Chocolate Chili?

Last weekend our ward had a chili/chocolate cook off. Well, chili has always been one of my favorite dishes since I was a child eating my Dad's chili, so I just had to enter. But...I wasn't alone. Both Chris and Jared decided to enter as well. Chris spent weeks trying to find the perfect chili recipe to use and Jared created his very own, one of a kind chocolate cake recipe. Here are the results. This is Chris' sausage chili. It's very meaty of course (3 lbs.) and has Italian smoked sausage as well as chipotle salsa to give it that smokey flavor. Out of 16 pots of chili, he won first place for "best flavor"! And yes, he made it himself. He made it before he went to work in the morning and let it simmer all day.

This is my chili. I remember calling my Dad after I tried to make chili the first time and asking him what went wrong. It tasted like beans with meat in it; he informed me that you have to use a lot of chili powder to flavor it, not just a little. Thus began my love for HOT stuff. I am known in the ward for liking it hot, so it came as no surprise that when people tasted pot #16, it was spicy. My chili had three different kinds of beans and three different kinds of peppers as well as a lot of seasoning and a kick of Valentina hot sauce. Needless to say, mine won first place for "the most spicy." We really got a laugh out of the fact that as we were driving to the cook off and listening to disco the song that says "I'm looking for some hot stuff baby this evening..." came on.

Here's Jared with his original "Rocky Chocolate Blowout." Jared also spent weeks designing his creation. He drew layered pictures of what it would include, he wrote out the ingredients list, tried several different names, wrote out the recipe, and rewrote and rewrote it. I didn't have to worry about giving him practice writing assignments during those weeks. So, here's the recipe: A two layered chocolate cake with chocolate chips baked in each layer. Chocolate frosting in between the layers and outside. Topped with crushed up Oreo cookies, chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and chocolate syrup. You might think that it was too chocolaty or too rich, but it was actually really good and everyone liked it. He won 2nd place for the "most original" out of like 20something entries. Congratulations Jared, we're so proud of you!

Overall, it was a very fun evening, one of the best ward activities. Guess you can't go wrong with chili and chocolate!