Chili Cookoff

My beautifully crafted centerpiece

Let the games begin, may the best cook win!

Karen using her family crest to lobby for presentation points

Gotta try 'em all!

Judge Kristin at work

The Chili Cookoff winners--Kristin (best chili), Karen (best presentation), Carol (best chili name), and Kim (best cornbread)

Last night Karen and I hosted the inaugural K&K Chili Cookoff. The event was a huge success. After weeks of careful preparation, the cookoff went off without a hitch. We had twelve party attendees, six chili division entrants, three cornbread co-rec division entrants, and a few freeloaders (just kidding, they supplied ample amounts of beer, which made them far from freeloaders). Anyhow, I'm very surprised and flattered to report that my chili was named "Best Chili" of the party. Which I don't really understand, because I thought that many of the others were far better. I made a Texas chili recipe without beans (which I named Bucky's Bullseye Bowl 'O Red) that I found in my Williams Sonoma Southwest Cookbook. The recipe had some interesting ingredients, most notably bittersweet chocolate and cinnamon. I even had to break out the mortar and pestle for spice grinding, so I supposed I did work hard for the coveted title.

We had so many variations of chili--white, vegetarian, spicy, meaty, beans, no beans, etc., and as you can see from the pictures above, our kitchen was overtaken by crock pots. I think that everyone had a great time, and now Karen and I are scheming on ideas for our next party.