4th Annual Chili Cookoff – But remember the kids are the real winners!

Since I kind of took a small hiatus during October, I’m finally getting caught up with October goings on but I still have much to chat about… like the Chili Cookoff…

The Chili Cookoff was October 22nd. The day before we went out to Deb and Grady’s house to set up everything we could for the next day. I was fighting a horrendous cold so I tried to steer clear of people so I didn’t spread it although I was on the downhill slide of it. While Jared, Hubby, Karen, Deb, and SW set up, I sat at the patio table and set up an excel worksheet with the help of text messages/emails from my friend Kalem.

I was happy the cookoff was the weekend it was because that meant it was a Tbug weekend meaning she could compete! She and dad went off to the store to get their “secret” ingredients and then were busy in the kitchen working on her Chili when I headed off to Deb and Grady’s.

Along with the cookoff, there was a silent auction. I made decorated cookies for the silent auction as well as cinnamon honey butter. This is just a sample of the cookies… I made 18 for the auction.

Technically I made 21 but as you can see I set my arm in a ghost so I ate it backing it to 20 and then let Tbug and Abug have one… therefore 18 it was.

That evening, chili and non chili items had to be in place by 4:30. I actually was driving to Joplin when I decided to get stuff to make Chicken and Noodles for the non-chili contest so I ran to the store, grabbed what I needed and off to Deb’s to make homemade noodles.

Karen had made lunch by the time I got there so we ate some yummy Monte Cristo sandwiches, then it was time to set in, get the soup made, get decorations finalized, and let the event start!

This year we had 7 chili entries and 8 non chili entries. Last year we had more chili entries, but maybe the non chili detracted from that? I don’t know… I mean I made Chili last year but soup this year…. anyway these people below, they were the judges. They had a tough decision although they only had to judge chili. There was also a people’s choice for chili and then the non-chili was judged by people’s choice.

Poor Pete. We actually have a picture of him like this from the first Chili cookoff :).

One of our local tv stations got wind of the event and came out to do a news coverage story on the event. That was awesome because this whole event is really to raise money and help less fortunate kids have a Christmas so any media coverage we can get, the better!

There is a local band called No Apparent Reason that came to preform for the event. They were excellent! We also had a little Johnny Train and Bounce Houses at the event so fun for everyone. That was the goal, come out, have a good time, eat some chili/non-chili, bid on some items, and raise money for Christmas for Kids.

The winners of our Chili Cookoff and Non Chili Cookoff… 1st went to Jody, 2nd Lee, 3rd Janet, People’s Choice, Donna, and Non-Chili People’s Choice Rachele.
In order of picture, Donna, Jody with daughter JP, Lee, Rachele, and Jill (accepting for her daughter Janet)

But I’d like to point out that the real winners are the children. We were able to raise a little over $3,500 at this even this year. Every year it gets bigger and better. Bring on next year (but not too fast, let’s not wish our life away!)