
one can tomato paste
three bell peppers (I used red, orange, and green)
two jalapenos
any other peppers you want (I have no idea what kind I grabbed at meijer)
one white or yellow onion
three celery stalks
4-6 cloves of garlic (or minced garlic)
4 cubes beef buillion
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup chili powder
1/2 cup cumin
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp oregano
dash of basil
1 strip of bacon, cut up
2 tsp hot sauce
1 cup of beer
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce (how the hell do you spell that)

OKAY. its important to note that you can modify this recipe literally any way you want. There is a rule of thumb where if you have a dish you want to make that has hundreds of variations of recipes, you can probably do whatever you want with the recipe. We're not baking here and its' not science. For example, you might not love cumin and chili pepper like me, so you can tone it down to a 1/4 cup or whatever.

Lets go!

Like I said, tons of ingredients. Sorry.

Brown your ground beef and italian sausage. I had to squeeze the sausage out of the casings and it was so disgusting.

Take it out and drain the extra fat. You don't HAVE to do this, but I did.

We got fond. remember fond? its the best.

Cut up your peppers...

and onions and bacon and garlic....

dump it in with a little more oil.

let it sweat.

pour in some beer. whatever you have will work, I used this because I would never drink it normally. It tastes like labatt blue and I hate that stuff unless I'm at a game where I can't get anything else.