October 11, 2008
It's that time again, time for Star chapter 152's CHILI COOK OFF, and this year the competition was fierce. The cook off took place at the home of Dave & Annette Thompson on a cold fall evening. The participants started gathering and everyone had hopes of having bragging rights on the best chili. This year there were 30 people here to eat chili and 9 cooks with 9 different recipes with 8 of them looking to dethrone last year's winner Phoenix aka Salsa Nina. Finding 6 judges for this event wasn't hard and getting them to the table was even easier.
Judging was tough, but at the end only one would be the winner of the Great Chili Gnome. You could see that the judges where sweating over some of the entries; one judge even had to make a quick trip to the freezer for a Popsicle. It took awhile but the judge's color did return to their faces and the sweating stopped.
This years cooks were:
- Matt Meaty Monstrosity Chili
- Mark El Mex Superimo Chili
- Phoenix Express Chili
- Chad Level Six Chili
- Myke Prairie Dog Road Kill Chili
- Marshall Mix Chili
- Sandy Tons of Meat Chili
- Kevin Chili
- Red Rectum Rocket Fuel Chili
In the end our last year's winner Phoenix was not going to take the chili trophy home. This year's winner of the 2008 Chili Cook-Off was RED with her chili Rectum Rocket Fuel. For me second wasn't so bad, second to the last that is Oh well, there's always next year.
What a great time we had and what gracious hosts the Thompson family was. Big thanks to all who came out and to the cooks for giving us some of the best chili ever!
See ya all next year.
- Mark Petersen