What's for Dinner? Garden Bounty Chili

Normally my chili is a rather simple affair, using canned tomatoes and tomato juice and prepared chili powder. This particular batch made great use of tomatoes and Anaheim chiles from the garden and homemade chili powder using a variety of chiles also from our garden. I cooked the beans from scratch as well; I didn't have any canned on hand.

Of course, near the end, I separated out about half of it; cooking it further with 4 habanero chiles from last year's harvest. My habaneros from this year aren't quite ready yet.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting the homemade chili powder to make this the best tasting chili I have ever made, but it did. I think I'm ready for a chili cook off now.

1 lb lean ground beef
1 Anaheim chile pepper, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 T homemade chili powder (or your favorite)
1 t each: garlic powder and cumin
salt to taste
2 cups tomato juice
1 1/2 cups diced tomatoes
1 cup pinto beans

In a large pot or Dutch oven on medium high heat, brown beef with chile and onion. Drain if needed.

Return beef mixture to pan and add seasonings and cook a minute or so. Increase heat to high; stir in remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer til you don't feel like simmering it anymore.

I served the chili with buttermilk cornbread I made last week and had frozen.

The recipe for the chili powder can be found here: http://www.gather.comviewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977448007&nav=MyGather