'Gredients:

4 lbs top round steak 2 large onions 4-5 large fresh tomatoes 8 cloves garlic 2 red bell peppers 8-12 fresh jalapeno peppers Habanero peppers (to "taste") 1 lb. black beans, dry 1 lb. kidney beans, dry

2 16 oz. cans tomato paste 1 32 oz. can tomatos       (diced, crushed, or whole peeled) 2 tsp cumin Several tbsp olive oil or butter 2 -4 tsp salt (to taste) 1 tsp ground black pepper

The first two steps, marinating the meat and soaking the beans, can either be started the day before cooking the chili, or at least a couple of hours in advance.

Slice the steak into strips roughly 1/2" wide. Marination is optional, if you don't want to bother, keep meat refrigerated and slice when ready to saute it. To marinate, put sliced steak in a bowl or pan and add marination-type things until the meat is covered. Cover container and refrigerate, for at least two hours up to overnight. I like to use a couple of tablespoons each of soy sauce and molasses, half a pint or so each of lemon juice and vinegar, a few teaspoons of salt and fresh ground pepper. I'll also throw anything in that seems to fit the bill, like a little beer or wine, or whatever I have lying around that I feel like using up.

Fill a (minimum) 3 quart pot or bowl to within an inch or so of the top with hot water. Add the dry beans, removing any excess water to make room. Bring to a boil, stirring to rotate the beans on the top and bottom. After two minutes, turn off heat and let beans soak for one hour. Add hot water to keep the pot full as it is absorbed by the beans, if necessary. If you are doing this a day in advance, the beans can simply be soaked in cold water.

Start cooking the base in a 12 quart pot that has a well-fitting lid. Chop the onions coarsely. Over medium heat, using enough olive oil or butter to keep the onions half soaked, saute the onions until they are clear and getting mushy.

Turn heat down to maintain a strong simmer. Coarsely chop and add the tomatoes and peppers, finely chop and add the garlic (which can be sauteed in a little olive oil first if you like), stirring and mixing as you go.

Turn heat down to a bare simmer, add the lid, and simmer two hours to overnight, stirring occasionally as it amuses you. If simmering overnight, be sure your heat will go low enough to maintain the slightlest simmer, so there is no overcooking at the bottom. You will note that at this point you have basically made salsa, and you could put some aside to be used that way - if you're doing this I'd recommend adding the cumin and cooking it in first.

When the beans are finished soaking, pour them into a colander and rinse briefly with water.

Add the beans to the simmering pot, again, stirring into the mix.

In a large skillet over high heat, brown the steak with the cumin and some fresh ground pepper. Cook the beef until the largest chunks are cooked through when checked. This will take 20-30 minutes. If you feel the need to use ground beef instead of steak, try not to break it up much while browning, so you end up with meatball-size chunks when it is done.

Drain beef, or use a spoon or spatula with holes, if necessary. Move the beef into the still-simmering base. Cover, and keep stirring to mix and spread heat.

Now add the tomato paste, to thicken the chili, and the canned tomatoes. This step balances the brown beans and meat with the red tomato content. For runnier chili, use more whole tomato product, for thicker chili, use more paste.

Simmer the chili, covered, with occasional stirring, another two hours to overnight. See note above about keeping simmer as low as possible.

For vegetarian chili, obviously leave out the meat. You can use chunks of tofu or more beans, or anything else you like in its place.

Serve with shredded cheese, saltines, corn chips, fresh chopped onions, corn bread, or in taco shells, as desired.

Makes roughly four 2 pound teenage servings to sixteen 1 cup adult servings.

Note: To increase alarm level (heat), substitute more jalapeno peppers for some of the red pepper, and/or make sure to use habanero (or other very hot) peppers. For "zero alarm," use no hot peppers. For "one alarm," use six to eight jalapenos. For "two alarm," double the jalapenos or add one (just one!) habanero. "Three alarm" uses more habaneros. I'm not sure habaneros are truly hot enough for "four alarm" chili. I think, actually, "four alarm" chili is sort of like absolute zero - you can only get close. As close as you can get, theoretically you can always go further. At some point you won't really have made food, it will be something more like paint stripper.

Here are some photographs I took during one "chili-a-thon":