SUNDAY - December 16, 2007

Southern California Holiday Party

Southern California chili cooks celebrated the Holidays in great style today when Mike and Bonnie Ford opened their beautiful Orange County home to us for their Annual Holiday Party/Practice Chili Cookoff. Since this is the second one (pay attention, Fred Summers) we can safely call it Annual---right?!?

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I think that Bonnie has been decorating their home at least since Halloween! Many of the decorations are obviously family heirlooms, which will be proudly passed along to children and grandchildren. Each room shone with very special treasures to be admired.

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When we arrived, we were greeted with Bloody Mary's from several sources, and Mike and Bonnie's kitchen table was filled with assorted bagels and muffins. We had been asked to bring hors d'oeuvres and, as chili cooks will, we complied generously. The covered pool table in the dining room groaned with handmade sushi, spinach dip, seafood mold, Mexican dip, deviled eggs, sausage/cheese/crackers plates, shrimp with cocktail sauce, pulled pork, barbecued ribs, homemade cookies, homemade candies and meringue and cream pies! And then we had to cook and judge chili---oh, my!!

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Practice cookoffs are always a good chance to try something new or to hone a tried and true recipe. The competition offered cooks an opportunity to work on their Chili Verde and Traditional Red Chili recipes. A total of thirteen cooks took up the challenge---four cooked Chili Verde and nine cooked Red Chili.

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We had also been asked to bring ten California Lottery scratchers for a drawing. This contribution offered a chance to win twenty scratchers, as well as a couple of other nice prizes. Of course, not everyone won, but many were recipients of twenty lottery scratchers. I was one of the winners; the packet that I chose happened to be the odd one, with only ten tickets. However, I can't complain---one of my scratchers was a $100 winner! Bill also won a twenty-scratcher packet, but his was zero for twenty!

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These practice cookoffs typically include two judging's, to simulate a preliminary and a final table. The cooks themselves judge the preliminary table, with the "judges" deciding the outcome of the cookoff. When the winners were announced, Mike and Bonnie had provided many lovely prizes for the winning cooks. The winners were all announced then allowed to choose which prizes caught their fancy. All prizes were chili-themed and very lovely. And the winners were:

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Chili Verde:

4th, Honorable Mention, Mitch Moody

3rd (tied for 2nd), Don Hammes

2nd, Allene Macklin

1st, Bob Dyer

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Traditional Red Chili

5th place tie, Honorable Mention, Karl Smith and Mike Stewart

4th, Honorable Mention, Nibs Waters

3rd, Bill Ray

2nd, Eileen Beaty

1st, Mike Austin

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