Well today certainly turned out to be an eventful day in our home! My husband finally got back to having weekends off and without his pager going off! It turned out to be a beautiful day in North Alabama so we decided to load up the kids (our sons friend as well who we love to jokingly say is our adopted son) late morning and go to some very last minute Christmas shopping as we had just a few things left to accomplish. Our trip to the bookstore ended up than becoming a trip to the pet store next door to the bookstore (the kids LOVE animals!) which ended with us returning home with a beautiful adopted yellow tiger kitty. Now this may be a decision we regret as I am highly allergic to cats, as well as dogs including our hypoallergenic Shih Tzu. I basically am allergic to the world, in my allergist words and he’s not kidding. And by the way…shhhh…. kitty is a secret to nice Mr. Allergist:-) But since I’m on month 3 of allergy shots I’m praying that this works out for us all as we love this beautiful kitty that is 8 months old and so full of love and personality! We are also praying that Miss Maggie Shih Tzu becomes less obsessive with him and that they become friends, or heck, we will even accept them just becoming civil enough just to be able to pass in the hallway without dispute. This never happened with our previous cats, who are now in Kitty Heaven. Anyways, my plan for today was to make a big pot of my tasty chili, not adopt a new kitty, just finish shopping and make chili. I’m happy to say, I did finally end up making that chili and as always it was delish! Although this too became quite an event as my son and his friend decided, against our rules and their better judgement, to kick a large nerf ball through my kitchen, which knocked over a glass on the island counter causing a major spill and shattered glass everywhere! Thankfully it missed the pot of chili and my husband jumped in to clean up the mess. As much as I hate mess and my rules broken, I wouldn’t trade these moments for anything as I love spending time with my kids and their friends. The chili recipe I made tonight (I often modify it a little) is so tasty and I wanted to blog it for you all in case you are looking for a new one to try. Here it is:-) This makes a large batch as this is a doubled batch. You don’t need to make this much but I figure you are doing all the work, why not have leftovers for lunch the next day or as we often do, have friends over to share:-) This chili is always great leftover as the flavors really settle in nicely.

Ingredients:

1.30 to 1.5 lbs ground turkey

1 large link of fully cooked smoked turkey sausage, diced into large chunks

1 medium onion, chopped

2 green peppers chopped

1 red pepper chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

2 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp paprika

1/2 tbsp ground red pepper

dash of cinnamon

2 cans condensed tomato soup

4 cans no salt added diced tomatos

4 cans of kidney beans (I do 2 light red and 2 dark red)

In a sauce pan cook ground turkey, smoked sausage, onions and peppers until ground turkey is no longer. Drain. Add tomato soup, diced tomatos, chili powder, paprika, ground pepper, and garlic, mix together well, cover and cook on medium heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Depending on your stove you may need to adjust the temp a little as to not burn it. Add kidney beans, cover and heat for 10 more minutes. Remove from heat, let sit for a few minutes and serve.