12th Annual Vallarta Yacht Club Great Chili Cook-Off - Dec 3

In 2000 Kirby and I were living in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico.  He had a business there and I was "retired".  Our friend, Jim Ketler was a "Make it Happen" type of guy and I went to him and asked if we couldn't have a Chili Cook-Off.  Well, the two of us got together with Dick Markie, Harbor Master of the Paradise Village Marina, and they both sort of just took off and made it happen.  I was involved with it but they were the machine!  It was a major success with money raised for the children who lived at the local dump. That was 11 years ago and the Chili Cook-Off is still going strong.  Here is the link to the news story announcing this years event.  CLICK HERE.

Here is our team.  Suzie, Kirby, Dale, Kathleen and Luigi!  We spent the night before making more chili than I have ever seen before.  We put a whole bottle of Tequila in our pot and did a bit of sampling of everything that evening.  The next morning we were up and ready to "wow" everyone with our special Ta Kill Ya Chili!  We had a blast with the whole thing and were so pleased with the success.  We had a bean count and the winner got a bottle of tequilla which you can see on the table on the far left.  We actually won 3rd place and you can see that I still have our "trophy" in the picture at the top!  It sits proudly on my bookcase!