Yesterday was the 4th Annual RVHA (Rio Verde Horsemen’s Association) Chili Cook-off. As always, we entered because in my insecure but somewhat-confident-in-my-cooking-skills mind, I think I make darn good chili. In truth, it’s my mother’s chili recipe; but through the years, we’ve tweaked it by adding different meats, additional spices, a greater bean and chile assortment, etc.
David and I began cooking early in the morning, chopping, sautéing, frizzling, sizzling, and by ten the house smelled sublime. I love chili; I love my chili. We taste-tested, adjusted for spice and heat, and declared to each other that this was the year; this was the year that we would win the Chili Cook-off.
We’ve now entered the cookoff three times, our sole absence being due to HH’s back surgery. The first two times we took third place. I don’t like taking third place. Maybe my psyche has been invaded by too much American “We’re #!” culture but it is what it is. I want to win. Honestly, I don’t care if there’s a prize; I just want to win.
I guess you have figured out by now that, once again, we took third place. I won’t torture you with the resulting emotions that this “show” welled up inside of me, e.g. this is so indicative of my life, yadayadayada. Somebody warm up some crybaby soup and send it my pathetic way.
These very cute 4-H girls took second. As much as it is killing me, I can’t get all catty about the fact that they entered two chilis and how I don’t think that’s fair. This is due to the fact that they are very cute 4-H girls and were very excited to take second place. The whole little-girls-jumping-up-and-down-together-and-shrieking-with-joy thing saps the feline out of me.
First place went to a man with admittedly very-good-but-different chili. It was dark (unsweetened chocolate perhaps like they use in molé?) with chopped meat instead of ground. As much as I hate to cave this way, considering the uniqueness of his chili, he deserved to win. There, I said it. Don’t tell anyone.
Ridiculous emotions aside, we’re already thinking ahead to next year. I think that, instead of the usual ground beef, we’ll add chopped Chuck. That was the name of the first place winner, wasn’t it?
Maybe if you made it out of chopped coyote, you'd get bonus points! (Hey, I'm a vegetarian and meat is meat, right?)
Posted by: Michelle | January 20, 2008 at 09:43 AM