“At least once a year I like to bring in some of my Kevin's Famous Chili. The trick is to undercook the onions. Everybody is going to get to know each other in the pot. I'm serious about this stuff. I'm up the night before, pressing garlic, and dicing whole tomatoes. I toast my own ancho chiles. It's a recipe passed down from Malones for generations - it's probably the thing I do best."

Undercooked onions in your chili is sublime. Not sure why but it’s such a great fit. Like most, I’ve developed my own chili recipe over the years. I like the foundational ingredients in this one: https://www.spendwithpennies.com/texas-chili/

The chili will go over the Tamales…Chili (con carne - No Beans) over Tamales is something I’ve come to learn is a Texas thing. Christmas Eve tamales with chili on top are a family tradition for as long as I can remember. I grew up in Texas and Tamales is just what you eat on Christmas Eve. My mom always ordered them from Sister Williams, a Latino sister who later joined the church. While my mom was an excellent cook, she knew when to step aside a go for the good stuff. When we first moved to Wyoming 25 years ago, we just couldn’t find tamales. When we did, they were average at best. Ultimately I decided to learn how to make them. So just before Christmas Eve, we all get together and crank out any where from 5 to 10 dozen tamales. This year we filled them with a beef birria rich filling and a traditional red pork filling.