Today we held the first Waterloo Chili cookoff, with proceeds going to the United Way.  When asked if I wanted to participate, I jumped at the idea and I had a ton of fun doing it.

It was a beautiful week, so I took advantage of the weather and decided to fire up the smoker.  I put an outside round roast on at 8pm, and Jodie was kind enough to take it off for me the next morning at 10am.  I chopped up the beef and used that as the base for this recipe that I found on the web: http://www.recipezaar.com/Crock-Pot-Chili-Chili-and-Beans-46332.  I omitted the two cans of green chilis, as I think that would have been a bit much for the Canadian crowd, but for the most part stuck to this recipe.  I also made up three batches of one of my favourite sides for southern food, jalepeno cheese corn bread, based on this recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/Jalapeno-Cornbread-49113.

Everyone brought in some good entries, including pork chili, shredded beef chili, and some variations on traditional ground beef chili.

Having lost the Halloween costume contest not a week ago, I put some extra salesmanship into the competition this time around and it appears to have paid off.  My chili was awarded top prize, woohoo!

Some not-so-hot Blackberry photos below.