The Great Chili Cook-off

Craig and I quickly learned that in order for our marriage to survive, we probably shouldn't spend too much time together in the kitchen. We have very different cooking styles. I like to be precise with my measurements and I don't like to substitute too much. I will use different herbs, or different veggies, or put in brown rice for white, etc but I don't like to just leave out lots of stuff or try a new recipe while simultaneously switching the three main ingredients for other items. Craig has no problem with any of that; in fact, I believe it makes cooking more exciting to him. And if a recipe says stir constantly, it probably only really needs to be checked every few minutes. In the end, his meals normally turn out okay, but I can't watch him without feeling the need to help. And Craig doesn't really appreciate my "helping" him in the kitchen anymore. And if he is going to help me, he has to do it my way, so most of the time he helps by peeling or cutting and that is it. Anything more and we start getting into the danger zone of our marriage.

So when we decided to sign up to make the college group dinner on chili night, it was obvious we would need to go our separate ways. I made chili the way it should be made, with meat, while Craig made his the lame-o way, meatless and sad. The intention was to see which chili had more leftovers and proclaim that chili the loser. It was a good thing Macey's had just had a case sale because we really used a lot of cans of tomatoes and beans. Craig's chili used both black and kidney but I'm partial to the one bean chili.
Here Craig sautees his onions and garlic before adding them to the pot. Now, if I was going to say anything about his cooking, I would ask why he had to dirty another pan when he could have sauteed those items in the big pot, but I am not going to comment so there you go.
And here I am, I'm not really sure what I am doing. Either browning the meat (beef, yum) or sauteeing my onions in a large pan because I am not a frivolous pan dirtier. Oh, I jest. I don't really care how many pans Craig dirties because he normally washes them anyway.
Here they are, the two chilies. See how just a little celery adds so much life to the chili with it's splash of green? Okay, now that I have you all on the edge of your seats, dying to know whose chili reigned supreme, I have to admit that......alas, a larger than normal group of students showed up that night and we had barely enough food to feed them all. It was a nerve wracking 10 minutes while they dished it out and while everyone did get to eat, there were no leftovers so we had to declare it a tie.

In the end, we did decide to compromise. We will keep the celery and meat but we will also use both black and kidney beans next time, so all's well that ends well.