Thursday, September 27, 2007

Falling off the grid

Many apologies for the long delay between posts. Things have gotten a little crazy and I haven't gotten much of my own quilting done. I did attend the Make A Blanket Day for Project Linus event for the Central Illinois Region -- lots of fun, lots of people attending -- and pieced most of a top there. It's so energizing to be with a group of people all working away! Some of the quilts that people donate are amazingly creative. I also got to demonstrate how to make a Happy Houses quilt from kid-friendly scraps or as a group project. Lynda over at Master of Patience? made some wonderful Happy Houses!

Things have been jumping at work, but the fun part of it is that our chili took home the grand prize this weekend at the Urbana International Beer Tasting & Chili Cook-Off! Here I am with my co-worker Marilyn (also a quilter) and a student, Katie. Note our tacky chili lights and chili necklaces and earrings.

The chili uses textured soy protein and is vegetarian -- I think the judges were very surprised to discover they liked ours better than all the other meaty chilies! It was a blind judging. Our chili really is delicious, with wonderful flavor from the chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, which come from a can. It's very quick and easy to make, too. The recipe is on our website, Illinois Center for Soy Foods.

I am off to the Food & Nutrition Conference & Exhibition in Philadelphia, but will be back quilting by mid-week! I am trying to catch up on my blog reading. I've been so busy with other things this week, and I really miss keeping up with all of you!

7 comments:

Donna said...

congrats on the win! I'm not a big soy fan, but read the recipie and thought I'd give it a try. Problem is I've never seen the chipotle chilies in any form in my area grocery stores... May have to put this on the back burner until I locate some :-)

JoAnna said...

Congrats on the chili prize! Veggie chili is so yum and it's the perfect time of year for it!

Laurel said...

Great to see what you're doing, sounds like you've been so busy! How incredibly gratifying that must have been to win the contest against all the meat chilis. And with a blind taste test, all the more resounding!

Libby said...

Congrats on the win...I almost was there! Two of my good friends wanted to go, but we decided against it. And we are all vegetarians, too, so it would have been perfect...!

Tonya Ricucci said...

Tacky? That's not tacky, but loads of fun. I love the lights and the earrings. That chili sounds delicious. I have the chipotles in adobo (that's one item I definitely ship with me to wherever we live) I'll just have to search for the T.V.P. There are two health food stores a couple of blocks away from here. I'm hoping they have english on the labels!

Tonya Ricucci said...

p.s. my blog title Scrabble score is 38. woohoo, got the z and the q!

The Calico Cat said...

Thanks for sharing the recipe... I used to make Veggie Chili using a box mix, but it is no longer kosher... (I think I have one last box that I am waiting to use on a special occasion. I should use it now while it is still good.)