This past April, my grandpa lost his battle to skin cancer. While I’ve lost several people in my lifetime, this loss was the closest and most impactful.

My grandpa has been a father figure in my life, my whole life.

He was the grandpa who proudly wore his grandchildren’s faces on his sweatshirt, and showed up to nearly every baseball, cheerleading, and basketball game, track meet, and cooking competition.

He was the grandpa who gave me $100 of beer money when he heard my sister and I were going tailgating with our cousin, and kicked the whole family’s butts at beer pong the very same day he learned how to play.

He was the grandpa that always wormed and de-fished my fishing hook, and the grandpa who so willingly danced in front of hundreds of people for my senior father-daughter dance.

He was the grandpa who did everything he could to put so much life in our living.

And my grandpa... he was known for his chili and clam chowder.

It only felt fitting to honor my grandpa during the launch of my new website with Grandpa’s Chili Recipe.

Originally written on June 13th, 2017.

Growing up, the only chili I would eat was my grandpa’s. Everyone around me knew grandpa’s chili – he cooked it for school functions, he sold it at fundraisers, and it was at most family get-togethers. When we were little, he knew my sister and I would avoid the beans, so he used to make it with extra juice and fewer beans for us.

As my grandpa got older and less mobile (slowly – he always was very active), I knew I had to make chili with him to carry on the family “recipe”. I’ve made it with him once before, but this time I was going to pay extra close attention. Like most cooking, it’s hard to jot down the perfect recipe, because no two batches will ever be the same. So while I took careful notes of everything that went into the pot, I know that it will be my taste buds that will ensure the chili is like grandpas.

It was a Thursday morning – April 20th, 2017. I arrived at grandpa’s house where I unsurprisingly found him sitting in his chair across from the TV. He probably had some sort of sports game on or playing the news that he recorded earlier that morning so he could fast forward through the commercials. The pot was set up on the stove, the spices were out. The vegetables were already cut. He was ready to go.

As he pulled the vegetables out of the fridge, he began explaining the process. This was a new “demo-grandpa” I hadn’t seen before. He has never been much of a formal teacher, he barely passed school himself (as he loves to always remind us). Informally though, he has taught me all kinds of things in life.

He started by announcing each item as he poured it into the pot. While adding the vegetables, he pointed to a mini notebook on the island counter open to a page with the ingredient list already started and a pen ready for me to jot down notes. I wasn’t kidding when I said he was prepared. As he added the canned diced tomatoes, he noted that Red Gold was the best brand to use.

We continued, adding the water and the first addition of beef base and chili powder. Then the phone rang and grandpa yelled to grandma, “That for me?”, to which she responded that it was – a toll-free call. He picked up the phone and vaguely listened, following the prompt hoping it would lead to a real person answering. Once the person picked up, he pressed a random button on a prank voice responder he has, which was pre-loaded with sarcastic responses, let it play, and then hung up. 😂

When it was time to let all the vegetables simmer, he headed back to his chair to catch up with whatever was on the TV. He got up occasionally to check it, and let me know when it was time to do the next step. While tasting the vegetables to make sure they were cooked, he dropped some on his shirt. He looked down and shouted, “Get off there!” in an attempt to “shout it out”, and then said, “hm… didn’t work.” He has a joke for everything. He then went to change his shirt immediately — grandpa will never keep a dirty shirt on.

Grandpa instructed me to cook the beef in a sauté pan, while he added the beans. He gave me the meat, keeping a portion separate to make a few burgers with. As I started the meat, he prepared the burgers with a little steak sauce and then called my grandma to wrap them.

My grandma laid three pieces of Press’N’Seal out, transferred the burgers, and began wrapping them. My grandpa watched her carefully with a slight smile on his face. She noticed him staring and chuckled, asking “What?” My grandpa sarcastically said back, “Good job…” They always are lovingly sarcastic towards each other, and my grandpa always messes around with my grandma. One of my favorites is when he puts a chip clip on her shirt without her noticing, and see how long it takes her to realize it. He’s always gotten great enjoyment out of the small things.

He began pouring the beans in while I cooked the meat. He had a few #10 cans, and some smaller ones. He poured the #10 canned beans into the pot and folded the lid inside the empty can. He then went down in can sizes and placed the cans inside the other, larger cans, all while jokingly instructing me how to do it.

We added the meat and the remaining ingredients and stirred everything together. Grandpa mentions how no one knows he puts white beans in his chili. “I hide them”, he admits, while pushing the white beans below the surface, as if no one can see them.

The chili simmers for another hour, and we taste for seasoning. I think it needed a little more chili powder but didn’t say anything yet. He brings a spoonful to my grandma, who agrees. Once the seasoning was to par, he gets out the plastic containers that he’ll package up the chili in – empty frozen éclair containers from Costco. My grandpa loves sweets, mainly candy, ice cream, and popsicles. But he always has something extra laying around, like the frozen eclairs.

He turned the chili off and poured me and grandma a bowl. Grandma got out the crackers and shredded cheese. We ate the chili, and it tasted perfect as usual. I wondered if I could master grandpa’s recipe, and was thankful to get the chance to make it with him again.

Grandpa and I at the award ceremony dinner when I won my first Silver Medal during tryouts for Culinary Team USA.

Grandpa Dean’s Chili

Yield: 1 giant stockpot

Ingredients:

3 medium onions, diced

6 celery stalks, diced

3 medium peppers, diced

4 28oz cans Red Gold diced tomatoes

1 28oz can of water

1 T garlic salt

1 T onion powder

1 T celery salt

1 ½ container beef stock

2 T beef base (Tone’s)

1 shot Worcestershire

½ container beef base

1 cup chili powder, added in stages

4 15.5oz cans white beans, drained

#10 can kidney beans

#10 can baked beans

4# ground round, cooked separately

Salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

Add raw vegetables, tomatoes, water, garlic salt, onion powder, celery salt, 2T of beef base, beef stock, and ¼ cup chili powder. Simmer until cooked.
Add second addition of beef base, Worcestershire, ½ cup chili powder, and beans.
Add cooked beef and remaining chili powder.
Cook until fragrant, about an hour.
Taste and season as needed.

Once cooled, package in whatever old containers you have laying around 😉 Freezes well to save for later!