Chili Cook-off

Scott has been meeting with a group of guys every week or two from his church drama group for years.  They have "guys night" and it's usually spent eating dinners centered around meat: steaks, ribs, wings, burgers...you name it.  Eventually, they coined the term Men's Meat Night and still meat meet to this day.

This year, spouses have gotten an invite to Meat Night every now and then.  The first one I got asked to vote for a restaurant I suggested Italian and almost got blacklisted...oops.  We settled on Giordano's, split a variety of loaded meat and veggie (for me) pizzas and at the next gathering decided to have a Chili Cook-off!

Back in August, Scott tried a new chili recipe that made my entire family sweat - literally - this stuff was scorching!  He wanted to try something different so he looked for award winning recipes, tweaked it a little and created the best homemade chili recipe I've ever tasted!

Friday night was the night of the big Chili Cook-off at the Pumpkin House.  You may have seen their name on the Pumpkin Spice Coffee Giveaway, as Mallori "Pumpkin" won the decaf coffee.  Here we are enjoying the infamous Pumpkin Spice coffee...thanks for sharing MP! :)

Each Meat Night member brought their favorite chili recipe and we had a big (and full bellied) task of tasting all of them.
There were 6 different chilis: all great, unique recipes.

1. Pumpkin and Buffalo Chili:

paired with some yummy sweet and jalapeno corn bread muffins:

2. Scott's Spicy Brisket Chili:

served with fresh cilantro, jalapenos, and lettuce
(to cleanse the palate):

 
3. Beer Chili:

 accompanied by some really good beer bread:

4. Venison and Bacon Chili - a clear MEAT night inspiration:

5. Chicken and White Bean Chili:

and last but not least,
6. Traditional Chili

served atop macaroni noodles, just like the chili I grew up on:

Does anyone else do this? Besides the couple that brought them everyone else thought we were crazy.

After a tasting each chili, everyone had the impossible task of picking their favorite.  I genuinely liked ALL of them because each one was very different from the others.  But, a decision needed to be made and I'll give you one guess on which one I chose:

Yup, you're probably right...

The PUMPKIN and Buffalo Chili, obviously.  If you know me at all you know I'm a sucker for pumpkin anything!
Great job "Pumpkins":

Voting took place by writing your favorite down and placing it into the Goblet of Fire:

Scott and I were nervous about what everyone thought of his our chili because it was built up to be amazing.  The votes were in and it was time to announce the winner...

Drumroll please....
The winner of the $25 Chili's <--- how appropriate gift card:

is...
Scott and his Spicy Brisket Chili!

SUCCESS! First runner up was #4. Chicken and White Bean Chili.  Thanks for voting for us!

After a lot of convincing, Scott has agreed for me to share his award winning Chili Cook-off recipe with you all, so keep an eye out for it coming very soon.

Questions:

• Which chili do you think would be your favorite?
• Have you ever eaten chili on top of noodles, or is there just a select few of us out there?