Kiss Your Sister...

Last Saturday I drove down to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, America to cook in the Relay for Life chili cookoff. The day started off with a little drama as mom and I had brought a different propane stove to cook on, thus forgetting our chili pots. We had to run to the local Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of pans! I loathe Wal-Mart and choose not to shop there whenever possible but being in Podunk, Oklahoma we had no choice.

Brand new cookware!

My chili was really good this time, even better than what I cooked last time at the Beaver chili cookoff, or so I thought! Once again my chili had good flavor and color as well as some good heat. As the top 10 was being announced at the end of the event, the more names that were called the more confident I was that I was going to place high or even win the competition. No such luck! I didn't even make the top 10. I blame it on Pauls Valley being so close to Texas... Seriously I think the middle aged ladies judging the competition probably didn't like the heat on my batch. That's the thing with public judging, you never know how tastes will vary from person to person or region to region.

At the end of the presentation of awards for every chili cookoff I've been to they always announce the "kiss your sister" award or eleventh place. Guess who won that honorable distinction? It was kind of cool to win the "kiss your sister" award in one regard, they actually presented a plaque for the placing with "kill your sister" printed on the trophy.

Eat your heart out twelfth place!

All in all not a bad day and a lot of fun in spite of the suspect taste buds of the Pauls Valley folk.

No Man's Land Chili

Last Saturday I headed to the Beave (also know as Beaver) in the panhandle (also known as no man's land and the land that time forgot). What took me on a five hour trek to the wastelands of Oklahoma was the 16th Annual Beaver Cow Chip Chili Cookoff. I didn't cook with cow chips. I have attended twice, the other time was for the 1st Annual Cookoff (shuddup Dann).

My parents began participating in chili cookoff competitions with my aunt Ruthless and my uncle Dave when I was a teenager. They were all members of an organization called CASI (Chili Appreciation Society International). This organization sponsors chili competitions nearly all over the United States. The overall goal of attending and placing in the top 10 of any given cookoff is to accumulate points to qualify for the International Chili Championship in Terlingua, Texas. I would tag along to a few events a year mainly just to hang out and sometimes I would get roped in to cooking or judging. I placed in the top 10 now and then and I even won a competition in Midwest City one year. Basically the cookoffs really boiled down to having fun, hangin' with family and friends and having some beers. My desire to go to Beaver last Saturday was simply to do something I haven't done in a long time.

My chili. On the entry form for CASI sanctioned cookoffs there is a field for chili name. My mother calls her chili "Milley's Chili" (her name is Mildred, I'm naming my first daughter Mildred, wait, what were we talking about?). I believe the first cookoff my mother participated in was in Red River, New Mexico and at that time her chili name was "Virgin Milley Chili" but I guess the name as been altered over the years. I named my chili "Beat Milley's Chili," because I'm a dick.

One more word about CASI sanctioned chili. Basically chili should consist of three things: meat, sauce, and heat. No fillers of any kind are allowed at competition (though often times there are open competitions alongside the CASI sanctioned competitions where anything goes). No beans, vegetables, etc. The chili should also be made from a mixture of spices and not from anything store bought, so basically from scratch. I actually prefer chili this way probably from eating so much of it over the years at cookoffs with the family.

I placed third! Not bad for not cooking in a long, long time. My flavor was really good, I thought, but there was little heat to my chili. I think if I could've kicked it up a notch I would've had a fair chance to win. Several criteria is taken in to account when the chili is judged, color, flavor, heat, etc. I really have to stop wearing that Express shirt so often.

My mom won first place the hag. My cousin won second place and aunt Ruthless placed fifth via a tiebreaker. Almost a clean sweep except for a guy named Bill from Beaver who finished fourth. I believe there were 18 cooks total in the CASI sanctioned competition.

The cookoff in Beaver is extremely cool. The money raised from entry fees, tasting cup fees, and raffles go toward support for the rural EMT's. Putting aside the cause, the people of Beaver have got to be some of the nicest group of people I've met anywhere. I'm really glad I mad the haul to the panhandle in spite of the long drive to participate and I look forward to going again next year... and winning!