Moving in the Rain

This weekend I moved apartments...but unfortunately just down the road and still in Murfreesboro. (I'm a not huge fan of this city). Murfreesboro reminds me a lot of Monroe. No offense to Monroe residents, but its really crowded, everything is spread out, and traffic is horrible. It's still a nice, safe place to be though so it's fine for now!

Anywho... the good news is that now I have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, thank goodness! My tiny 1 bed/1 bath served me well the last year, but that is a long time to be somewhere so small! I felt like Trigger and I were on top of each other and all my stuff all the time, and Trigger is not a very big person (yes I said person, don't judge). Yesterday my fantastic fiance and brother moved all of my big stuff in the heat and up a very narrow, tall staircase. Today I had full intentions of moving the rest, including all of my clothes. Instead, it decided to storm all day. Perfect procrastination excuse! I am in denial that it is not yet fall, and with this 79 degree rainy weather, I decided to pretend like it was.

View from the new apartment...Trigger loves having a balcony, and I may be a little obsessed as well.

Basically, instead of moving, hanging pictures, or doing anything remotely productive, I decided to spend my time blogging my dad's (correction from my father, it is my Papaw Aubrey's) chili recipe. You're welcome. It is my favorite, and it is easy enough Jacob could probably make it...well, maybe. Baby steps with that one, he's still on cereal and frozen bags of stir fry. For anyone who needs something super easy and cheap...I love this recipe. This is what you'll need:

Plus whatever type of hamburger meat you prefer. My favorite is deer meat, but my future sister in law will have to work on that for me.

I do everything to taste, so I don't have any exact measurements. You can substitute regular V-8 for the spicy hot if you aren't into Louisiana heat. The more chili powder and seasonings you use, the less it will taste like V-8. *Note, if you absolutely hate V-8, this recipe isn't for you. It is the base after all. I don't personally like to drink V-8 straight, but I do love this chili. In a nut shell: add everything, taste, add more, stop when you like the taste. It's pretty complicated...except not at all.

• 1 bottle V-8
• crushed red pepper
• chili powder
• cayenne pepper
• Creole Seasoning (I prefer Tony's but Tennessee isn't cool enough to have it in stores, so I settled for Zatarains)
• 1 lb hamburger meat (for thicker chili, use more meat and/or add beans).
• I think beans in chili are gross...but feel free to add them if it makes your heart happy.

Brown your hamburger meat. I usually put some wishishere sauce and tony's in while I brown it. Then throw in the crock pot with everything else. Cook on low for 6 hrs or high for 4. I used to make this all the time without the crock pot. One day I tried it this way and wow...the taste is substantially better when it cooks slow. I've always heard that about chili and blah blah blah, but I've never believed it.

This chili is more of a soupy consistency, not super thick like the nasty crap from the can. In summary, its super easy, cheap, and delicious. Add some cheese and some saltines and you're golden.