MAUI CHILI

Last night, we had a chili cook-off for our ward party. This is the second year I've made my Maui Chili, but I made a few tweaks to the original recipe to make it better for this year. Here's the base recipe:

MAUI CHILI

Instead of chicken, I baked some Kalua Pig all day and shredded it into the mix (3 lb pork shoulder roast + 1/2 small bottle of liquid smoke and salted all over - baked slowly in the oven covered with foil). I think that made it more authentic tasting. I omitted the cayenne pepper and only put a whole bottle of fresh chili powder rather than a whole cup ( I think it was about 1/2 cup, but I'm not sure). I doubled the basil, and put 1/2 in at the beginning, then 1/2 in right at the end before removing from the stove. I only used fresh oregano, basil, and thyme, and that seemed to make it taste fresher. I only used 1/2 of the oregano too. I also substituted the beer for some lemonade. I only used 3 jalapenos and added 5 serrano chili peppers. Perfect heat for me. I think next year, I'll cut up some mangoes and have people put some on top of the chili. I also had a big bowl of rice right next to the chili. One of these days, I'll post the recipe I settle on, since it's quite a bit different from the original Maui Chili recipe seen at the link above. By the way, I made a HUGE pot full. I'm sure you could cut the recipe and use 1/4 of all the ingredients to come up with a sizeable pot for a family dinner.

The kids were able to decorate halloween cookies, but I had to leave early last night, so I'm not sure who won the cook-off awards. There was a lot of good chili there, so I'm sure it was a real fight! Noa ended up eating 3 whole bowls... which is an accomplishment for him. I wish I had pics to share, but my camera is A.W.O.L. right now.

I'm sure Bubba Doo would have many bad things to say about me (if he could) after consuming all that chili. I'm just glad I only had a couple of cups left over. He's probably going to hate me for days.

In California

So, I don't mean to get all political and moral on everyone that reads my blog, but I will go ahead and write something about what I heard in church last Sunday. If you weren't aware, Californians were asked by the 1st presidency to uphold an earlier vote made by California (by a 61% majority) to uphold marriage as between a man and a woman. There has been A LOT of debate over this, and personally, I'm fed up with the so-called members that think they don't have a moral obligation to uphold a majority vote which standardizes the definition of marriage. I hate to make light of the situation, but a lady forwarded this song to me which clearly spells out my point of view:

I guess when the majority is in favor of gay marriage, we're all in trouble. Until then, I hope the majority vote is upheld and kiddos coming into the world have the right to have a mom and dad. If only they could make that decision for themselves as a baby. I'll post my view on forums as long as it takes. I participated in the rallies in Hawaii over 10 years ago when gay marriage was on the ballot, and I'll do it again in California.

Here's a picture of me holding a sign on Kamehameha Highway. It was a little gloomy out on the windward side of the island that day 11 years ago.