Chambersburg Noontime Lions Club

And the #1 Chili winner is…  Chambersburg Noontime Lions Club!

What a rush to hear our name called.  The day began early with Marlane heading to Rhodes Grove Camp to spend several hours getting the chili reheated.  Jim Fegan and Doug Harmon met me there to load it and transport to the tent in Chambersburg

Set Up and Ready to Serve

James Whitelock, Doug Harmon, Jim Fegan (left to right)

There was soon a long and continuous line of tasters and for the next 3 hours straight we dished out chili to the 800 or so attendees.

At 1:25pm they announced the top 3 and put our name at the top of the list.

PDF version of our Chili Recipe Fire Roasted Lions Breath Chili

For the last several years we have wanted to enter the Icefest Chili cookoff but timing and circumstances have prevented it.  This year our fearless club president John Nogle decided that it was time to make it happen!

After a couple of test cookings to find the perfect recipe, I began to assemble the cast of ingredients.

It soon became apparent that this task was far beyond my mere mortal capabilities so I enlisted the help of my wife and her superior knife skills.

With knives flying we worked several evenings this week preparing the onions, peppers and garlic.  Chopping, roasting and dicing this quantity of ingredients was indeed a challenge but we made it through.  The only casualties being some pepper burnt hands from handling and peeling the skin off the roasted Jalapenos, Pablanos and Anaheim peppers