hoosier chili

If I learned anything from my time living in Indiana it is this:

1. Hoosiers can make a mean chili, and
2. They love said chili served with noodles.

Sometimes I find myself homesick for the flat farmlands and down-to-earth people in Indiana, so I got excited when I recently stumbled across a recipe for Hoosier Chili in my David Letterman cookbook. Yesterday, with temperatures in the 30s and a wind chill on top of that, was a perfect day for chili, so I pulled out the stock pot, simmered the ingredients, and put an incredibly delicious dinner on the table.

Hoosier Chili
2 lbs extra-lean ground beef
2 cups chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp chili powder, or to taste
2 16-oz cans stewed tomatoes
1 46-oz can tomato or V8 vegetable juice
1 can beef broth
1/2 cup uncooked elbow macaroni (I used closer to 1 cup)
1 15-oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

In large Dutch oven or soup kettle, brown beef until no longer pink. (Drain, if necessary.) Add onions, celery, peppers, and garlic. Continue cooking until vegetables are tender. Add all remaining ingredients except macaroni and beans. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, simmer for 1 1/2 hours, adding macaroni for last half hour of cooking time. Stir in beans and heat through.

Yields: Enough for a small army. (Consider yourselves warned.)
Is Even Tastier Served with: Sweet Cornbread

Seriously, this is the best chili, hands down, that I have ever eaten. (Sorry, Mom.)

***

But speaking of moms, specifically mine and Blake's. And our dads, too. Today they are celebrating their 29th (mine) and 30th (his) wedding anniversaries. (The fact that our parents were married on the same day just one year apart is only the first of many strange coincidences realized upon our union, among which also include the facts that Blake and I are both the oldest and, for almost every sibling we have, the other has one very close in age. Bizarre and oddly fascinating. But anyway...)

Happy anniversary to Dave & Nancy and Gary & Joyce!