Sunday Football Chili

It's football season, which means it's chili season in my house. Living among three sports fanatics isn't easy most of year, but football season is especially, um, shall we say, "interesting." Baseball season, it's the Yankees all the way. When it comes to hoops, we're pretty much a Knicks family. But football season, we have two Jets fans (my husband and son Alex) going against a passionate (and extremely loud) Steelers fan (my son Luke), who tries to persuade me to even out the playing field by insisting I wear black and yellow and replace my kitchen towels with terrible towels. What puts me in a win-win situation is making a huge pot of chili that sits on the stove all day for them to enjoy from the first game to the last. And there's usually just enough left over for Monday night's game. As for me, I just grab a bowl with a bag of tortilla chips and hide.—Diana

To score with this recipe you'll need:
2-3 lbs ground meat (beef or turkey)
1 large onion, sliced in strips
1 cup diced red or green pepper
1 can kidney beans
1 large can diced tomatoes
Chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp pepper

Sprinkle the salt on the bottom of a large pot and brown the meat. Add the onions and peppers to the meat and sautee for a few minutes. I usually add some chili powder at this point to give the meat additional flavor. Add the kidney beans (with the juice) and tomatoes. Clean the tomato can out with a little water and add to the pot. Add more chili powder and pepper. (As a variation, you can make a 3 bean chili by adding, along with the kidney beans,  one can of black beans and one can of cannellini beans.)

Simmer for 60 to 90 minutes. Serve with hot peppers or, if you like your chili extra hot, put the hot peppers in the chili while its cooking. Top with your favorite shredded cheese and a dollop (I love that word) of sour cream. Touchdown!