[January 30, 2018]      

On Sunday afternoon a nice sized group of people gathered at the Logan County Extension Office for the 4-H Alumni Chili and Chocolate Cook-off.

In total there were six chili entries and four chocolate entries, all to be judged by a panel of impartial “celebrity judges.” Judges included the 2017 Logan County Fair Queen Meg Meeker (recently third runner up in the State Fair Queen competition), former Logan County Fair Queen Kelsi (Ubbenga) Meeker, Lincoln Mayor Seth Goodman and Logan County Board member Bob Sanders. The blind judging was conducted in a separate room with individual servings of chili and dessert delivered to the judges.

Meanwhile, in the main meeting room at the Extension office guests took advantage of the wide variety of chili and chocolate and to enjoy a time of conversation.

The group then settled in for an afternoon of trivia led by Patty Huffer and Pam Tibbs.

The winners of the cook-offs were announced and prizes awarded at the end of the day.

Pat Tibbs’ chili with a recipe name of “The Best” was the first place winner in the judged contest, while the 'Crowd Favorite' was chili prepared by Erick Young.

In the chocolate category, the judges preferred the Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting made by Pam Tibbs. The crowd pleasing chocolate concoction was made by Patty Huffer.

Each of the winners were awarded cookbooks, the bakers received baking books, while the chili makers were gifted with slow cooker and soup recipe books.

[Nila Smith]