New Years Chili

New Years Chili is a tradition that my mom started when we lived in Hawaii. to say my mom LOVED football would be an understatement! She loved all of her California teams for sure, Joe Montana of the 49ers was one of her favorites, but she didn't care if it was college, pro, pre or post season, she just enjoyed watching the game.

In Hawaii, in the 70's, there was no tape delay, and no cable. We got football on Sunday's starting at 7 am, which would have been fine, except my mom watched while she cooked in the kitchen, directly below my sister and my room. Imagine if you will, being a teenager, waking up to your mother yelling "NAIL 'EM!" before 9 in the morning. Not that much fun I can assure you.

Anyway, Mom liked her football, and New Years Day used to be the holy grail of football days. Games all day, lots of pageantry and pomp. It was a great day to just stay home and watch some football. Dad would put 2 or more TV's in the Family Room, Mom always had one on in the kitchen and there might even have been one on the radio, who knows. It was all about the football so Mom made a big pot of Chili and since there was always a pot of rice because us kids ate rice with everything, and was in heaven watching football, while we dished up chili and rice throughout the day.

When we moved to the mainland when my sister was in college, the chili tradition remained, and we insisted that there be rice because that's what we were used to, and friends and neighbors started getting invited to come by for a bowl.

Now we have made it our New Years Day tradition. This year we extended the invitation to friends and neighbors and had a party. Over 60 people came to enjoy chili at our house. It was a great way to bring in the new year.

I'd love to give you the recipe here, but I can't, it's one of those things that mom taught me to do where you just toss the stuff in a pot till it tastes right. I will give away a couple of my secret ingredients though. I use equal amounts of ground beef and Italian sausage, and I add canned mushrooms.

Happy New Year and Happy New Decade to all!