I must be out of my mind.
You may recall that I got volun-told (it's like volunteering without a choice) I'd beCooking for Forty Humans? I never mentioned how that came out. Turns out, the TD, and guy who should've been in charge of this little caper in the first place, went out and bought a turkey from the grocery store caterer. He then charged it to the student organisation account and accused The Boy of not having been prepared. Even though the TD was the one who apparently didn't listen when The Boy said that he'd take care of the main course.
Meanwhile, I was at home discovering that, no, I didn't actually have the right stuff to do this with and everything was taking FAR too long.
Long story short, I got there half an hour late, just as they ran out of turkey. So, if I hadn't done anything, they'd have had a bunch of pissed off people, but I didn't get any credit because TD had to "save the day because someone dropped the ball." Bull, but whatever. I was ticked and swore that I was not being volunteered for any such shenanigans again.
So, tomorrow is the chili cook off. This is another one of the same, except that this time, it's an organised competition, you show up bearing your very own chili.
One person signed up. The President of the organization just called TB to tell him that she's going to make some since no one else signed up.
So, I volunteered. I've never made chili in my life. I've seen a fair amount of it, and eaten the stuff my father used to make, but I've never made any. Chili, in my experience is either not to be trusted, full of beans, or some idiot thinks chili means heat not flavour and it burns. I don't know much about cooking (my limited palette doesn't help), but I invented myself up a recipe that doesn't look bad. It can hold its own with other recipes I've read, but I don't see any quite like it. Basically, I'm taking a recipe for another dish I make a lot, substituting the rice in it for ground beef then adding extra spices and sorghum.
I've actually wanted to try it for a while, but TB claims he doesn't like chili, and I don't like it much, so I'm happy to try it on a group of people if I can. It's chili; people in the Midwest make chili with turkey and cream of mushroom soup. Basically, chili can pass for a Midwestern term meaning "runny casserole." The other end of the spectrum is the fire-breathing stuff I mentioned earlier. It's very hard to fail here, and this is nothing close to that frightening.
Still, it's not going to be the last word in gourmet chili. If I were brave, I'd leave out the beef and go for mushrooms, because I've got bacon in this, but I don't like mushrooms. If we end up with a lot leftover, I'd rather have something that's edible but not my favourite rather than something I can't stomach.
If it turns out anything like a success, I'll put up the recipe later.