Southwestern Bean Soup

Yesterday was a cold and windy day so I thought a pot of chili would be good for dinner. I put on some beans in the morning and let them cook most of the day. In the past I've let the water cook out of the beans and was left with a big burned mess. So, yesterday I made sure to add water to the pot from time to time to prevent that from happening.  I browned some ground beef in a skillet along with some chopped onions and garlic. After pouring off the grease I added a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies, an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce, 1/3 cup of coffee, 1 tsp of beef base, 3 tsp brown sugar, 1 tsp cumin, 3 Tbs chili powder, 1/4 tsp cocoa powder, and 1 tsp oregano. I stirred all that together then added it to the pot of beans. I learned that in my effort to make sure the beans didn't boil dry I had added too much water and the result was a very soupy chili.  So when Dorothy came home I told her that I had made some Southwestern Bean Soup.  She loved it.

So now I have two recipes: one for chili (with a tightly controlled amount of water in the beans), and one for Southwestern Bean Soup ( water added with abandon).