Chill !

I don't have a 'bucket list' ( I do think that concept silly; what, you're going to delay death because you still have things to do? ), but if I did, I could now cross off one of the items that I would have had on there. I have attended a chili cookoff.

It wasn't as Small Town America as I expected, as it seemed to be more an event for people who'd traveled long distances to attend sprint car races, and needed something to do in the morning; non-sprint car aficionados could come, too. It was packed with bearded, pot-bellied, and hairy people playing country music and scootering around in little ATVs that we guessed they keep lashed to their gihugic RVs. ( Most of the vehicles in the lot were campers, or at most 'normal' RVs, but there were at least a dozen superbus vehicles, too. I recall one with a popout on one side that appeared to be a barbecue. Now, that's my idea of roughing it.) A fair number of very attractive women prowled the grounds in close proximity to glowering, muscular men wearing wrap-around shades, and lots of cute little kids, some with parental supervision, and others, not so much, darted back and forth. And dogs, lots of them.

As for the chili itself, none of it made me say Damn, that's good, let's go buy a quart, but most of it was tasty -- one, a little too hot for me, and one, too much pork, but the rest, very nice. I've wanted to be able to make a decent chili for a while, but as I think about it, what I make now might be as close as I can get without getting into the chili ethos. We have two recipes; a chocolate-based chili and a honey-based chili. Both are made with ground beef; one has beans. I know that some people believe you simply cannot make a decent chili with ground beef, or, at least, just ground beef - other meats are needed, too. And even a non-aficionado such as I know about The Great Beans Wars.

But that's all minor. We had a good time, and the price was right. We'll make a point to do it again.