November is here. What does that mean in the Caribbean? Well, instead of the summer temperature of plus 30 everyday, its a brisk 28. (I know, Jacket weather right) But also a few more rainy nights, and they are welcomed. Don’t get me wrong, I love the summer and defiantly am not a fan of rain when it is everyday, but having a nice downpour every now that makes me want to stay inside, get all cozy and cook a big pot of chill is a great day. Perhaps catch up on a few Netflix shows while I am at it. So the other day I was slowly pushing the cart through the grocery store, figuring out what to make for dinner when it started to pour rain. POUR!!!! Literally everyone in the grocery store stopped to listen to the rain drops pounding on the roof and you could pick out the few people that walked there by the shear terror in their face. After listening for a couple more seconds I decided it was a chilli type of day. Something cozy.

Whenever I blog about something I like to dig into the history of it a little bit, get a background story. The first place I started was looking at the International Chili Society. Yes, people take their Chili seriously, very seriously. There is one rule that just doesn’t make sense to me, maybe because I am from Canada who knows. But in the ICS cookoffs it is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN to put beans in the Chili. What? But Why? Without beans isn’t it just kinda chill flavoured meat sauce, there is just no texture to it. That is my opinion anyways.

I was also trying to find out exactly how many chill cookoffs there are a year but it was too much. Every town in every city has one once a year, if not twice and that is not even counting the official ones, which are a lot. And there are also World Championships. Basically, people are obsessed with chilli. And incase you wanted to get into the competitive world of chill but are not quite sure how, you can just go the wikihow page on “How to win a Chili Cook off.” Seriously Wiki is there anything you cant teach us how to do?

P.S – I don’t think it’s as simple as it states
-Read Rules
-Make a Winning Chili
-Blend Spices

Hmm, How would I ever have come to those conclusions on my own.

After reading a little but more there are two things that I becomes aware of: 1) Like most iconic dishes, no one knows exactly where it started, but there are more then a few that claim to, and 2) You are either for beans, or against them

Here are a few Ideas for leftovers because Chili always tastes better the next day. If you have the time try making it the night before so it can sit and the flavours can all hold hands and do that special thing they do … get delicious

-Chili Hot Dog
-Chili Grilled Cheese
-Chili Cheese Fries
-Nachos with Chili
-Chili Mac and Cheese
-Baked Potato with Chili
– Chili Poutine (Because, Well, Im Canadian and it tastes like Heaven)

Mmmmmm …. So many chilli options. You should plan to make extra just so you can make one of these leftovers

On an end note, I found this quote by a man named Ken Finlay (Have no idea who he is) “If you know beans about chili, you know chili has no beans,” Well Ken Finlay, “I do know beans about Chili, and my Chili has got the beans.” – Sadie’s Kitchen Table