Gratitude for Cookoff Award & Lessons Learned

Another camper rally, another cookoff competition, and more gratitude for another award and lessons learned…

This recent sports-themed camper rally was held in Tucson, AZ, and the competition theme was tailgate food (in homage to that weekend’s Super Bowl). I’m not a sports kinda gal, and I can’t say I do much tailgating, but I gave it my best shot.

I submitted what I called “Pass the Pigskin Chili Slaw Sausages.” I must admit there were many puzzle pieces and challenges in this offering, as I was unable to attend the rally with my camper, and flew in for the event. This involved a lot of preplanning, cooking ahead, schlepping a lot of food stuffs and cooking equipment and, ultimately, cooking in a strange kitchen. Oy.

Ahead of my departure, I prepared and froze two gallons (one recipe) of my red chili. The day before I left, I made one gallon (two recipes and, sadly, not quite enough) of my sweet and creamy coleslaw, and packed them away in an insulated bag in my checked luggage (all traveled quite well). I brought with me all of the cooking equipment I figured I’d need (and glad I did, as the rental property was NOT equipped). All I needed to purchase locally were hot dog buns and whatever pork product was going in them. With two gallons of chili, I ended up purchasing six dozen smoked bratwurst. For the roughly 140 rally attendees (all of whom I did NOT have to feed), I sliced each finished brat in half.

Score!! While I may have run out of coleslaw to top all of the chili laden brats, those little guys were yummy, and everyone agreed (except for one of the judges who didn’t like cole slaw which, apparently, kept me from 2nd Place. Oh well.)! I loved seeing people going back to the table for more!

As I’d said when I took 3rd for my Brown Butter Peach Cobbler in the Crockpot last year, “you can’t win ‘em all,” it’s always a humbling, learning experience, I’m well aware of the factors that may have precluded my placing higher, and I learned from all of them. It’s more than ok. It’s all in fun. People appreciated what I prepared, and there were leftovers to be enjoyed the following night at the potluck dinner, and beyond.

As to cooking in a strange kitchen, I was glad I’d brought with me what I knew I’d need. I thought to myself, what’s a musician without his/her instruments? And what’s a cook without his/her essential cooking equipment? While the kitchen environment posed its own challenges, it was the perfect example of making the most of what I had.

It was on this trip that I joined together two of my favorite clichés: Where there’s a plot twist, there’s always a Plan B…in this case, B for bon appétit!