Oh, the flavor will be fine. Dried chiles are good for a long tim, but all chiles, like all grain, can have "guests". I coul tell you a funny and slightly disturbing story about how I know that, but then I might scare you from using them. :) I keep my dried chiles in the freezer. Guajillos can have a little heat to them. I've used them so often that I can sort of tell by the smell how hot they will be. They do vary from one batch to the next. I usually rinse them since the place I get mine packs in the fields, Then I wipe them dry and toast them in a dry pan (less than a minutes) just until they soften. DO NOT SCORCH THEM or they will be bitter. Then I put them in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Once they are soft, I split and dessed/devein (just depends on what I'm making and how hot I want it.) I have a VitaMix, which can puree darn near anything into a smooth sauce, so one sauce I keep in the freezer uses 5 or 6 guajillos, about a pound of roasted tomatoes, an onion, two heads of roasted garlic, cumin, coriander, thyme, morjarom, and chicken broth. I whir it into a sauce, then freeze it for later. It's good with chicken or pork espeically.

Ya... some confusion going on it seems. Chilie is a pepper. Chili is a dish. So in a literal sense you can have chilie powder made out of dried ground peppers. Now... to make the dish most in the U.S. consider chili you have to add a spice mixture know as "chili powder". As I recall Lars has a fondness for Mexico and lives in the South Western corner of the U.S. I'm not surprised that he would think of powdered peppers before a spice mixture. One of the things really interesting about his cooking is that he is doing different things with his food. Much as I'd love to sample Lar's cooking someday I'm going with Arley on the cumin. Cumin is the heart and soul of the dish we call Chili. My pot of chili often contains several kinds of hot peppers but it also takes a load of cumin. People walking into my home will exclaim in delight when I cook chili because of the fragrant cumin. I found whizzing my whole cumin seed in the blender with some tomatoes chops the cumin up pretty good. Not as good as hand chopping. My first lesson with cumin seed was to chop it up on a cutting board with a knife. Still strikes me as the best flavor. Our friends on the CF from India have recommended toasting the cumin... very good but I'm not 100% sold. The seed does require considerable cooking to release the oils that account for the intense flavor. The very best cumin I can purchase at the moment is bulk ground cumin from GFS which is a restaurant supply company. Tops even Penzey's whole seed. Still ground does not get the full spectrum of flavor so I add mostly ground GFS cumin and top note my flavor with some freshly chopped seed. Somehow ground cumin even when fresh and strong still does not have the high aromatic essence of whole seed. Chili powder often contains garlic that I've removed from my chili. Garlic is great and garlic is good but it is also sweet and not the character I want. Maybe sometimes it is alright.... I used to add sliced fresh garlic to my chili. Goodness that warms your entire body when the mood is there for it. Cilantro, in particular fresh cilantro provides an intense aromatic flavor and scent that many associate with north of the boarder "mexican" cooking. LOL!... sorry don't mean to go on so much. Chili is one of my favorite dishes. Fresh garden tomatoes are priceless if you want chili with star power. Different peppers add heat with different characters as Lars noted. Peppers at different stages of ripeness also display remarkably different characteristics. Green habeneras are not ripe but they are milder and have more tang then mature red habs. Then the amount of time a pepper cooks will change the flavor and heat profile of a pepper. My chili is tested and approved by Luna! Suppose I should admit I don't use chili powder in my chili. Not powdered peppers or any branded spice mix. Cumin and cilantro with hot peppers being part of the vegtable mix. I top coat much of my food with salt and black pepper and always do so with chili. : ) lyra

Turkey in mole is perhaps the national dish of Mexico. I happened to be traveling in Mexico one time on Thanksgiving Day. Turkey in mole was on the menu, so I had my Thanksgiving turkey in a different style. That was fun! Mole has a long history full of interesting stories. Apparently it was invented by nuns in the city of Puebla who were preparing a special feast for a visitor. I don't recall the details. Mole Poblano has the longest and most unusual list of ingredients of any sauce I know of. Chocolate is the ingredient which most people find strange. However, chocolate is only one of the many ingredients and it is not sweet chocolate. Turkey in mole in no way resembles a hot fudge sundae. I am sure the commercial product sold in jars is a short-cut version. But, if that's what you have, give it a try. Sauce some poultry with it. Adjust the consistency with chicken stock if necessary to make it flow nicely. For some reason, I have an image in my mind of chicken under a blanket of mole sprinkled with sesame seeds. Jim

Woodie, quick story. I finished off that first pot and made another. My neighbor came by while I was cooking it (almost finished) said he could smell it and wondered what I was ruining now, LOL! I told the truth (some people still do that) and told him it was called "WoodieChili". I gave him one of those cheap disposible containers full, you get at Wall mart and told him to give it to his wife and see what she thought. Evidently that package of chili never saw his wife, LOL, because later that evening she showed up and said (non-nonchalantly) that **** wanted her to make some of the Woodiechili. I knew right then and there what was going on so I just said I didn't know if I still had the recipe or not and would check when I had time. Now before you get all carried away remember she has laughed at my cooking for several years now, I WANTED TO GET EVEN, LOL, (even though she is a super cook and friend)! So, I just didn't call! Yes I know, insensitive and COLD, but fun! This morning she called/came over and I gave her the printed recipe with those insignificant changes I had made and I figured that was it!! About an hour ago she dropped by with a container of cornbread and the recipe, which I had asked for politely about a million times! I have a feeling "Woodiechili" is going to change my life and neighborhood. These ladies are very completive in there cooking. Take care, Change.