Maine State Chili Cook-Off 8/29/09

As I was trekking up to Maine,
a mere 4 freaking hours from CT, I was thinking "this is a State
Cookoff, it's going to be alright. I'll sweep all the categories and
be off to the World Championship without a doubt. Piece o'cake!
I
got there at 7:00am. No one was there but Mike. Uh oh! Is this thing
cancelled? Did I just wake up at 2:30 am to travel in the wind and
rain to Maine in order to be told to go home and have a nice t-shirt
for your trouble?
No. It was on. They moved into the JHS gym. One
problem. If you use propane, you can't go in the gym. You have to
stay outside in the monsoon and try to cook chili... Well, it sucks to be you, doesn't it?

Ok,
we're not wimps, we can cook in hurricane Danny. Danny, what kind of a
hurricane name is that anyway! Mike put up sides to the tent and we
were pretty much isolated from the elements. (for a while)...

So
we were doing our thing outside when I meandered in the gym and found
out that the electric in the gym was out. No one was able to cook for
about 45 minutes and they had to wait until the JHS technical crew
fixed the problem. Hmmmmm! Sounds like a little justice to me.
Meanwhile, outside it was raining sideways. The sides to the tent we
were in were basically a big square piece of plastic. Kind of like a
sail. Well the sail picked up the gusts nicely and Mike, being on the
end got his table full of supplies knocked over at least 4 times.
Every ten minutes we heard a crash and wondered who the next victim
was. It was like cooking on a fishing boat where nothing was anchored
down.

Anyway, we did our best, regardless of the elements.
Every once in a while a lost soul would come by looking for chili
samples. We told them, no less than 50 times that chili tasting was in
the gym and we were stuck outside as punishment for our sins. They
gave us a pitiful look and walked into the gym to find it warm, dry and
full of happy chili tasting, bazaar shopping, fools.

OK. The
results. My salsa was the best I ever made it. Fresh farm tomatoes,
seasoned to a tee. The green was another experiment in which I had no
idea what I was doing. If not for Mike, my tutor in the Verde arts, I
would have poisoned the judges (yet again). The red was a total
disaster. I ran out of time and the meat was just a bowl of rubber
bands. Good tasting, but rubber bands just the same.

We turned
in our best efforts to the judges and..... Well, Mike got best booth.
Thank God! If anyone inside the gym got it, I would have rushed the
stage!! No, it was justified. He put up with alot and we all
benefited from his effort. For some unknown reason, I got skunked
again in salsa. What? What is wrong with you people? Nevermind...
I'm calm. On the other end I got a 2nd place in Green Chili (verde).
What? I was calling it chicken soup all day because that is what it looked like. Mike coached me all along
and still thought it was chickeny, but I could care less at that point
and just turned it in. Well. I was happy.

All in all, we had a good time. I got to see good friends and have a good laugh.

Mark your calendars, 3 weeks, Saturday Sept 19th is the CT State Chili Cookoff. It begins around 11:00 or so. Not
really sure. Take exit 50 off of I-95 and make your first right. The
cookoff is on your right, in the park. It should be going full steam
about 12 or so. Come on by and get some chili, see the classic cars,
and take a pony ride. It will be a lot of fun. I will be there to
defend my 3 time Salsa Championship. By the looks of things, it could be a struggle.

Please feel free to invite anyone you think may be interested. http://www.chilicookoff.com/Event/Event_Display.asp?EventID=2467

Take care,
Chris