Saturday.... Texas Chili.... Greek Food

Gorgeous day... sunny, warm, breezy, blue sky, high puffy clouds.... perfect southeast Texas day from sun-up to sunset.

This afternoon was the annual Chili Cook-Off at the local college.... so off we went to that. I don't eat chili, but my husband does, and we go there for this every year. For a $3.00 entrance fee, you get plastic cups and spoons and you can eat your little chili-heart out as you go from booth to booth sampling all the chili recipes. Before you leave, you vote on the best-tasting chili.

There must have been about 20 booths this year, all of them decorated with different themes... from an Hawaiian luau-look to a mod-1960s-groovy design. There are also prizes for the most creative booth designs. The Hawaiian booth stuck tiny paper umbrellas into their cups of chili, the 1960s-hippie booth gave everyone plastic peace signs to hang around their necks. The Indian chili (vegetarian) gave everyone paper crowns decorated with rhinestones and beads.

So my husband went from booth to booth sampling the chili, I followed along and held the paper bag filled with the spoons and cups. I also got to taste cornbread from some of the booths who offered small squares along with their chili. Only three booths this year had cornbread... the others had the usual diced onions, grated cheese, sliced peppers, corn chips, and crackers. One cute idea with the cornbread--- they baked it in large shallow pans which resulted in 1/2"-thick cornbread which they cut with cookie-cutters. So the cornbread was in the shape of the state of Texas, or a large star, or a cowboy boot, or a cactus. Cute idea... and their cornbread was the best-tasting. (Too bad they didn't give prizes for that.)

Tonight, we met our friends B & P for dinner.... we went to one of the local restaurants which specializes in Greek and Turkish foods. They're located right across the road from the Johnson Space Center and they've gotten quite a reputation in this area. (In fact, when Paul McCartney came to Houston a couple of years ago, this restaurant catered all the food for McCartney's concert.)

Dinner was delicious, conversation was interesting/hilarious/thought-provoking, and we sat and talked for nearly three hours. B & P will be moving to Dallas this coming June.... a fact that is breaking the hearts of all of their Houston/Galveston friends. I told B & P that I'll have to arrange a Charades Party before they leave. It will give us all a chance to not only say good-bye, but to ask them "Are you sure you want to go?"

We were talking about parties during dinner, and I told B & P that they will just have to drive down from Dallas for our Christmas party, because we've got something really great planned. Then P said they would also have to drive down for New Year's Eve to spend it with us. They missed last New Year's Eve because they had out-of-town company, but they had joined us the year before last and we all had such a great time. I told B & P that we'd be doing something different this year... we don't know exactly what yet, but now I've got to get thinking.

As I told B & P: "Such pressure.... not even the end of April and I've got to start planning something for New Year's Eve that will be worthy of a five-hour drive down from Dallas."