Chili Overload

Inspector Gadget was in the kitchen early Saturday morning making his entry for the chili cook-off. He used ground chuck, stew meat, and hot Italian sausage. His spices included fresh chili, jalapeno, and habanero peppers, so it was pretty spicy. He also used fresh basil and oregano from the garden. And garlic, lots of garlic. He made enough for an army.

I made Whole Grain Cornbread to take to the chili cook-off. They are the brownish squares to the right. Meh, it was okay. Notice the Red Lobster cheddar biscuits were a big hit.

But we were really there for the chili. Twenty different kinds of chili. I tasted 19. It was a fun evening and we didn't trip any breakers with all our crock pots.

I made a big pan of candy corn bark to take to my chocolate-loving cousin and the cook-off. My auntie gave me this toffee recipe a long time ago, but it had pecans instead of peanuts and candy corn. I suppose you could throw any type of topping on it. No one believes the toffee part is saltines, butter, and brown sugar. After it sets up, you crack it into pieces.

Meet Buck, my newest little cousin. First cousin, once removed that is. How proper. He is a little doll. I can't believe I was holding him two days after he was born. My kids were never that little. I held him over an hour and he stayed awake and stared at me the whole time. Probably wondering who the heck I was.

Big sis Mia is also happy with her little brother. That's the birth pool in the background. My cousin's wife had both babies at home. She highly recommends it.

I brought a big stack of baby quilts over for them to choose something for Buck. They had a hard time deciding, but this little colorful quilt won out. It was one of my favorites too.

Stumbled across an easy tutorial to make the napkins to match my seafood china. Now I need to have appetizers for dinner.