Saying 'Thank You'

I whipped up dinner last night for my neighbor who was so nice to come over to host Zeb's beer tasting and not ask for anything in return.
That evening we gave him a six pack of his favorite beer, but I also wanted to make him some chili (he likes chili). I followed (loosely) this recipe out of Midwest Living and the chili came out so so.

I admit to making some changes to this recipe:

1. I used 1.5 lbs of ground beef instead of the beef chuck roast and pork loin they suggested.

2. I omitted the parsley. (what does parsley do?)

3. I omitted the red hot chili pepper. (Last week when making salsa I cut up two jalapenos-and apparently touched my nose- and my nose burned for about 2 hours. not pleasant. no thank you.)

4. I forgot to buy the beef broth :|

5. I left out the melted butter (huh?) but then added the butter to my neighbor's portion because I didn't know how to 'save' the recipe. It didn't 'save' it, but did make it very buttery.

My main problem was that 'the chili' came out more like a beef stew than a chili. It tasted good, but to call it chili is not appropriate. In my defense, the picture that goes along with the recipe also looks like a beef stew. (maybe that's not in my defense).

I was happy to serve them dinner last night and they were surprised and happy by the gesture. I even baked up (right out of the package) some chocolate chip cookies.

How do you say 'Thank You' in a special way?