Fall has Officially Arrived!

... Not by the crisp chill to the air. Though I swear that 45 degrees could be -5 as far as my reaction to the cold is concerned; seriously, I'd be wearing skirts and sandals in April when it's 45 degrees, but in October? I turn the heat on and pull out my fleece jammies just to wear around the house. Yeah... I'm alternating between freezing and wanting the windows open every 30 minutes right now.
But no... the weather warns of Fall, or more appropriately, Winter. Cooking is the first sign of Fall. I'm not a person who generally enjoys soups. I pretty much avoid them after March, they just don't seem right. But once Fall arrives for me... I start up the big, huge pots and start blending. This morning I started my first batch of Fall Chili. Cut up 4 onions and let 3lbs of hamburger come to room temperature while whipping up breakfast for my boys. (Weston actually ate all of his scrambled egg. By choice.) So, I sauteed the onions and browned the seasoned hamburger. I added 3 cans each of diced and stewed tomatoes to the onions, as well as a large can of tomato paste (I love tomatoes.) And then I began to add my spices: liberal amounts of salt and pepper, 1/3 cup of Splenda (Lila adds a handful of brown sugar, which is amazing, but I'm out at the moment), some Old Bay, garlic, and finally Chili powder. Except when I splashed the Chili powder into the pot it didn't look quite right. Maybe that was because I grabbed the wrong container right next to it... yeah, I added a dash (ok, a large dash) of Cinnamon to my Chili. Cinnamon!
So... now I am tasting every 90 minutes, trying to bring it right back to ok, adding additional amounts of Chili powder, garlic, salt and pepper. I've added the 3 cans of rinsed Light Kidney beans and the seasoned hamburger. And it's getting better. Scott likes it, but says its sweet (which for once isn't true, it's the Cinnamon. My palette is pretty good lately, and I know the difference between Sweet and Cinnamon.) So... I'm going to check again. If the last re-seasoning didn't fix it, I think I will actually be adding some Louisiana Hot Sauce. Yeah, that's right, I actually have Hot Sauce in my fridge. Shocking I know. Wish me luck. It's really not that bad, but since I intend to freeze probably 60% of this batch, I don't want it too sweet upon reheating.
We'll see I guess.