A couple years ago during one of the first few Halloweens that we utilized the garage to make the Haunted Cave, we also created the Haunted Cafe! We made chili, mummy dogs (hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll dough), spiderweb cream cheese brownies, witch hat cookies, and pumpkin pie. We gave it all away for free to the parents of the trick or treaters! I can't tell you how many returned for seconds and thirds!! We didn't keep it up however cause the chili combined with the beeswax candles and other scents in the garage just made the whole place smell kinda funky! Haha! Which can be a good thing or bad one on Halloween night! But the chili was just awesome!!
So for those who might be wondering about the chili recipe, I wanted to share it here with you all!
Now this is not too hot at all of a recipe, it's a good basic chili recipe that you can spring off from and add what you like to it for your own individual tastes. I prefer the basic recipe myself as I am not one for the too hot and spicey stuff. I may add a few more dark red kidney beans to it, but not a lot. I also add in half of an onion that we chop on down in the chopper real fine. For the cafe, I quadrupled this recipe, it was ALOT of chili! But for just 4 people, I usually double the recipe so that we can have leftovers a couple of times. I used to make this and then wrap up some chili burritos and then freeze them and have them for lunches. Toss in some shredded cheese before wrapping them up in the tortillas.
I wanted to give credit where credit is due however and let you all know that I got this recipe from the Phil Donahue show. I sent for the transcripts for when The Recipe Detective was on, many years ago and she had figured out the ingredients to some of the more famous fast food places' special and secret recipes. At least, as close as she could get! What we got then was a bevy of wonderful recipes!
This is the Wednesday's Original Chili recipe.... I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do!
"Wednesday's Chili" the Wendy's-Style Chili
- 2 Tbl Oil**
- 1 1/2 To 2 lbs ground round beef
- 10 oz Can French onion soup (not creamy)
- 1 Tbl Chili powder
- 2 tsp Ground Cumin
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- (Few drops of Tabasco)
- 21 oz Can Dark Red Kidney Beans - undrained
- 6 oz Can Tomato Paste
- 8 oz Can Tomato Sauce
Brown the ground beef in the vegetable oil in a nice deep, large skillet. Break the beef into tiny rice size pieces.
Blenderize soup in blender and add to browning meat.
Then add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer.
Serves 6
Source: Gloria Pitzer, Secret Recipes Newsletter
**On another note, I don't use vegetable oil, I use olive oil instead. I also put extra chopped onions into the pan as I am browning the lean meat. Drain off the fat. I pour the blenderized soup right into the pan of meat and onions thereafter and then stir in the spices and then add the paste and the sauce and undrained cans of kidney beans (I know that part is weird eh?). Once I get it all together, I transfer it to the slow cooker and let it simmer all day long and turn it up to piping hot just before we serve it. Add some shredded mexican cheese and wha~la! YUM!
We usually add a mummy dog for Halloween. You can also add some tortilla chips, I like the blue corn. It's just amazing stuff!
Check out her page for More Great Recipes <----click that link!
I hope you all enjoy it!!
