First thing I have to do is send a shout-out to our chili friend, Scott Navaroli from Massachussetts, who became the 2015 International Chili Society Salsa champion at the World Championship in Reno, Nevada this weekend. It is always good when a champion comes from our chili family. I always thought Scott made a championship quality salsa. Another of our awesome group, Anne Marie Malone from Connecticut, won one of the Best Booth awards, also. Congratulations to them, and to all the winners over the weekend.
Now that the Worlds is over, we will dive right back into the chili world at the end of the month. The Spooktacular Chili Cook Off is going to be held on October 31 at the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center in Simsbury, CT. It sounds like this is going to be fun event. The Center is, as I have heard, very nice, and the organizers are making sure this is a fun event for everyone. There is a costume contest (well, it IS Halloween, after all!) with prizes in several different categories, and trick-or-treating for the kids. There will be music from local musicians all day. And, of course, the chance to taste and vote on your favorite chili in the People’s Choice category. With the way the weather has been turning, I think spending the day sampling some nice, warming chili is a pretty good idea! If you are interested, you can get all the details here:
Speaking of the weather, I am glad I went out and cleaned the remaining beans and green tomatoes off the plants. They are looking a bit frosted and wilty this morning. It did dip into frost temperatures last night. And is still pretty chilly! We even saw some light snow flurries when we were out walking yesterday. And I guess some places got actual snow on the ground this weekend. I guess it is coming, ready or not.
I know it is getting later in the year, because we have started the annual “When Is Thanksgiving This Year” schedule-go-round. We rarely have Thanksgiving dinner on the actual day anymore. Too many schedule conflicts with one daughter working retail and one in food service. Plus there are out of town folk to consider, what with hotel reservations needed and time off jobs to consider. But we always figure it out, and even if it is not on “the day,” we have a good family day, and that’s the important part.
I guess that’s about it for updates today. Try to stay warm out there!
(Image by FLC from Flicker under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 License)
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