chili contest

Boston Square CRC (my church) holds an annual chili contest. When I first heard about it last year, I was told that there were three categories: best traditional chili, best hot chili, and most unusual chili. Since I was relatively new to the church, I thought this would be a good chance for me to really make a name for myself. I was going to win. However, I quickly realized that I really didn't have a chance winning best traditional chili; I had nothing more than an average recipe. Also, I don't really like spicy chili, so I had no interest in winning that. So, most unusual chili it was. I went online and started reading chili recipes until I found it.

Banana chili. What could be more unusual than putting fruit in your chili? The line under the recipe name on the website reads, "To be honest, I thought this would be horrible, but surprisingly it's not!" I love banana bread so why not banana chili? Surely I was going to win, so I started talking up my chili. I even led the liturgy the day of the contest and slipped in a comment about how good my chili was when I was making the announcement about the chili contest. About that time, though, I found out a crucially important fact: my category had been renamed. What had been "most unusual chili" became "best non-traditional chili," and that, my friends, is no minor adjustment.

I made my banana chili anyway, and that evening I was running a little late. Having never transported a crock pot before, I just set on the floor by the passenger seat of my car. At the stop light on the way to church, I hit the gas in an effort to make up for lost time only to see my crock pot fall backwards as my car went forwards. Banana chili all over the floor of my car. I reached over to upright the crock pot and pulled over at the next possible driveway to assess the damage. Half of the chili had been saved, but I decided I should turn around and go home to mop up the other half. I made quick work of that and then on to church--this time with one hand on the crock pot sitting at my feet.

I was thirty minutes late, and people were wondering why I hadn't shown. When they heard the story, they felt bad--but not bad enough to vote for me, just bad enough not to tell me what they really thought about my chili. It really wasn't that good but I kept trying to talk it up. It was no use. At the end of the night, I went home defeated in a car still reeking of chili.

However, this year, I was determined to redeem myself. I went online once again, but this time I looked for the highest rated and most popular traditional chilies. I settled on Boilermaker Tailgate Chili and bought and borrowed the 26 necessary ingredients for this chili.

And it worked!

Below, on the left is my friend Matt who won with his excellent non-traditional chili (not to be confused with a category about unusual chilies), and in the center are Johan and Daniel who won for the spicy chili. I suspect their secret ingredient was gochujang (Korean pepper paste). And finally, there's me smiling proudly: winner of "best traditional chili" at the 2011 Boston Square Chili Contest.


So what did I win? Well, my name goes on the silver platter that sits on a shelf at church, but more importantly, I won the rights to write a blog post like this one.