This Sunday, it was TeamFranni that headed out to Darwin for the Chili Cook-Off at the Rod and Gun Club.

Franni entered a buffalo chili that made the hybrid smell maddeningly good for the 60 mile drive out. There were 12 entries, and you marked up your plate like the face of a clock in order to keep track of which ones you were tasting. There were pork entries, chicken, beef and Franni’s buffalo - some were mild, some were super spicy, some needed an extra helping of cornbread to sop up the last of the sauce.

There was a live auction for the Meeker County DFL (this time Franni brought signed books from Al and went home with a homemade apple pie - for a change). And of course, there were speeches. Franni talked about her husband, but mostly she talked about love and opportunity - Franni and Al have been lucky in both. And while there’s not much the government can do about love, Franni thinks we can be doing a whole lot more to make sure we all have the same kinds of opportunities.

Franni didn’t win the cook-off - Merle Larson, auctioneer and husband to DNC member Nancy Larson (thanks for your support, Nancy!), won…again. Turns out, he entered three chilies this time, and no matter how hard the Meeker County DFL tried to give the prize to someone new, Merle was just too good. His winning entry was pork, black beans, green chilies, and more spices than you could count…

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 15:15 and is filed under From the Trail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.