ALEXANDRIA, Va. — This winter, I decided I would finally make chili for the first time. Erica beat me to it earlier in the season with a pretty good first effort on her own part. Still, I wanted to try it for myself and when it was my turn, skip the beans.

# 1½ lbs of 93% lean ground beef
# 1½ lbs of “fajita” beef
# 1½ large onion
# 1 box of Shotgun Willie’s chili seasoning (seasoning and corn four)
# ½ line
# Approximately 1 tbsp cumin
# 3 spalshes of Tabasco sauce
# 8 onces of Heinz chili sauce
# 2 cups of water
# 8 onces of Yuengling Lager

I had about 1½ lbs of ground beef at home, but knew I needed more. I forgot to pick up some more at one grocery store, so at the next one, I decided to get some fajita beef since it was the same price. Also, I had been planning on doing it from scratch, but when I saw the box of “Shotgun Willie’s” I figured I’d try it.

I had half a lime leftover from the day it was 75° and I had a gin and tonic. I squeezed that out into the frying pan before adding the ground beef. I’ve been using lime with tacos for years, though in greater quantities. I also threw some onion, not a lot, in the pan for flavor.

After browning the ground beef, I moved on to browning the fajita beef. Out of laziness, I cooked most of it before cutting it up which probably saves zero time. I chopped it up after browning, probably a little too much, and added it to the crock pot with the beef. Then, I combined the Shotgun Willie’s seasoning powder, the diced onions and about 8 oz. of Heinz chili sauce with the meat. I stirred it up and added to cups of water. In retrospect, I should have skipped the water and gone with beer right away.

At the 3 hour mark, I opened the lid for the first time. I found that the onion was overwhelming all other flavors. My solution was to add about a tablespoon of cumin. I also tried removing some of the moisture (wiping off the lid, pooling a little in a spoon, etc.). I did this about every half-hour for several hours.

After 5 hours had elapsed, I was comfortable that enough water had been removed that I added some beer, probably about 4 oz. initially. I put just a bit more cumin in too.

As we approached serving time, about 7 hours into the preparation, I followed the instructions for adding the corn flower from the Shotgun Willie’s box, except I substituted beer for water. That helped thicken the chili up and gave it a little more flavor.

The cayenne pepper seasoning was skipped on account acid reflux concerns or in Texas speak “east coast sissies” :p

When it came time to serve, I had my bowl with saltines and Yuengling. It was pretty tasty, the extra cumin made a big difference, though I wouldn’t have minded a little of that cayenne in it. Other lessons learned — no more adding water, just beer. I’d also add less chili sauce because I don’t need a lot of tomato in my chili. Additionally, I’ll not cook the beef stripes as much.

As with most slow cooked food, the second time around, it tasted better.