Today was the 6th annual chili cook off here in Cow Hill. As you may
or may not know I've entered before.

I've lost.

I'm a champeen chili loser, in fact. I made chili with red wine in it
only to discover the deep truth that you don't serve red wine to red
necks. I made chili with Dos Equis in it only to learn that you don't
serve THAT to chili judges either. In short I'm a chili chowderhead
when it comes to contests like this. My chili isn't what counts in
competition circuits. I could lose a chili contest in my sleep. If
Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, and Wolfgang Puck were cooking chili with
me, we'd lose. Some geezer from Longview would haul in the laurels
and we'd have to clean up the cook stoves.

Nonetheless, today I and my compadres entered the chili cook off
again. Irrepressible children that we are, we vied for a local chili
(non-CASI-sanctioned) prize of $1,000. We entered as Team Community
Garden, for it was the garden we sought to enrich with our chili.

And cook we did!

I ground the beef and pork yesterday. And I toasted and ground the
anchos and guajillos yesterday as well. We showed up with Gebhardt's
and toasted and ground chiles and a passel of other seasonings like
cominos, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, and paprika. We set up
a second camp stove to make a stock from pork neck bones and pasilla
negra chiles to augment the chili reduction in the first pot. We
tasted and adjusted our dish. We sampled the competition and compared
it with our dish.

We were satisfied with our effort. It was good chili, meaty and
tasty.

I filled the judges' cup and delivered same to the anointed site. And
we waited. And waited. And waited.

And...

The best local chili award went to a team from Kennesaw Georgia.

WTF?!!!?

The best chili in Cow Hill Texas was made by a team from Kennesaw
Georgia? Who's running this thing?

We were robbed.
--

modom