Ground Beef and Sausage Chili

i was in a chili cook-off a couple of weeks ago.

and now i didn’t win. and no i’m not totally not bitter about it still. and by i, i mean we.

i didn’t think i’d enter into it. which is a little surprising because i make walking down the sidewalk with complete strangers a competition. just passed you, sucka! you should be in my head. it’s exhausting.

but there i was in the paper towel aisle of target and my phone went off. CALL ME BACK SASSY ASAP. IT’S URGENT.

that’s so carlyle. she can be yelling at you via text message and you’re grinning like a fool with a roll of charmain in your hands. because you know when you call her, she’s probably going to want to go to taco joint or go somewhere to watch football.

this time, she wanted to do the chili cook-off. thing is, carlyle doesn’t really cook a lot so mostly we’d just drink sauvignon blanc together and i’d be a bossy cook who made her chop cilantro. our friend’s boyfriend hosts it every year, and it’s always a lot of fun. everyone brings over crockpots and adult beverages and you literally just get to eat, drink and be merry.

and i knew it’d be fun to dow with carlyle. like, i pity you because you don’t know her and that totally sucks. she’s a megaphone of energy wherever she goes. you can be dreading something and carlyle will call and suddenly you think it’s the best idea since sliced bread.

we recently went on a detour through what felt like every suburb west of chicago, and i didn’t even care because i could barely breathe from laughing so hard. she’s one of those people that could make sitting in a cardboard box feel like the best time you’ve had in you can’t even remember how long.

so i was in. although, for not cooking a lot – the girl knew how she wanted this chili to go down. not a lot of tomatoes, lots of meat, sausage for sure. i wanted beer in it, spice and my trusty brooks chili beans. and then this sweet this ground beef and sausage recipe was born.

it’s full of flavor and the sausage definitely made it. i had only ever made beer or turkey chili and the sausage really upped the ante. the beer was also a good add, you could taste hints of it in the broth and made it less tomato-y, per carlyle’s request. and you can totally make this in a crockpot, if that’s your thing. we just didn’t have a whole lot of time and i think the stove is faster. you know, that whole “slow” thing in the “slow cooker” thing. you get me.

we didn’t win. we came in 4th. but there were like 20 chilis and i’m pretty sure people cheated and the whole thing was rigged (it wasn’t) so yeah, we won.

i mean, we served it with TEQUILA. slam dunk.