Chili Contest --Carlton, MN --Winterfest

Every year, Carlton (my hometown) has Winterfest on the 2nd weekend of February. I go home to take part in the annual chili contest held at the Carlton High School gym run by the Carlton Lions Club on Saturday morning at 11:00am. We have been doing this contest for many years and have made it our own family inside competition. We don't really care who enters outside of us, we want to beat each other! :) We don't tell each other about our secret ingredients, nor have we shared our prized recipes. The first time I entered this contest, I won it but have never won again but have placed many times. There was only one year I didn't place at all and it was the year I put corn in it. I won't be doing THAT again. LOL. My Mom has won three times and my sister twice. So as you can see, I'm a little behind the 8-ball. But in my defense, there have been a couple years I didn't come up in February so I was completely out on that one. At least I placed better than my sister this year who won in 2011! :) Ha. Julie. That was for you. Aside from all competition, we sure have a good time with this and try to rally our troops to get more people we know to enter. The more the merrier in my book! Good times as usual. We're just a bunch of hot peppers. And for the results of the 2012 competition: