Cincinnati Chili Tastes Like Fall

Pretty little baby girl all dressed up for church… and worrying about a piece of trash she saw in the driveway.

Primping and putting on some lipstick before church.

Quick picture with Grammy & Papa after church, on Grandparent’s Day!

Then we ran to Nana & PopPop’s church for a church-wide pot-luck luncheon. We were late, but Nana had made us plates of fried chicken & fixin’s, so we got to just plop down and start eating! Emerson especially loved this cup of lemonade!

Goofy girl on the ride home…

She wanted to wear some cozy clothes for nap time, and she looks super cozy to me!

Jeff napped while Emerson did, but I read my book, texted with my friend Bridget (about her recipe and the weather in Florida vs. Indiana), and put together a fall centerpiece and floral arrangement, using Dollar Tree materials I got yesterday. (Except the wooden tray & vase, I already owned those.) I also got my old Maid of Honor cup down out of the top of the cabinet, from Meg’s wedding in 2013!

Oh and while I was making fall-themed decor stuff, this new wax melt I got was melting in my Scentsy, and it smelled soooo good. A friend from church posted about it the other day, and it looked/sounded yummy, so I grabbed one too. It makes your whole house smell like you’re baking caramel cinnamon rolls, and it’s yummy enough to eat!

After a two-hour nap, this cutie woke up super happy and precious. She found this purse of mine in the bedroom, and wanted to play with it. So I shortened the strap as short as it would go, and showed her how to wear it across her chest like Mommy wears it, and she loved wearing it around the house!

Around 4pm, I got a head start on dinner. I made Bridget’s recipe (or the one from a newspaper or magazine her family has always used), for Cincinnati Chili. It uses TONS of ingredients (see below), and has to simmer for a while, but overall it’s super easy. And it made the house smell so good!

And since I’ve barely even mentioned Bridget on this blog before, here’s a little recap. We met our freshman year at Flagler College, were friends for a few years, then apartment-mates for our senior year. We stayed in touch after graduating, she came to visit me here in Tally once in 2011, we road-tripped to Fort Lauderdale for another friends wedding in 2012, and just stayed close even though we lived far away. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding in 2013, and then Jeff and I flew to Indianapolis for hers in 2017! (Top Left: freshman in 2007; Top Right: graduation in 2010; Bottom Left: my wedding in 2013; Bottom Right: her wedding in 2017.)

While the Cincinnati Chili was simmering on the stove, Emerson insisted on going outside to play, even though it felt like it was hot enough to fry an egg on the front porch concrete. But we hung out in the shade, and she let me sit while she ran around, so it wasn’t unbearable. Plus, we only stayed out for 15-20 minutes, and drank lots of ice cold water.

The chili was supposed to simmer for an 2 1/2 hours, then sit in the fridge overnight to be reheated for the next day. But Bridget told me she always ate it the same day, so I figured that was good enough for me too! It simmered for about 1.5 hours, and I had to skim some of the fatty grease off the top, but it smelled and looked delicious!

Us Southerner’s would add beans and eat it like a stew, topped with cheese & sour cream, and maybe Saltines. But those weird Northerner’s have no beans, and eat it over spaghetti noodles, topped with cheese & oyster crackers. But y’all, this was so good!!! It has SOOO much flavor, and fun textures with the cheese & crackers too. (For the record, we both added more cheese & crackers after stirring it all up and mixing it together.) So yummy! Because of the cloves and cinnamon in the chili, to me, it just tastes like fall!

The little “about me” poster I made a few weeks ago got sent home from school last week. Today, while Emmie was playing in the living room, I hung it up on her bedroom door. When we went back there later, she saw it and got so excited about it. It was precious! She loved it!

We did books and prayers, and this little “splish splash” song Jeff made up, and then once we got a new paci (she yelled about it a little bit), she was ready to calm down and do lullabies.  And then she was out, and I easily laid her down in her crib.

 

I made us lunches for tomorrow with the noodles & chili, plus small bags of cheese & crackers for us both to take. There was still an extra tub of plain noodles (which I can give to Emmie), plus TONS of chili which I put away to freeze for later. I got all the dishes washed, and now that I’m finishing this post, it’s time to turn the candle warmer back on (we gave it a break earlier), and settle in for an episode of “Fringe.”

It may still feel like the surface of the sun outside here in Florida, but there were little touches of fall scattered around our air conditioned house today (flowers, wax melt, & dinner), and it made it feel so nice! At least indoors 😉