How Many Beans Make Soup?

Dried beans make excellent chili, either soaked overnight or cooked all day in a crockpot. This is also a fine time to use dehydrated tomatoes, dried chili peppers, etc.

If you want meat in your chili, the timing makes a difference. Add it early and it mostly cooks down to meat sauce with crumbles of meat. Add it later and it will stay in more distinct pieces, especially if you don't break it up too much while browning it.

>>That is an awesome tip oh wise one. <<

Thanks. Chili isn't a specialty of mine, but I know how it works, and I make a venison spaghetti sauce that is much like chili (cooked long so it reduces to a meat sauce with crumbles).

>>I am looking at ways to feed the masses when they come.<<

The latest cookbook I got from Chelsea Green, Gaia's Kitchen, has two ingredient lists for each recipe: one for small groups (anywhere from 4-8 servings) and one for larger groups (anywhere from 30-50). Very handy.

>> Chili sounds like a great idea. I am thinking of jazzing it up this year with onion and peppers cut and fried with the meat.<<

That's a good method. Another is to combine onion, peppers, and celery in a skillet with a bit of ghee or butter and saute them until they start to soften. You can add spices too if you wish.