Best of Both Worlds

Mark my words, I will never again complain about the rain. Last night it set in and it will be gone tonight. Even though it may be short, it will leave about 2" of the precious liquid behind. At this point I would settle for anything.
Another reason it's a good day is because the high temp for the day is only going to be 76 and the low will be 66. It can't get any better than that.

Even with the rain today the weekend plans are all still a go. We will be cooking in St. Joe this weekend and this cook off should be a good one.
We need all the support we can get so if you decide you need something to do Saturday come on out, drink a beer with me and taste my chili.





See ya down the road,
MDR

Non Stop All Weekend Long

I put in sixty hours of work on the job during the five day work week. During the two day weekend I put in a little over forty. It is non stop from Friday evening to Sunday night. Not all that is work though, I do take time to do some cool stuff.

After finally dragging our tired bodies in the house late yesterday evening I asked the wife, "What do you think it would have been like if you would have married a normal guy?"
Her response was simple, "Boring."

Friday night after we loaded the truck for the cook off we had some friends come over to sit by the fire and relax a long week away. There is just something about kicking your feet up, watching the flames dance in the dark and enjoying life.

Early Saturday morning we were unloading and getting ready to cook. The chili cook off went just as I figured, the wife kicked my butt again. This time I have no excuses, she flat out beat me fair and square along with over three quarters of the other cooks. This has been harder than I thought. I pride myself on my food and really thought I was going to walk right in and be a super star. I am just getting spanked over and over again like a red headed step child.
It's almost like golf, at fist when I grabbed a club, walked up and hit the ball it actually went close to where I wanted it. After playing for a while, studying and learning how to play I started to suck worse and worse. I think I am over thinking it. Maybe I just need to go and cook chili instead of analyzing every little detail.
I have only failed at two things in my life. One was when I ran for City Council and the other is Cooking Chili.

Straight from the cook off to "Music in the park", where we sat with friends and listened to a free concert. Good music, good friends and cold beer, is there anything better than that?   

 Early Sunday morning I busted everyone out of bed with much resistance to go fishing. After they were all up and alive we had a great time, but that first few minutes was touch and go.

Check out my huge catch of the day. It's not much bigger than the minnow I was using and look at that hat I'm sporting, "I'm sexy and I know it."
The other pictures are of the oldest girl BEB. The youngest girl and the wife was there as well. The middle one stayed asleep because she had to get to work early. 

Why were we not in Church you ask, well let me tell you this, I have spent a lot of time behind the pulpit preaching and more time sitting in the pews listening and I can honestly say, I have never felt closest to my creator, my family and myself as I do when I sit on the creek bank thanking him for this opportunity to be with them and to be alive. That's my kind of church right there my friends. I don't need to sit inside four walls listening to a guy with different views than I have telling me how I need to live.

Sunday evening was spent over at my Mom and Dad's doing some back porch sitting and just living. It was great end to a wonderful weekend.

What I left out of the post was all the work. Even though we had a great weekend and did many things, we still have a homestead to run. Between going here and there we mowed, fenced, built, cleaned, fed, watered, moved animals around and gardened. All that is pretty much a given.
The wife did get one of her projects completed and the oldest girl finished her project. I will post pictures of them both.

More storms tonight coming through so when I get home I will need to batten down the hatches. I hope all my friends up in Oklahoma fared well last night.     

Two More To Go

Two more Chili Cook Offs to go then we will take the summer off.
I just can't see standing out in 110 degree heat cooking chili. I guess I am not a die hard like some of the others.

Last weekend we had a great time at the Mother's Day fest cook off. Thanks to everyone that came out to show their support and to cook with us.
The end result was not what I wanted, but it seldom is. On my team was the wife, me, the oldest girl and her boyfriend....lets call him..."Slinky". LOL
The weather was great and the environment was spot on. In the end, the wife kicked our butts by placing eighth and that is saying something with the competition that was there. I thought I had a chance, but after seeing all who showed up to cook I quickly knew I didn't. Four world champions and seven of the top ten chili cooks in the nation all came out to this little cook off.
I know where I messed up, I panicked. I tasted my chili a little bit before turn in and started adding stuff to boost it. I thought it was flat and kept pouring the spice in until I thought it was good. I ended up getting last place and here's why. I didn't take in to consideration I still had a head cold. I was stopped up and couldn't taste or smell anything. In the end I almost doubled the spice and peppers just so I could taste it and to the normal taste buds, it was crap. Ha, lesson learned.      

This weekend we will be cooking in Denton on the square. The huge car show in the same area is impressive. I don't think I have been to a bigger one. The same competition will be there as before but this time I am bringing my "A" game with a clear head.

Next weekend is our last cook off for the summer. It will be in Durant at the KOA next to the casino. I hope to see all my Oklahoma friends at that one.




 See ya in the funny pages,
MDR

Chili, Chores and Children

I didn't know how much catch up work there would be after coming back from vacation.
After nine days of no maintenance and not doing the everyday "little" things around the Mini Farm, all those "little" things have built up. Almost every night this week I scramble home from work, change my shoes and get back to work till after dark. On top of everything else, the weeds in the gardens are relentless. Plus, on top of all that I ended up catching a head cold and all I really want to do is go to bed., but through my watering eyes, running nose, sneezing fits and hacking up a lung, I press on.

Last night I finally caught back up with the work and had some time to play in my shop. I missed the old girl and she missed me too. Just in one week a thin layer of dust settled and a few spider webs formed on my work benches and tools. I can't ever remember a time when any tool of mine had dust on it from lack of work. It's time to get busy.
Sunday after we do the Mother's day thing I plan to summer-ize. That means loading everything up that has to do with solar heating and winter and store it in the barn. I have already de-junked about three loads of stuff collected over the winter by loading up my friends trucks while they weren't looking so I am almost happy with the way things look out back.  

The oldest girl made it through another year of college. She will be a Junior in August, time is flying by. I am happy to have her home for the summer. The middle girl graduates high school this month and the youngest will be a senior.
Though I would not change much, I would do it all again in a heart beat. I miss their youth so much. If I could afford it I would adopt more children just to have all that again.

It is going to busy the next three weekends. Chili cook offs are all over. Tomorrow we will be in Collinsville TX for a big Mother's Day fest. The oldest girl, her boyfriend and the wife will be on my cooking team for that one.
After that we will be cooking in Denton TX for a huge festival on the Square and then off to the Southwest Chili cook off in Southern Oklahoma, that's a big one.
It is already getting too hot for me to cook chili and these three back to back to back will be the last until the end of September. If you are close, come by and cook with us or just drop by and say hey. Email me and I will give you directions, I hope to see ya there.


That's all I got for now. I hope everyone has a great Mother's day weekend and I will see ya on the flip side. 
MDR

It's Too Warm For Chili

I thought chili is supposed to be cooked when it's cold, not in Texas it ain't. Competition chili cook offs are all year long here.
Last weekend we had a cook off that was close enough to the house to go to, so at the last minute we thought what the heck.
Normally we would spend several days planning and getting ready, but it has been three months since our last competition so we just jumped in the truck.

We didn't take the full set up, only a table and the cooker. It was much easier that way. One half of our team had other obligations so it was just me, the wife and the girls. We even had some friends come by and showed their support. I can't think of many things I would have rather been doing. Well except fishing of course.

The oldest was up from college and took this lovely picture of me, the wife and Captain Morgan. I don't know which one I love the most.
Good times right there. 

150 cooks showed up to the cook off. They gave trophies to the first 22 places and I did not receive one. I don't feel too bad about it though. The five past and the current world champions did not place either.
I am changing up a few things with my recipe after this one. I am trying out three new chili powders and a few new tricks I learnt. The new MDR chili will be revealed May 10th at the next cook off in Collinsville Texas.      

End the end we had a blast. I really enjoy doing these cook offs, but I can't see myself cooking chili in the summer. In May we have four cook offs back to back to attend and then I think I am shutting it down till November. 

That's all I got for now, Y'all have a good one and just to set the record straight, Captain Morgan may be great but, I love the wife more.    

Weekend Cook Off Results

For the ones who are keeping up with my Chili Cooking Career, here are the weekend results.

Saturday our team won 2nd in show. For our chili, I made final table and another team member won 8th.
Sunday our team won 1st in show and I made final final table again.

Okay, I want to get something off my chest about competing for show. At every cook off we set up a big area with all kinds of Texas props. We also interact with the crowd and have a good time. This is our second month cooking competitively and we are getting better and better every time.
I am not a sore looser by any means as long as I loose legitimately. First place show on Saturday set up one table, one cooker and that was it. Then he stuck his hand in a puppet monkey and walked around touching all the women. That won him first. If his booth would have been decked out like a jungle and if he had a Tarzan outfit on then I would have said he deserved the prize. If this is the case, then I don't need to haul around two truck loads of crap and spend hours setting up and taking down. All I have to do it stick my hand up a monkeys butt and be a perv.
I promised my team mates I would have a filter this weekend due to the fact I pist off over a dozen folks at the last cook off. I did just that, I was muzzled like an animal. But when they called out the first place winner of show, the muzzle was off. I don't know how many I offended.
Sunday I was a smart ass. I took a little scarecrow we had as a prop, ripped his butt open and shoved my hand inside and walked around with it. People were laughing because they knew what I was doing. After we won show Sunday a lady walked up to me and said, "See there, you just needed to find something to stick your hand up it's butt to win."
That's all I got to say about that.
   
Our next cook off will be December 1st in Irving Texas.

Another Chili Post, Plus Some Other Stuff

For some reason this weekend took more out of me than was expected.

 The Whitewright Fireman's Chili Cook Off was a success. Our team had a blast and made a great haul with over $1600.00 in different prizes. As far as the chili goes, one team mate got third, the wife got tenth and apparently me and the other team mate didn't even show up.
Our booth got 2nd in show, but I expected that being we were in the lion's den so to speak. At a Fireman's Fest, with Firemen judging the booths. Go figure, First place went to a Fireman, but that's cool I guess. It's kinda like homecoming, no matter how good the underclassmen build their floats, the senior float always get first place. 
I want to say thanks to all those who came out to show their support for our team. It was good to see everyone. 

I was also able to get the trophies finished for the November 18th Chili Cook Off in Denton. This was a team effort with one half doing the staining and painting and me and the wife doing the cutting and assembling. I think they turned out amazing.
Just for the fun of it I made two more trophies not pictured here. Honorable Mention and Sexiest Cook. Those are not really ever done so I thought why not.

I never meant for this to turn into a Chili Cooking Blog, but it kinda has because that is what I'm into at the moment. So if this does not interest you in the least bit, sorry.

I was able to get some other stuff accomplished this weekend though. I had all my girls with me and you see, they have this dog. It's a dog I do not want, but they have banded together to form their own democracy to fight me on keeping this dog. This dog has tore up and broke many things outside and that is one of the reasons I don't want him. Some others are the fact he in almost a hundred pounds, still a puppy, barks all the time and the list goes on and on. So anyway, being I had them all there I had them fix some of the things their dog has tore up. One being the water line their dog ripped up and broke going to the gardens.
It was painful to watch but after a while with my instructions the lines was fixed. I had the girls also clean where the dog took my outdoor cushions and decided to tear them into little pieces along with two extension cords and water hoses. Yep, he needs to go. 

Other than that, thanks to a buddy of mine who is a professional beer drinker I have now collected more than enough cans to get the Solar Heater built.
This week I will be working on that along with fixing my weed eater, mowing and repairing more stuff the dog has destroyed.   
    
Y'all have a great week.

Buried In Projects Again

The break was nice, but it's time to get back to work.
Before I went on vacation I was doing research on some of the new projects that I have on the drawing board. I am excited to do them all and found myself almost starting three at one time. By doing that it will take longer to finish just one so I had to dial it back a little and do them in order.

First off I got roped into building thirteen trophies for the November 17th Chili Cook off we will be at. They saw the ones I build for my at home cook off and now the pod wants them for theirs. I have to build first through tenth for the chili and first through third for show. I will take pictures when they are done to show the detail that has gone into them. The good thing is that it's not all me, my teammates are doing the sanding, staining and painting. All I did was design them and cut all the wood. After I get them back then I will have to assemble all them.
While on vacation I took my scroll saw and cut out all the detailed pieces. Well, I didn't have nothing else to do so why not.    

I have my beer can solar heater all designed and ready to go. I am still collecting parts and materials, but I have enough to get started. The front glass will be from a storm door I kept because I thought I would need it someday. It will hold 100 cans and be on a swivel so I can turn it with the sun all day long. The air will be forced in, through the cans and out the top by the same solar fan I have in the dehydrator.
Tonight I start on the frame.

The next project I am ready to start is the Biosand filter. The water distiller did not work for me no matter what I did to it so for drinking water this sand filter will make the rain water from the storage tanks potable. Of course I will test the water before I drink it, but in the end this filter should do the trick.
I have been studying on this for about a year now and I am ready to pull the trigger.

The list goes on but these are the ones at the top. I am excited about the heater and filter and want them done as quick as possible. Now with a shop, my projects are being able to be completed rain or shine and the possibilities are endless.

This weekend we will be cooking chili in a little town about an hour and a half from here so wish us luck. Tomorrow night will be all about getting ready for that and believe me, it takes all evening to get ready.
The money will benefit the Wrightright Fire Department. 
We might stand a chance this weekend because all the big dogs are down south at the National Cook Off. Being this is our first year we were not invited because we did not have enough points yet. The good news is, we have already qualified for next year to enter in show so it may be a possibility to go except the drive is about 11 hours, but we will see.

That's all I got for now.     

Weekend Results

This weekend was our Chili Teams first official chili cook off held on the outskirts of a small rural town only fifteen miles from the house. I could have sworn none of the big dogs would have wasted their time driving this far to cook in this little event, but boy was I wrong.

Being a seasoned cook and being around cook offs my whole life, I have always had high thoughts about my abilities to excel at whatever I am cooking. Of course most home cooks would say the same about their own abilities as well. Talk to any self taught master chef and they will say the same thing about their ribs being the best in the state or their brisket is world renowned and don't even get me started on bean cooks. Plus it seams everyone has their own secret recipe and technique that has been handed down from generation to generation and if they told you anything about them, they would have to kill you.
Chili cooks are no different. Though some offer pointers and procedures that may help you, in general they still hold their own slice of knowledge and well kept secrets to themselves. Each cook has a proven method true to their own. One team even floats a pork chop in their chili to give it a pork flavor.            

 Intimidation also plays a big part in these chili cook offs. While setting everything up for our booth this weekend we had several cooks come by to introduce themselves and hang around for some idle chit-chat.
At one point everyone got quiet and started whispering. I walked over to see what was going on and one guy told me in a low voice that the last year International Champion just showed up. I could tell it too because he walked with a strut and the arrogance about him that was unrecognizable. I noticed people started wringing their hands and moving around aimlessly trying not to make eye contact with the champ for fear of whatever. After the kind gentleman told me what the fuss was all about I simple said, "So what!". The looks I got after that comment you would have thought I just called all their mommas fat or something.  I guess you don't have to be a champ to have arrogance.    

Our team won best in show both Saturday and Sunday so I am proud of that. We now have more trophies to add to the collection. Our individual chilies did not do so well. We had some spot on chili so to be honest I don't know what these folks are looking for.
I got upset not because I didn't win, but because when I tasted the first place chili, it was not as good as mine. I am sure everyone else thought the same thing though.  
Next weekend we will at another cook off in Van Alstyne so we will see what happens. I have made a few small adjustments to my recipe just to see.  

Just A Phase I Guess

"When y'all get out of this phase in life, I want some of these decorations" My oldest (BEB) told me over the weekend.
Am I really that predictable? 

This weekend was our first at home chili cook off and I can say with out a doubt it was a success. It was out of the normal and completely out of the box. One of my friends that joined us told me he thought it was so cool that we do stuff like this because his family never does.

This ended up being almost a three day even with set up on Friday night, cooking and all that most of the day Saturday and then clean up Sunday.

First place went to our teammate Rhonda, I got second and my mom won third.
Even though it was windy and cold outside, we were tucked away in my dad's nice warm shop. Big thanks to him and mom for providing a spot to hold all those folks and to have a great time.

Next weekend is our first official cook off of the year. We will going up against some real tough competition and seasoned chili cooking veterans. I am looking to take home first place, but if I don't then I will use the excuse that it's about the fun and not the winning.

So anyway, the kids think this is just a new phase I am going through and it will come to an end just like all the rest. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't, I don't know yet, but I am having fun with it so far and that's all that matters. Who knows how long it will last.  

Check back in a couple of days because I am right in the middle of a new solar build. I think you might like it.      

I Laugh At The Easy Way

Nothing I do is normal or in moderation. Some say I make it hard on myself by going to the extreme with everything I do. Well I say if your going to do it, then there ain't no reason to just get your feet wet, might as well jump on in and stay awhile.

Here's what I'm talking about,
This weekend marks the first of many chili cook offs this year. We decided to have the first one at the house and we called it our "First Annual at Home Chili Cook Off". Even though this event it is not sanctioned through CASI, it's still where a hand full of friends and family were to come over, have a little fun and test about ten different kinds of chilies our team makes. It is set up just like a real event and folks judge the best chili with the winner getting a pretty little trophy I made. If you have not seen them I have a picture in an earlier post.
However, the weather usually does not work out for the better in something like this so the weekend forcast will be cold, strong North winds and rain. By this time the hand full of people coming over has now grown into a huge mob and with no place to put all these nice people, panic almost set in.
I was almost to the point of cancellation sitting there with my head in my hands when my dad called last night and offered his facilities to hold the event. I can say he saved the chili day.

So now we have gone from about 10 judges with simple chili dogs for supper, held outside on a nice 70 degree day to around 40 folks, inside the barn with huge amount of BBQ Chicken, Ribs, Sausage, Brisket, Potato Salad, Baked Beans and a hand full of appetizers for supper.
There ain't nothing second class about this operation here now.
Along with managing my pots of chili being cooked, I will also be manning the smoker and grill.  
(I can almost bet ya I'm going to have a blast) 

If I wanted it easy, then there ain't no reason to even get out of bed.
   

It's That Time Of Year Again

October will kick off a new year in the Competition Chili Cook Offs and it should be a good one.

Last weekend our team judged at the Oklahoma State Chili Competition in Durant and had a great time. We got some good ideas on what we want our booth to look like this year and met some really nice folks with some even being past world champions themselves.

October 13th will be our first one of the year held in a little town just to our West then in November on to a town to the East.  I hope to get to cook for at least ten competitions this year to gain enough points to get invited to the big one. I know it's a long shot and I am really not planning on it, but it's worth a shot.

Our pots at the house have already been fired up to make sure our chili meets the standards. Every little change causes big differences in the taste and no pot is ever the exact same twice. Just changing the brand of chili powder can make a huge difference. It will take several more pots and the rest of this month to prefect the chili we intend to turn in. 

I personally do not like competition chili because it's only juice and meat. I like mine thick with some substance, but the judges don't so I make it their way.
The wife makes hers with a little more bite than mine and the other team mates go a little outside the box with theirs. I want mine to be simple, smooth and with a slight aftertaste.

The weekend before our first competition we will be having a chili tasting here at the house for all the friends and family to come by and give us some feedback. We will go through the whole set up with our booth and act like it's the real deal for the "at home advent", a trial run so to speak. That way we can see how our booth looks and make any adjustments if needed to the set up. We have four cooks in a 12x12 booth at the same time and things will need to be arranged so we do not step over one another and get in each others way. Plus the honesty of the tasters will help in deciding if we need to make any final adjustments to the recipe just in case it is too salty or anything else they come up with.  

This also gives us the chance to make sure our carts are stocked with everything we will need. It is easy to cook in the house with a well stocked kitchen, but there is nothing worse than finding out you forgot something when you are away from it. A fully equipped cart is the backbone to having a great time. 
        
It's going to be a good year and It's also going to be fun. I will post pictures when we have the booth all set up for you to judge how it looks. Plus I am sure I will share or trials and tribulations along the way.

Until next time,