> When my grandmother made chili and dumped
> spaghetti in it, we thought she was trying to poison us!
I don't know about putting spaghetti in it (that doesn't sound _bad_, but it does sound rather _odd_), but my mom makes "chili" that does not have any seasoning in it other than salt and maybe a half teaspoon of onion powder. It's basically a hamburger broth soup with kidney beans and diced tomato. Why is it called "chili"? Well, I don't know. I guess the name was available, because nobody in her circle of acquaintance has any experience with the genuine article.
Traditional Midwestern homemade cuisine is, as a general rule, not real big on spices, especially the "hot" ones. Despite this, a lot of the food manages to be highly palatable. The canned fruits and jams are superb. The pasta is good, and the casseroles are generally not bad. The baked macaroni and cheese is great. I'd go through fire for a serving of mom's corned beef and applies. The desserts as a rule are fantastic, as long as you stick with ones made by people over age 40. (Young people keep getting the urge to make desserts out of trendy magazines, which tend to fall into one of three categories: either they recipe is so focused on being easy to make that it's completely lame, like making box-mix cupcakes in the microwave -- seriously, my sister does this -- or else it's so focused on being exotic and new that it's unaccountably bizarre, like Jell-O salad with cheddar cheese and beets and mayo in it, or else it's Yet Another Cream Cheese Thing. Skip all that. Always go for the desserts made by people who are using a recipe they got from an older person, such as their grandmother or an elderly woman from church. Those are always good.) Scalloped potatoes, sloppy joe, cornbread, muffins, biscuits, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, deviled eggs, goulash (nothing at all like the Hungarian dish by the same name, but that's neither here nor there), baked beans, applesauce, pancakes, bacon and eggs, glazed carrots, cookies, cakes, pies, puddings, buckeyes, all very good.
But the chili... yeah, not so awesome.