Committee meeting; chili cookoff; Jeff's party; Voxtrot; Cindy's company
4/23
More committee meeting preparation.
4/24
The committee meeting went well. Good data, good progress, etc. Afterwards, either band practice or some well-reserved relaxation. Can't quite remember...
4/25
Cindy and I made a Central Market run to get chili supplies. I'll tell you, spending someone else's money at Central Market is a wonderful, wonderful feeling.
We also picked up some dinner supplies. We tried a Good Eats recipe for eggplant, basted with steak sauce, broiled, topped with a nice crisp layer of parmesan (we used the good stuff and it was totally worth it). Add a nice salad and we had a great meal to accompany our viewing of Lost.
4/26
I snuck away from school for a while to get the supplies to Char. Except there was a little car mishap (on his part). So things took a while longer, and I had just enough time to run back into work to make sure my absence hadn't been too conspicuous (it hadn't) and collect Cindy before heading out to Char's place in BFE.
Our brilliant last-minute inspiration was to smoke the meat. That and adding bacon and bacon grease. The girls were working on decorations for our cook-off booth and on tie-dying t-shirts. We were under a bit of a time crunch, though, and after we got most of the three gallons of chili assembled, Cindy and I took off to catch Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at Warehouse.
Given my long-time hatred of the Warehouse (particularly its acoustics), and my not being overly impressed with their new album, I wasn't expecting much. But damned if they didn't turn it up a notch live. It's amazing what a little more energy and a live setting can add sometimes (or take away sometimes, but that's another story).
After that, back out to BFE to finish up the story. By 3 or so, it was done, and it was good. We packed it up to take to the even the next day.
4/27
So the big day had come. I had worked hard, prepared, and was ready to lay an Iron Chef-style smackdown on the representatives of the Houston biomedical health industry on behalf of my generous funding agency.
After some minor emergencies (leaky camp stoves necessitating the purchase of a new one; forgetting the cumin), the final batch of chili was on and the beer was flowing. One of my committee members was there and proved to be a pain in the ass, culinarily (and he later talked smack about our chili), but he ultimately let us do our thing. Lunch time came around and we started dishing it up. The feedback was good. Many people either said that this was the best chili they'd had all day, or that they had been told to come over to our booth for the best chili. Also, the judges came over to steal our superior beer, which we figured mean they owed us something. Also, I tried some of the other chili. One batch was burnt. One batch, I'm pretty sure, was repurposed Wendy's chili, another Wolf brand. One batch had crayfish, which is wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to start. So I had high hopes.
We prepared the official samples for the judges and sent them over, and then waited to get the official bowls to send to the finals round. Except they never came. We got passed up in favor of, for example, the Wendy's chili repurposers. Apparently the beer we let the judges have did us no good whatsoever, and, insult to injury, we were out of beer. I mean, you can insult a man's chili, or take his beer, but hell, don't do both!
So in the end we concluded that either a) this was entirely a political game or b) the judges had no tastes. But the feedback I got from the general populace was good, and in the end I have a chili recipe that I'm damned proud of.
Afterwards I went home for a nap before Cindy and I headed up to Jeff's for his housewarming/going away from U of H party. A good time was had by all, particularly one of Jeff's lab mates and her husband who apparently got drunk enough to earn themselves a lifetime ban from future Jeff/Jim parties.
4/28
Cindy's good friend and Austinian Sarah and her (now ex-) boyfriend John were in town for a visit. Voxtrot had been signed on for a free show (promoting the Yaris) at the local Urban Outfitters. After fighting for parking in the Village, we all met up and got to see a nice, free show (though one that was, quite obviously, an all-ages show). We next (including Dan and his daughter Emma) walked down the street for a beer (or two) at the Gingerman. I'd always thought Dan and Sara would get along well if not get along well, and though both were spoken for at the time, having them meet was a good first step. Post-beer, Dan took off to get Emma home by a decent hour, and the remaining four of us went to the two doors down Istanbul for dinner before going back to Cindy's to hang out.
4/29
We headed up to Empire Cafe the next morning for some breakfast/brunch/lunch before Sarah and John left town. I had some decent penne rustica.
But it was no chili. Throughout the next week I'd use the leftovers in many forms. In a bowl, as part of a frito pie, on hot dogs; all spectacular. Those judges... there's just no conceiving of what the hell went wrong there. Maybe the cups were mislabeled.
More committee meeting preparation.
4/24
The committee meeting went well. Good data, good progress, etc. Afterwards, either band practice or some well-reserved relaxation. Can't quite remember...
4/25
Cindy and I made a Central Market run to get chili supplies. I'll tell you, spending someone else's money at Central Market is a wonderful, wonderful feeling.
We also picked up some dinner supplies. We tried a Good Eats recipe for eggplant, basted with steak sauce, broiled, topped with a nice crisp layer of parmesan (we used the good stuff and it was totally worth it). Add a nice salad and we had a great meal to accompany our viewing of Lost.
4/26
I snuck away from school for a while to get the supplies to Char. Except there was a little car mishap (on his part). So things took a while longer, and I had just enough time to run back into work to make sure my absence hadn't been too conspicuous (it hadn't) and collect Cindy before heading out to Char's place in BFE.
Our brilliant last-minute inspiration was to smoke the meat. That and adding bacon and bacon grease. The girls were working on decorations for our cook-off booth and on tie-dying t-shirts. We were under a bit of a time crunch, though, and after we got most of the three gallons of chili assembled, Cindy and I took off to catch Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at Warehouse.
Given my long-time hatred of the Warehouse (particularly its acoustics), and my not being overly impressed with their new album, I wasn't expecting much. But damned if they didn't turn it up a notch live. It's amazing what a little more energy and a live setting can add sometimes (or take away sometimes, but that's another story).
After that, back out to BFE to finish up the story. By 3 or so, it was done, and it was good. We packed it up to take to the even the next day.
4/27
So the big day had come. I had worked hard, prepared, and was ready to lay an Iron Chef-style smackdown on the representatives of the Houston biomedical health industry on behalf of my generous funding agency.
After some minor emergencies (leaky camp stoves necessitating the purchase of a new one; forgetting the cumin), the final batch of chili was on and the beer was flowing. One of my committee members was there and proved to be a pain in the ass, culinarily (and he later talked smack about our chili), but he ultimately let us do our thing. Lunch time came around and we started dishing it up. The feedback was good. Many people either said that this was the best chili they'd had all day, or that they had been told to come over to our booth for the best chili. Also, the judges came over to steal our superior beer, which we figured mean they owed us something. Also, I tried some of the other chili. One batch was burnt. One batch, I'm pretty sure, was repurposed Wendy's chili, another Wolf brand. One batch had crayfish, which is wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to start. So I had high hopes.
We prepared the official samples for the judges and sent them over, and then waited to get the official bowls to send to the finals round. Except they never came. We got passed up in favor of, for example, the Wendy's chili repurposers. Apparently the beer we let the judges have did us no good whatsoever, and, insult to injury, we were out of beer. I mean, you can insult a man's chili, or take his beer, but hell, don't do both!
So in the end we concluded that either a) this was entirely a political game or b) the judges had no tastes. But the feedback I got from the general populace was good, and in the end I have a chili recipe that I'm damned proud of.
Afterwards I went home for a nap before Cindy and I headed up to Jeff's for his housewarming/going away from U of H party. A good time was had by all, particularly one of Jeff's lab mates and her husband who apparently got drunk enough to earn themselves a lifetime ban from future Jeff/Jim parties.
4/28
Cindy's good friend and Austinian Sarah and her (now ex-) boyfriend John were in town for a visit. Voxtrot had been signed on for a free show (promoting the Yaris) at the local Urban Outfitters. After fighting for parking in the Village, we all met up and got to see a nice, free show (though one that was, quite obviously, an all-ages show). We next (including Dan and his daughter Emma) walked down the street for a beer (or two) at the Gingerman. I'd always thought Dan and Sara would get along well if not get along well, and though both were spoken for at the time, having them meet was a good first step. Post-beer, Dan took off to get Emma home by a decent hour, and the remaining four of us went to the two doors down Istanbul for dinner before going back to Cindy's to hang out.
4/29
We headed up to Empire Cafe the next morning for some breakfast/brunch/lunch before Sarah and John left town. I had some decent penne rustica.
But it was no chili. Throughout the next week I'd use the leftovers in many forms. In a bowl, as part of a frito pie, on hot dogs; all spectacular. Those judges... there's just no conceiving of what the hell went wrong there. Maybe the cups were mislabeled.
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 1:55 PM
