It’s a bit scatter but I will put it up, how I made my best chili ever.
First, I start with this base recipe and I note my changes here

into the crockpot…
1 can diced tomatoes (with the juices) 1 28oz can of Muir Glen crushed tomatoes with basil
1 dried guajillo pepper, ripped to pieces
1 dried ancho chili ripped to pieces
2 diced jalapenos
2 tbl chili powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tbl cocoa powder
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1/2 tb pepper
1/2 tbl salt
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp lightly crushed coriander seeds
1 cup water beef stock noted below
1/8 head of garlic
Optional:
1 black (not green or white) cardamom pod
1/2 tbl smoked spanish paprika

I take dried ancho, guajillo and new mexico chilis put off the stems and toss the seeds. Toast them up and then grind them together. I call this my 3 chili and I added about 1 1/2 tablespoon. I know it’s redundant but when I’m standing there with a drawer full of jars I just put whatever sounds good.
To this I added 1 1/2 cups beef stock that I made a couple weeks ago and it all goes in the crock pot on high for 2 hours, then on warm for another 2 hours. Quick soak some black beans by bringing a bag of beans to a boil, boil for 2 minutes, let stand 2 hours.
Find the cinnamon stick in the crock pot and toss it, puree the rest and stick it to the side.
Chop 4 pieces of bacon into half inch wide pieces (or full inch, I don’t think it matters)
Chop 1 1/2 pounds of top round into chew size pieces
Make up a mire poix with 2 carrots, a stalk of celery, half an onion (or more, I don’t like onion so I go light with it. Other people like it and want more), and 2 fat jalapeños (seeded and ribbed)
In the dutch oven I fried the bacon until crisp but not burnt. I added the veggies and cooked until the onions were starting to be translucent, I put the cover on for a few minutes to facilitate cooking and avoid burninating. This is the part where I tell you to brown the beef in small batches, but I didn’t do that because…meh. I just tossed the beef in there, added the previously made crock pot sauce, 1/2 the beans (the other half to the freezer to be used another day) and 2 1/2 cups of beef stock. Covered it and ovened it at 275 degrees for 3 hours, then 350 for 30 minutes because it seemed a bit on the soupy side.
The big change was the tomatoes and I honestly think that was the best change I’ve made to this recipe so far. The flavor was less acidic than before, much rounder and fuller. I also usually use chuck roast in my chili, I like the shredded beef. David doesn’t care for that so I used round roast instead, it didn’t add as much collagen mouthfeel as the chuck but it was still a pretty excellent chili. It made delicious nachos the next day.
I am sure I am missing something.
Oh, also, I made cheese!

More about cheesemaking later. I have 2 loaves of bread dough rising right now and we will be eating homemade cheese on homemade bread with homemade clementine marmalade.