Better Than Decent

So, our first adventure in competitive cooking did not end with us walking away with a trophy or a giant check. Instead, we have a fun-tastic day to remember. A new tradition has begun.

Our competition batch of chili turned out perfect. I, speaking for myself, think it was the best one we've made to date. We could not have expected more from our efforts. The judging is quite subjective....but they did let us read the comments from the judges. "Excellent meat," "Too soupy," "Nice flavor," "Too mild," "No"...the last one being my least favorite. Three of the judges from our table had us ranked in their top 3! Unfortunately, that was not enough to get us into the finals. We were also allowed to taste the winning chilies. We took notes and are determined to come back next year and try again.

Eli found ways to keep himself entertained after stuffing himself full of chips and funnel cake.

It really was a lot of fun. We were thrilled to see so many familiar faces in the crowd. Lots of friends and even some family stopped by to sample our salsas and chili. We received a lot of positive feedback...from those that could handle the heat. Ours is a wee bit spicy! :) Knowing that this was our first try at a competition, we were not really expecting to come out on top when over almost 70 teams were competing...it would have been nice, but we were realistic with our hopes. But honestly, after such positive feedback from our friends (....maybe they were a bit too nice....because they are our friends....), we started to feel a tad overconfident. Going into it all, my only real goal was to have at least one person tell us it was their favorite of the day....and we got it! Well, kind of... Some friends said just that, but a non-friend bought a bowl to take home with him, and came back after sampling all the chilies (that didn't run out before he got to try it...) and told us ours was in his TOP 3!! It truly made my day....Too bad he wasn't one of the judges, right? All in all it was a blast, and we raised about $100 selling our chili for the Volunteer Fire Department.

And in addition to all of the cook-off fun, it was glorious beach weather all weekend. Just as was predicted and hoped.

Sunday, we made sure to spend the rest of our time ON the beach. Eli, as usual, loved playing in the sand. It was so much fun watching him play and how it differs from how he played in the sand a year ago. His playing has matured. (Sounds funny to say, but it is true!) The water was ICE COLD, but that didn't stop Eli from playing, jumping, and running from the waves.

We can't wait to go back in a few weeks.
Yay for the start of Spring! Beach Season is officially here!
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