Autumn Is In The Air

Are you hungry yet? The weather hear is beginning to change and that means soups, stews and chili's in my book. We have actually had some nice cool days, well cool here means low 80's and upper 70's, but cool nevertheless. I made chili last week and it turned out great. I had made this chili the first time for super bowl last year and it was a big hit. It's the Texas kind of chili with no beans. I found the original recipe on Recipezaar. The original recipe called for ground beef and Jimmy Deans breakfast sausage. While that is all good, I wanted to lighten the recipe a little and change up the meat. I used ground buffalo, which hardly has any fat and I used a roll of turkey breakfast sausage. The flavor did not suffer and my family thought it was a hit. The next day I used the leftovers to make chili cheese enchiladas. Yum!

Texas Style Chili (adapted from Recipezaar)

1 pound ground buffalo

1 pound roll turkey breakfast sausage

5 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons paprika

1 large white onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

3/4 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

16 ounces water

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons masa harina

1/2 cup warm water

1. Brown meat together in a large 12 inch skillet.

2. Stir in tomato sauce and 16 ounces of water.

3. Add all ingredients except cayenne pepper and masa.

4. Simmer 30 minutes.

5. Add cayenne pepper. Mix masa and 1/2 cup of warm water. Add to chili and stir well.

6. Simmer 20 minutes. You can simmer for hours if you want, just stir every 30 minutes.

7. Serves 8.