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Last night was the annual St. Mike’s Chili Cookoff. There were about 12 meat chilies and 4 vegetarian chilies to sample, and for a cover charge as low as $5 a person, you could sample all the chilies available and vote. All in all one of my friends estimated that at least 175 people passed through over the course of the night. As you might expect, that many people can demolish a batch of chili pretty quickly. At least, that is what I found last year when I was the first person out of chili.

This year, that distinction came to the couple next to me…and I think that had they had enough chili for the entire night they very well may have one. They had an excellent chili that had ground beef, steak, bacon, and….get this….Guinness….oh, wait, it still gets better, and peanut butter! I never would have thought of peanut butter, but it worked very well. I don’t know why that suprised me though…I use vanilla extract as my ’secret’ ingredient.

Where last year the chili I made was a multiple dead animal and a fungus chili, I decided to go back to a more traditional chili this year. When I said I was first out last year, I think it was my downfall, leading to a 12th place finish, I only had a gallon or so of chili for that contest. This year…well, I made over three gallons of chili. I kept it warm in a baby cooker (crock pot so large a small child could be roasted in it), and this year I called my chili 16 pound chili, based on the recipe for the 3+ gallons, 4 pounds ground beef, 4 pounds onions, 4 pounds chili beans (NEVER DRAIN THE CANS!), 4 pounds of Red Gold Zesty/Sabrosa petite diced tomatoes, and my blend of spices.

The work paid off this year, as I came in 2nd place in the meat category (they don’t do overall), and I had a lot of fantastic comments and soooo many people come back up for 2nds, 3rds, and one lady who came back at LEAST 5 times. I also had a couple of Texans that told me my chili was the most traditional tasting chili they had all night…which is funny, because in Chicago its definitely not traditional, but the vanilla extract isn’t uncommon in a real Texas style chili, and I really took that as a compliment.

Oh, side note, the girl from Texas had a Beer Holster!!!!! This was an awesome leather belt clip kind of thing that would hold either a can, bottle, or glass of beer. It was a stout leather, and I must find one. It was perfect to let you walk around and do things with both hands while keeping your beer handy.

I should get the actual vote results sometime in the next week, and I’ll post those again, and also get to see how close I came to actually winning the whole schpeil (sp). Thanks again to everyone who came!