And the winner is..

Last night the seminary community had a chili night - with a contest for the best in several categories. Now in some ways, my entering the chili contest might have been considered unfair, as I have been making chili longer than most of my classmates have been alive, and I have made chili professionally (my parents were in the restaurant business for many, many years). I probably have also made more gallons of chili than most people I know. All that said, I do enjoy making chili, and the fellowship of the night was great.

The categories for chili included Best Vegetarian, Best Beanless (meat only), Best w/Beans, Most Unusual, and Hottest. Now, I take my chili pretty seriously - beans and meat with lots of onion and green pepper. Spicy, but not too hot (or no one else in the family will eat it), not too thick and not too thin. Oh - and lots of tomatoes. Canned diced tomatoes work best, unless you just happen to have a bunch of fresh ones that need to be used, and you have the time to peel them (no tomato peel in my chili, thank you very much).

When I made chili in the restaurant, or even when I am in a hurry, I make chili with Bush's Chili Beans (no one else's will do). They are a good, canned bean and the seasoning is pretty good without being overpowering - which means you can add in your own special seasoning and still be able to taste it. These days, I prefer to make the chili from scratch - dried beans and all. I have also developed a taste for black beans, so my chili always has plenty of black beans in it, as well as kidney beans and pinto beans. For this batch, I started on Thursday evening, rinsing and soaking beans. I had to pick someone up at the airport around midnight, so about 1:30 a.m. I was able to give the beans one last rinse and turn the slow cooker on. By morning, the house smelled like beans and tomatoes. At lunchtime, I added cooked ground chuck (well seasoned, with onions, garlic, and green pepper) and more liquid. I like to use V8 juice along with tomatoes, because it adds a nice bit of flavor. During the afternoon, I stirred and adjusted the seasonings, adding chili powder, cumin, black pepper, red pepper, and something new this year - Smoky Tabasco sauce.

All in all, it was a great pot of chili. By starting with dried beans and using No-Salt-Added tomatoes, it was a low-sodium dish (important in our house), low-carb (also important) and high fiber (very important for those of us 50 and over). It also tasted great! The black beans not only add great flavor, but also are a nice contrast to the red kidney beans and tomatoes.

So how did my chili fair in the contest? Many people liked it, partly because it was not so hot as some others (hot should be added by each person to suite their own taste, not forced upon them). It, of course, did not win the vegetarian or beanless categories, but it did carry the day for most unusual. It was not the only chili there with black beans, but a couple of the others had corn added (corn is NOT something I want in my chili). Whatever the case, I was happy to have my chili recognized, but the best reward was that I brought home an almost empty pot, so someone thought it was good.

The best part of an evening like this is that it brings the community together for a very family-fun based evening of fellowship. Especially, at this time of life at seminary - first call for seniors, internship for middlers, CPE for juniors, mid-terms approaching for all - we all have plenty of stress in our lives. This was a great chance to just let go for a little while, and enjoy some time together.