CT State Chili Cook-Off 9/19/09

OK. I completed the chili cook-off trifecta. 3 this year, which is a lot for me. A mere rookie compared to the hard core cooks who do 10 to 15 or more each Summer. To prepare for one of these things, I need to take a day off in order to shop, chop, cook and pack. The time I spend doing all the prep work makes easier to get down to business come cook-off day

The bulk of the work involves making the meat for the People's Choice Chili. I usually get about 8 or 9 lbs of chop meat, cook the fat out of it, add veggies and spices and let it cook and cool off for a while. What results is 2, 1 gallon baggies of rock hard chili meat starter, or as I like to call it, the dreaded "Meat Brick".

After seeing the weather forecast for the day of the Cook-Off, I knew we were going to have a huge turn out and going to need a boat load of chili to feed all these folks until 4 o'clock. Mike came prepared with what looked like at least 3 gallons all ready to go. I took a look at it and knew it would be gone in less than 2 hours, so I took a brick out of the cooler and tossed it in the pot. I warmed it up, added all the necessary ingredients and put it to the side until it was needed. Pure genius!

The day was as perfect as I could have asked for. Not a cloud in the sky and just a light breeze (as compared to the Maine typhoon) Mike, Jack, Fran and I had a grand ol' time cooking away while we kept up or strength with our favorite beverages. Friends gathered and voted for our chili as often as was legal. So many people came by and sampled our salsa, amazed at how good it was. I must have had at least 3 marriage proposals as a result. I told them I was taken, but Jack was available.

The people's choice competition is a unique phenomenon in the chili world. Since all the cook-offs are for charity, it generates a good part of the revenue for the cause. In this case, Elderly Meals on Wheels. All the chili cooks are required to make it, and whoever gets the most votes from the tasting public wins. Simple enough. Of course the cooks who expect to win this will need to invite everyone they ever met to the cookoff, decorate their booth within an inch of its life, ring sirens and cowbells for each vote, hire swimsuit models, kiss babies, give away chips, cheese, bumper stickers, and oh yeah, not run out of chili.

Fran was giving away chili all day while we worked on our competition Red, Green and Salsa for the judges. We ended up running low on the 2nd pot, so I took out the last Meat Brick and doctored it up in record time. In the end, we must have given away close to 9 gallons of the stuff and we made it to 4pm with about a quart to spare.

The results:
Well, my reign as Salsa champ came to an end after 3 years. Hey, it had to end sooner or later. Jack was the big winner with 2nd place in Red chili. He attempted to take out the first place winner, but the police dogs got to him before he could do any real damage to the champ. We all admire Jack for his good sportsmanship. He should be released any day now. I think I ended up with a 4th place in Green chili and Mike got 3rd place in the best booth competition. I'm happy to say that after all our labor, we got 3rd place in People's Choice. No money, mind you, just and honorable mention and a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. (maybe it was the 1800 Silver Agave)

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes and support.
I'm now done for the year and will look forward to doing it all again next May in the NE Regional.

Take Care,
Chris