There's a farmers market that sets up once a week by my office so I always take a stroll through during my lunch break. I picked up a bunch of veggies and was impressed that my two full bags only cost $10. I recently read Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi's memoir where she talks about spices a lot. I have a cabinet full of spices (see here). For the first time ever, I purchased two green peppers. I know nothing about peppers, so I googled when I got home to figure out what the difference between the two were. The big one was a poblano pepper and the small one was a jalapeno pepper. After cutting the peppers and removing the inner seeds with my fingers,  I washed my hands thoroughly with soap.  Afterwards, I started to feel parts of my fingers burning, I checked my hands and didn't see any cuts, I guess the pepper got absorbed through my dry skin. Later I jumped in the shower and when I tried to remove my mascara with water, well boy was I in for a surprise, the pepper was still on my hands and my eyes were burning! Fair warning here, use caution when cutting peppers and don't touch the inside seeds. This being my first experiment cooking with peppers, it really gave a nice rounded deep flavor to the chili, but it's not too hot to eat, it just the right about of heat. This recipe will be replacing my previous go-to chili recipe.

I used one link of Trader Joe's Soy Chorizo, which I also used in my paella recipe.  The secret ingredient is raw cacao nibs, which is bitter unsweetened chocolate. I always buy red bell peppers for whatever I'm going to use it for (even though they are more expensive) because a rule I live by is to always make a colorful plate for every meal.