The month of June had been gearing up to be a very busy month with work and other travel for Michael, so originally we hadn't given much thought to this cookoff, but about a week before we decided - let's do it! Neither of us were able to take a full vacation day so got on the road around 2pm for the 7.5 hour trip. The drive from New Brunswick through Maine can be very boring, simply highway and trees, not much to look at. Anyone who has travelled with me knows that I spend a great deal of time searching the scenery for moose or bear, rarely seeing either! So I was pretty thrilled when Michael woke me from a short nap with "moose, wake up, moose!!". We pulled to the side of the road and I actually had a lovely chat with this beautiful guy:
Millinocket Moose
Michael had stopped to fill up when we crossed the border (gas is MUCH less expensive over the line) and his tank filled and automatically stopped at $100. This, along with our moose sighting, convinced him that we were obviously in for a very lucky weekend, they were clearly signs!
We arrived at the Radisson in Nashua around 10pm. We had been told that most of the cooks would likely be staying at the Hampton Inn but decided to take our chances with Hotwire - we ended up with a rate of $62 a night, so were happy with that. An extra $10 was handed over to have a mini fridge brought to the room and Michael got down to business with his salsa chopping.
Saturday got off to a very warm start and continued to get hotter as the day went by, it was a scorcher, 98 degrees! Apparently last year it was cold, windy and wet so we were all glad to see the sun, although the heat was definitely hard on some. So glad I bought one of Adriane Cropley's neck coolers at the last cookoff, it definitely worked and came in handy. (will be wanting an extra so we each have our own in Palm Springs!)
The first sign that Michael's luck may have run out was at around 8:30am am as we are setting up the booth he realized that the chili he had made last week for the giveaway people's choice was home safe and sound in the freezer. As this is a part of your registration fee, we could not be without chili to give out, nor would we want to - for me it's the fun part! So off he went to the local grocery store and picked up enough ingredients to make a very large pot of chili. The funny part is that we got more comments and votes (19) than we ever have for the giveaway chili!!
All of the ICS sanctioned cook-offs are in aid of a charity or to help out a non-profit, and this one was to raise money for the local high school music program. The venue was a 6 acre field right across from the school itself. There was actually a caution regarding discretion with alcohol as we were on school property. We didn't see anything on there about Jello shots - thanks Vicki!
The crowd was great and the turnout was perfect - steady all day, but not huge crowds. There were lots of events going on for kids and other fund raising booths - I bought 10 tickets on a basket of cooking and grilling items, but darn it, didn't win... There was misting tent to help with the heat, a dunk tank and all day on stage were music acts from the school, including the jazz band - they were awesome.
I won't bore you all again with the chili schedule - Philip did a great job last month providing an overview of what happens. There were a lot of great cooks there, including a couple of previous world champions which Michael was fortunate enough to spend some time chatting with and gaining knowledge that you can't get anywhere else than from those that have done it that well before. He got some great comments on his chili, and lots of constructive criticism which he appreciated. He competed in all 3 events and got points for all 3 pots, which he was really happy with. Here are his final stats:
Salsa 3 points 8th out of 10 pots
Verde 5 points Tied for 5th out of 11 pots
Red 3 points 8th out of 14 pots
So definitely making progress. One of the cooks did tell me though "It could take 5 years for him to hone his recipe and skills before he has a win".....I sure hope it doesn't take that long. But - at least we are having a great time trying!
Here are some more pictures from the day.
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The trophy for Best Booth!!........
Chief Judge and Scorekeeper
Tailgate party!
Of course now that we're famous come the inevitable press interviews-lol! Here's local cub reporter Chloe attempting to pry Michael's chili secrets out of him:
Mike and Mary Alice in the background
- she beat him by 1 point to take the
top spot in red
Nashua has a couple of our favorite US restaurants that we don't have access to at home. We are both trying to watch what we eat lately, but definitely fell off that wagon this weekend. Saturday night I had the most delicious Mango Margarita, or as Michael referred to it "a slushy" since it was a virgin!
Then on Sunday morning all thoughts of eating healthy went out the window when we got to IHOP, this was one of our very favorite breakfast spots when we lived in Vancouver. I was really happy to see that the "Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity" was still on the menu! Here it is:
We hope to get to at least one more cookoff this summer before a 2 day event in Wells, Maine in August. But I have to admit, my real focus these days is the countdown to Palm Springs! Only 4 months and we will be in sunny California for 2 weeks. We've booked our flights and will be spending 2 days each in San Diego and Los Angeles before we move into the rental house in Palm Springs.
The front of our Palm Springs house
The pool at our house in Palm Springs
Until the next one.....Chili out!
