Halloween wrap up.

We had a nice Halloween yesterday.  Skyler got to carve his first pumpkin and go trick or treeting at my parent's house.  I also made a batch of delicious chili!  Here are some highlight pics and a rough guideline on how to make (really easy) chili.

The canned ingredients.  Note the fire roasted tomatoes.  A key ingredient!

I chose a cross rib roast for grinding.  You'll need about a pound.  I cut this in half and we'll have the other half tonight!

The meat grinder plates.  I use the larger hole plate to get a coarse grind.

Grinding the meat.

Finished.  Look how much better it looks than store ground!

One half of an onion.  I quartered it and ran it through the meat grinder.

The onion minced nicely.  I also ran 3 cloves of garlic through at the same time.

Add the meat/onion/garlic to a medium high cast iron pot.  Lodge cast iron is what I use.  Made in the USA!

After adding the canned ingredients.

Add chili powder and simmer for 1-2 hours on low.  I thought this batch was mild, my Mom thought it was too spicy!  Adjust accordingly.  The fire roasted tomatoes were a "salsa style" meaning they had jalapenos and Anaheim chillies.  Also, the Roetel has heat in it.  

 After I got the chili going, Skyler and I carved a pumpkin.  He picked out a small one and we went to work.

"What are we doing Dad?"

Get the guts out!

Deeper!

"Hello?  What's in there?"

"Why are we doing this to our food?"

All carved minus the nose.

"I think there's still some inside here!"

In his tractor costume.  He was trying to see how it attached I think.

Finished pumpkins.  Skyler and mine on top, Altair's on the bottom.

Happy Halloween!  It was a nice day (warmest Halloween I can remember) and Skyler slept in until 9:00 this morning!!  Poor little guy, so tired!