Cooking More Chili

The Final Practice Round...


This time exactly two weeks from now I'll be standing in a booth, surrounded by 1,500 hungry people on St. Simons Island, Georgia, stirring a giant 72 quart stainless steel pot full of my soon to be famous "Jamaican Me Cajun Green Butt Chili" with a boat paddle.

Judging starts at 11:00 AM on March 6th, and I can hardly wait...

In a final research and development effort in preparation for the event, this weekend I'm cooking my fourth and final test batch of the new Boston Butt pork based recipe...about three quarters of a gallon of the stuff this time...measuring the EXACT quantities in weight and/or volume of each of the ingredients in the mixture.

I'm close...real close to having the recipe and final process down, then after this effort I just multiply everything by twenty to scale up to about 15 gallons and then everything should be academic on the day of the Rotary Red Hot Chili Festival.

We're real excited to get back to our little island for the first time this year, and since it's been about four or five months since our last visit, five days is just barely enough time to absorb enough of the food and weather and visit with all of our friends that still live down there in paradise.

Looking at the weather websites this morning, its 22 degrees warmer--currently 60 degrees F--there on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean than it is here on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River.

I hope the weather holds up...it was in the mid Seventies last year...because cold or rain can severely affect the attendance and make it a miserable process cooking outside under a tent, and defeating the purpose of raising money for charity by selling "tasting bracelets" to the attendees.

Pat and the Turbo Pup and I will have a good time regardless of the weather, because we'll be back home for a little while and able to stick our feet in the sand on the beach there once again.

Everybody please pray for good weather...if you will...