The History of Swan Chili

What you should know is that I love chili.  Red chili, green chili, pork or beef chili, even chicken chili.   It's all good! This weekend my husband Sam made his famous Chili Verde (green chili) and it was spectacular!  It brought me back to a time even before we were dating.  We both love to make chili - though Sam is a bit more inventive than I am. 

Well, a long long time ago, in a place far far away we both worked for the same company.  Every year around Valentines day our company would have a chili cook off.  Sam and I were usually the first two to sign up.  Over the years this cook off became quite competitive - I won one, Sam won a couple - we were both always in the top 3.  The cook off became a bit more personal and it was as if there were no other competitors other than Sam and I.   Sam became quite serious about the competition and started entering two chili's at a time - usually one safe one and one crazy concoction.  It was this one crazy concoction he made that certainly tested our love.  You see he made a chicken and jalapeño green chili and I made my tried and true traditional red.  They were both delicious and as expected they were both in the top three.  Actually, they tied for first place and we were forced to have a taste off.  The organizers searched the office for someone who had not tried the chili yet and did not know who made them.  Quite frankly if she knew who made them I would have won by default, after all I was her manager.  She tried them both and admitted she really liked them both,   One just as much as the other.  Sam will deny that comment - but I heard it and I remember it!  In the end she chose Sam's kooky chicken and jalapeño green chili because it was different.  She stressed different and not better!  It was quite good to be honest and if different is what it takes to win, then Sam was the true winner.  Actually, I think I was the ultimate winner for be able to spend the rest of my life with such an amazing cook - among other things :)

So, in our house, there really is more to determining what goes into the pot than most people would ever expect.