You probably are a bit tired of hearing about Mali by now, so how about a bit of chili?!?!?
Saturday our music group from church sponsored a chili night to have a social event before Lent starts. Three of the musicians came armed and ready to make their favorite styles of chili. Cooking started at 10 am with lots of chopping and browning and dumping and stirring. After copious tasting, we set the hall and were ready by 5:30pm.
We wound up having 6 different chilies – white (chicken), Cincinnati-style, spicy/soupy with beans*, spicy/soupy without beans, mild/thick with beans*, and mild/thick without beans. All of it tasted great! The Cincinnati-style one was right on – and she didn’t use any prepackaged mixes to make it. The white chili had just a bit of a bite – I had never had a white chili before and was pleasantly surprised with how good it tasted. I don’t think any pot in particular was more a favorite than any other.
Lots of spaghetti for those that wanted plus hot-dogs to make chili coneys. And tons of grated cheese and onions and oyster crackers.
We also had people donate desserts – wow! Some really good ones!
The only negative to the evening was the weather and that it kept many folks from coming. Soooooo, we bagged up the remaining pots of chili and sold them off after church this morning. Overall, a grand success of an event.
We are already thinking that next year we may do a cook-off…
*I know. You are probably making jokes about the beans, and the fact that the musicians were cooking. The old Girl Scout jingle comes to mind (Beans, beans, the musical fruit…). Don’t go there.