Chili and congenial company

    I spent part of last night and a good share of this morning and early afternoon making a couple of gallons of chili for 10 people who were coming for lunch. Mindful of the batch I made last October, which might possibly have induced a heart attack or two, I really toned down the recipe this time. The result: No spoons melted and no internal organs were damaged, at least not permanently.
    It might seem easy to make chili that doesn't set your hair on fire but I found it hard to do. The reason is simple: Chili is, by definition, muy picante and the temptation to rev it up to what I consider acceptable levels of heat was very strong. I mean, if you don't make chili strong enough to at least make your eyes water and your tongue swell then, at least in my opinion, it's just a kind of stew... In the end I did, however, successfully fight the urge to jazz this batch up (I'll be applying for sainthood soon because it was really tough to do that) and somehow managed to put together a big pot of fairly reputable chili by substituting a lot of extra garlic and some fairly potent onions for the jalapenos and other spicy chili peppers I'd normally use. I also cut way down on the amount of  pepper and other spices and increased the amount of brown sugar I use when making my Adirondack Red Devil Chili. (Of the 40-plus chili recipes I have, that seemed the safest for this luncheon group because, despite the name, it includes some fairly safe ingredients such as mushrooms and sweet corn...) I thought it was pretty mild but my luncheon guests thought it was pretty spicy... not spicy enough to call for an ambulance, but spicy. It must not have been too spicy, however, because there isn't any left.
    The best part of the luncheon, however, was the fact that 10 of us sat around the table talking for a good share of the late afternoon. The conversation didn't end when we finished lunch because after eating we adjourned to the terrace outside the dining room and drank small - but very potent - cups of coffee and talked some more. There was a lot of laughter as well as some serious conversation about the sad state of Spain's economy and - because everyone around the table was related to my friend Elena, including her 94-year-old mom - some sharing of family stories that were, in some cases, embarrassing enough to cause a few blushes here and there.
    Nice day, well spent in congenial company.