Mother Nature Hates Chili

I think it has something to do with Methane and Global Warming but I can't be sure.

I might have mentioned that since we moved down to the South I have a lot of free time.

Isn't this blog proof of that?

So along with other ridiculous things a few weeks ago I decided to enter a Chili Cook-off. Sure, why not?  That's what people with free time do with a Saturday.

So I bought everything I would need for my World Famous Autumn Vegetable Chili (that I only invented when I was at the grocery store shopping for the cook-off and now that I think about it the name is kind of misleading since it was actually a meat chili but it had vegetables in it.)

Perhaps I should re think the name?

Stay Focused!

This is what 10 gallons of chili looks like and yes I am a messy cook. Stop judging!

So I cooked. All day.

Then I went and borrowed a tent, a table and a pot. I set everything up in my designated location.

The Chili was hot. There were festive gourds and table clothes and I had been given my sign so everyone could vote for my chili.

Everything was perfect. Then I sent Triple S home for a few last minute items.

My first sign that things weren't going good was the sky. It started to get dark. Next came a text from the weather obsessed Triple S.

Triple S- Standby to get drenched. Not looking good from the west.

Me- So not cool.

Triple S- This would have been a good thing to do NEXT weekend (Sometimes he can be very obvious)

Me- No kidding (Sometimes so can I)

Triple S- You in your car?

Me- No holding the tent down. If I get struck by lightning I'm going to be p*ssed!

So you can imagine that if I need to hold the tent down that things have gone horribly wrong.  It is also at this point that I realize that Triple S is back but sitting nice and dry in his car.

So not cool.

Triple S- That was a close one (his comment about the lightning strike)

Me- I hate you

Triple S- I brought a towel?

So I stood there. Waiting for the thunder storm to pass. At first I tried to move everything to the middle of the tent to keep it dry but I quickly gave up with that foolishness. Instead I just stood there while the rain turned the ground into mud and destroyed the tents around me.

At one point it looked like it was a little people convention.

Tents lowered to keep the participants dry. It didn't work.

Finally as the storm clouds cleared the event organizer popped his head under my tent to let me know they had cancelled the cook off. I won't recount my conversation here but imagine it included lots and lots of sarcasm and you'll have the basic idea.

At this point I was feeling pretty crazy. Not to mention the mud. There was also some insane laughter involved.



It was over.

After cooking all day I had 10 gallons of Chili and no chance of winning.

The prize was $1000 and Colin had made me promise I would buy him a laptop if I had won. Poor kid was devastated. Not sure if he had faith in my cooking ability or is just delusional about how much of a chance I really had. Either way he was angrier than I was about the cancellation.

So yeah, Mother Nature hates Chili.



PS

I hand delivered the Chili to a number of people and brought some to work. I thought about saving it but that much chili in my freezer reminded me of crazy survivalists.

So here comes the question.

The rain date is this Saturday and of course Triple S headed back to work today.

Do I really want to do it all over again this weekend? Am I just that insane?


10/11/12 (so cool!)
UPDATE:
I'm in!
Please stop by.

http://thegreatchilicookoff.com/cooks.html

10/13/12
UPDATE 2:

I didn't win! Apparently the police did. Sounds like some of the judges might have had some tickets they were hoping to get taken care of.

I'll update with a more in depth post tomorrow but I didn't want anyone not being able to sleep without knowing.