A couple of days late in posting this, but the chili took longer to cook than I expected. After a lat start to Sunday morning, I grabbed the beans, the crackpot, and spices and set about making chili. My plan was to put half of each 16oz bag of beans into the mix but hubby wanted me to use them all. So, dumped three kinds of beans into the pot, spices, liquid, and turned on the crackpot. Hours crept by, beans being stirred, and liquid added as required. Around 2 or so, I realized that the beans would NOT be done in time for the big game.
So I decided to order pizza and let the bean finish until they were at a point I could separate half of them out for chili some time later this year. 
I will admit the beans looked great. Plump, rich, and still having texture. Beans separated, cooled, and stored we went to bed. Monday morning I started the beans again, fried the meat, and added the remainder of chili ingredients needed for dinner that night. Here my culinary skills let me down after a bout of torturous heartburn last week. Although I spiced the meat, the beans, and re-spiced the beans I couldn’t bring myself to actually taste the chili. I know makes no sense right? After all, I was going to eat it for dinner that night and was looking forward to it the night before and yet, I never managed to dip a spoon and check the seasonings.
It looked right, smelled wonderful and so I foolish thought it would be alright. It wasn’t. It was BLAND. And by BLAND, I mean it tasted like my spices had been locked away and sent to the moon. It was fixable but it was bland. That bowl of from-scratch chili wouldn’t give even the most sensitive stomach heartburn sadly.
But there is an upside, all cooks need to be reminded sometimes that there is truly no substitute for tasting to check for spices – even if you’ve made the dish a thousand times before. I’m lucky, it was chili that reminded me and chili is easily one of the most forgiving and easily fixed dishes around.
Heritage Cooking 