Chili Con Carne with Ground Beef and Kidney Beans

My Husband request Chili Con Carne the other day so I decided to try making it. When I first moved to California, I had a few roommate and one of them used to make this killer Chili Con Carne. I wanted to make something similar to his Chili Con Carne. He used chuck of meat for his Chili Con Carne but I had some ground beef in the freezer which I wanted to use so I used ground beef instead. I searched recipe on internet and found one which looks good and easy.

First, I sautéed vegetables with all sorts of spices then add ground beef and some canned chopped tomatoes and simmer for one hour.

At the end, I added some canned Kidney Beans. I don't like this kind of beans but I thought maybe Chili Con Carne has to have beans so I added some. not too much :-)

We ate this with some Fritos chips since that was how my roommate used to eat it with. Now, I remember that he used to sprinkle chopped onion, chopped cilantro and some shredded cheese on top. I forgot all about it. Oh well, maybe next time I will remember this.

It was good but it kind of taste like meat sauce for pasta. I think something is missing. I don't know what.     It was not really close to what my roommate used to make. Oh, I wish I asked him for the recipe. He was a great cook. I got Linguini with clam sauce recipe from him and love it but I didn't get this Chili Con Carne recipe. Too bad... well, I guess I have to keep trying and make it close to his Chili Con Carne.

By the way, my tomatoes in my container garden is getting red. I might be able to harvest some of them this weekend. This weekend is Independence day weekend and three days weekend. All of America will BBQ during this weekend. I think we should also BBQ. I am thinking maybe Lamb Kofta and make it Middle Eastern BBQ!