Chili Cook Off

On Super Bowl Sunday a group of us decided to have a chili cook-off. The winner received not only the pride associated with victory, but also the golden spoon (wooden spoon spray painted gold). I teamed up with my buddy Nate for the endeavor. Taking the event perhaps a little bit more seriously that others, we woke and went grocery shopping that Sunday morning. We meandered through the aisles collecting ingredients and went back to his apartment and tossed them in a crockpot to cook for a few hours.

We had three different kinds of beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers, etc.; they all went into the pot. I was moving around the kitchen opening cans and whatnot while Nate was doing the chopping. I was really paying attention as he chopped up and threw in a whole habanero pepper. He was half way through the second when I told him those are really spicy peppers. He didn't know and maybe didn't believe me because he picked up piece he was cutting and popped it into his mouth. He took a couple chews and duely started coughing admitting, "yeah, that's pretty spicy."

With the crockpot bubbling away, Nate and I did some homework during the afternoon before heading over to watch the Super Bowl. The game itself was actually really good. Back and forth with lots of big plays on both sides. Two other chilis were in the competition with all accompanyment (corn bread, cheese, beer) and it was a good time all around. In the end, I would have liked the Cardinals to win but I'll just have to be satisfied with a chili contest victory.