Chili Cook-off 2013

2 years ago, my friend Josh and I entered a Gumbo competition.  Neither of us had ever made a gumbo before, but we threw one together and won the competition.  This year, we entered again, made our gumbo even better, and won again.  A month or two ago, we found out that there would be a chili cook-off.  Neither of us had ever made a chili before.  So, of course we entered.

Our Gumbo is known as Heart-Attack Gumbo.  It's got lots of bacon in it.  We wanted to go for the same theme with our chili, so we named it "Artery Clogging Chili."  It involved an entire package of bacon.  Also, a big hunk of beef, 3 or 4 cans of tomatos, some Guinness, some Jameson, some dark chocolate, some onions & mushrooms, some garlic, and various seasonings.  And we chopped up a little orange pepper thing...I don't remember what kind of pepper it was.  I can't stand spicy things so I didn't pay attention to that part.

Big pan of bacon cooking.  My apt. smelled pretty awesome!

We cut up the meat into cubes and rubbed it and a bunch of beef bones in some seasonings.

The meat got to take a nice bath in Guinness and Jameson.  It was like a spa...for meat.

I set the crockpot on low and let it cook all night long.  It got turned off about 12 hours later, before I left for work the next day.  I added 2 squares of dark chocolate at that point.  The chili took all day to cool off, and I put it in the fridge when I got home from work that evening.  

This is what I found when I took the chili out of the fridge this morning.  Grease much?

How bout a big pile of skimmed-off grease?

There were 17 chilis to taste.

Ours was by far the best.  And one of about 3 that didn't put me in severe pain...

Some happy tasters.

 Unfortunately, we only came in 2nd place.  We couldn't remember particularly liking the chili that came in 1st, but oh well.  Everyone has different tastes.  Maybe ours wasn't spicy enough for most people.  It was spicy enough for me to taste it...any spicier and I wouldn't have been able to eat my own chili!  

We'll be back next year, with an even better chili and hopefully win.  

We want to be gumbo champions AND chili champions!

Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas!  

This is my 2nd Christmas in my apt, but I never got around to getting a tree last year.  This year I finally got around to buying a tree, but my plan to be crafty and make lots of ornaments for it feel through...I didn't make any.  But I found some things lying around and had a few ornaments that people have given me over the years, so the tree isn't completely bare.  And I bought one garland of tinsel. 

I've been spending my vacation on the couch relaxing and in the kitchen concocting.  (With occasional breaks to go for a run or spend time with friends of course.)

I put a stool in my kitchen last night and enjoyed multi-tasking at its finest.

I was making the filling for Guinness-Jameson truffles and didn't want to just stand there stirring.  Sitting and reading while stirring made the time go by much faster. 

1 c Guinness

1/4 c Jameson

5-7 oz dark chocolate

1 tsp of cinnamon

I put 3.5 oz of chocolate in the filling last night, but when I took it out of the fridge to make truffles this morning I discovered it was MUCH too soft to coat with melted chocolate.  So the chocolate I had melted to be the coating ended up getting mixed into the ganache and stuck in the fridge to reset.  I eventually got to coat those truffles...

A dash of cinnamon on top and...done!

Today I also made peppermint bark. 

Some plain-looking bark.

 And some artistic-looking bark.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!