Chili, any way you like it

Jeffreyw, Wikimedia Commons

Enjoy a bowl of chili made just the way you like it.

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National Chili Day is always on the last Thursday of February, which happens to be February 26 this year. One of the great things about chili is that you can make it any way you like.

Meaning, if you don’t eat meat, make a vegetarian or vegan version. Don’t like hot and spicy? Tone it down to suit your comfort zone. Add this or take away that, and you end up with your own custom-made chili.

I think all of us have specific likes and dislikes regarding food (not counting one guy my husband knew in the Coast Guard, who just about inhaled anything he could digest). My mother-in-law always made chili with canned crushed toma- toes and kidney beans. Nobody can say it wasn’t good, but to this day, I do not care for kidney beans in homemade chili. I prefer pinto or pinquito beans, if you can find them.