Game Day or Any Day Chili Soup!

As the wind blows and the snow/sleet/rain flows, I am reminded of an old favorite recipe. You may have enjoyed this chili soup on game day in Columbus! The recipe comes from my good friend, Mitch Bambauer.

Please note: The following list of ingredients are round about figures. You can add or take away as much as you like to taste. I honestly do not have a firm recipe to go by. Still, do not let this detour you. It will turn out no matter what you put in it!

3/4-1 pound of hamburger- browned
One medium to large chopped onion (you can put some of the onion in while frying the hamburger)
One large green bell pepper chopped
One large yellow or red bell pepper chopped
One 16 ounce can chili beans
One 16 ounce can light red or dark red kidney beans
One 16 ounce can of diced tomatoes
One 16 ounce of tomato sauce. Feel free to add more as needed. May also use tomato juice if you desire. Sauce will equate to a thicker soup than juice.
2 table spoons of garlic powder (more to taste)
2 table spoons of onion powder (more to taste)
2 table spoons of chili powder (more to taste)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2-3 Jalapeno Peppers-slice open down the side and allow to float in the chili while cooking. You may want to take them out before serving. Some people see the peppers and get scared that the soup is super spicy. These peppers mostly add flavor, not heat.

Feel free to add more brown sugar. When we make a whole roaster, Seth likes to put in the whole bag of brown sugar.

Again, you can add more of any of these ingredients should you desire. This recipe can be easily doubled, tripled and roaster-ed!

You can serve this chili with crackers, cheese, sour cream, and/or green onions.

Now, I'd like to tell you a story about a recent time I made this soup!

This fall we went to my Uncle Dean's for an Oliver Gang party. I made a roaster full of this chili that day. It takes a little bit of time to cut up all of the ingredients, fry the hamburger, and so on, especially when you are making a roaster full. When it came time to leave, Seth carried it out to the truck for me and put it on the floor behind the driver seat. We started driving to Willshire and when we got to Mercer he said, "That light's red!" I slammed on the brakes and half the chili sloshed out of the roaster and up under my seat. The windows even fogged up from the "hot mess" the chili created. Needless to say, we turned around, went home, cleaned it up, and left again. We had to take a knife and dig chili out of the cracks of the heat vents to the back seats. Luckily, winter came soon, so the heat of the fall/summer didn't bake the smell! We did take the remaining half to the party. No, it was not contaminated.