When Life Hands You Lemons... Make Chili Seasoning.

Things don’t  always go as you plan them; it's an ongoing theme here at Eden Hallow. We've stumbled across many issues when turning this place into our dream home, but its helped us to learn how to do the best with what we have.

Hubby wanted chili for dinner. I usually always have the ingredients to make certain things on hand, and chili is one of them. Its easy to throw together in a bind, and what is better on a cold day when you just can't seem to get the chill out than putting some chili in? So I grabbed a can of tomatoes and a can of chili beans out of the pantry, but when i went for the chili seasoning I was horrified to discover I didn't have any. How could I not have chili seasoning?? So, it was time to do what I could with what I have, something I'm not half bad at in the kitchen if I do say so myself.

This is the stuff I found in my cupboard that I thought I could use:

Into my $2 mortar and pestle that I scored at a rummage sale and my husband laughed at me for getting, I started with about a quarter tsp of garlic powder and red pepper flakes and a half tsp of onion powder:

Then I added about a full Tbsp of chili powder:

Followed by about a quarter tsp of black pepper, and a full tsp of smoked salt:

Before we grind it all up, the FUNNEST part about using the mortar and pestle, lets talk about the smoked salt for a minute. My step-son brought it for us from North Dakota when he came to visit one summer. Were not sure where he got it, but we LOVE it! We love using our smoker because that smokey flavor is amazing.Using this salt adds that little bit of smoke to my dishes when firing up the smoker isn't plausible. Yummy!

After adding it to my chili and letting it simmer for a little bit we thought it needed a bit more heat, but it was better than store bought chili seasoning. 

I ended up mixing up a big batch of this (with less chili powder) and we use it in place of taco seasoning as well, just adding more chili powder to the pot when making chili. It taste better, and it has less sodium so its better for you. No more store bought taco or chili seasoning packets at Eden Hallow!

Big batch recipe. I used 97 cent Great Value Chili season jars. I also had rock salt that I ground up myself, so you may need less salt.