The spicy aroma filled the air at the Malley Senior Recreation
Center April 25 during the fourth annual Englewood Unleashed Chili
Cookoff.
The annual event is a fund-raiser. Tickets are sold for food and
drinks for those who want to either try a small sample of one or
more chilis or eat a whole bowl. Englewood Unleashed uses all the
money raised to purchase equipment and amenities for the off-leash
dog parks in the city.
The event has grown each year and this year, about 30 cooks
brought their creations to the event. The categories were red
chili, green chili and vegetarian chili plus an anything-goes
freestyle category.
There was a line of people waiting when the door opened to the
public. The crowd checked out the chili cookoff entries or browsed
the tables set up by several vendors offering pet supplies and
services.
The panel of five judges tasted and rated each entry but the
variety and the quality of the entries made it difficult and
challenging to select the top three chilis in each category.
But they cast their ballots and the prizes were awarded. In the
red chili category, Jennifer McLaughlin’s taco chili took top
honors with Jim Ruth and Sandy Inglis finishing second and third
respectively.
Lisa and Trent Wilson teamed up to create first-place winning
grandpa’s gourmet green chili. Guy Larson took runner-up honors and
Joe Lay was third.
Meredith Quinlivan’s Meridith’s veggie chili took first place in
the vegetarian category and the Indonesian chili created by Rhonda
Kalies won first place in the freestyle category.
Deanna Jeffers talked about her entry as she spooned up her
chili into the flat pan while preparing for the competition.
She said her recipe she calls, “Better than Your Mama’s Chili,”
started with the basic ingredients and has evolved over the
years.
“I came today because I like to cook and because I want to
support Englewood Unleashed and the work it does in the city’s dog
parks,” the Parker resident said. “I volunteer with Englewood
Unleashed and I felt it would be fun to enter my chili in the
cookoff. Who knows, I might just win.”
Sam Morehouse is also a dog enthusiast, a self-proclaimed chili
lover, and he said he came into the event ready to do a lot of
chili tasting.
He looked thoughtfully at the written description of each entry
before first sampling four or five of them. Then, from the samples,
he went back and had a bowl of his favorite.
“This is a cool event and I’m glad to see so many people are
here for it,” the Centennial man said. “There are some good entries
this year. Boy, I’m glad I’m not a judge because it would be hard
to pick a winner.”
