Last February I followed the news surrounding the Pillsbury Bake-Off and decided that I could totally be a winner in the next one.  I cook.  I can make stuff up.  Sometimes, Marty tells me that whatever I've made is "the best thing he's eaten."  I really can't see a reason why I couldn't be a contender.  Especially when the prize is ONE MILLION DOLLARS. 

Then I started thinking about all the millions of entries that must be sent in for each contest.  It's only held every two years, so that gives people a lot of time to think about what they'll enter and prepare for the tough competition.  Still not daunted, I decided that I better enter a few other contests.  You know, to warm up.

I entered the Hutchinson Leader recipe contest and took second place in the "main dish" category.  I won a $10 gift card for our local grocery store.  Fortunately for me, there was some kind of mixup, and I inadvertantly received a $20 gift card, doubling my earnings.  Awhile ago my mom sent me info on a recipe contest held by a Texas company who makes and sells a great raspberry chipotle sauce.  I decided that this would be my next big contest.  For days I daydreamed about the possible entries.  Chicken wings?  Probably too common.  Meatloaf?  Too boring, it would just be a regular meatloaf with a sauce.  Finally, I had an epiphany.  Peanut butter and jelly chili.

I came up with a recipe and tried it out.  Despite the 90 degree temperatures outside, my family ate spicy chili cooked in a crockpot all day.  And we all loved it.  I typed up my entry and sent it in.  Then I decided that I should up my chances of winning and create a few more entries.  I came up with another good one - turkey sandwich baked in puff pastry dough.  It was terrific and Marty ate so much he almost tipped over by the added weight in his belly.  I reread the rules and sent in my second entry.  The only problem was, as I reread the rules, I realized that my first entry had too many ingredients to meet the criteria of the contest.  I promptly rewrote the chili recipe and resubmitted it.

August 25th was the contest deadline.  The awards are going to be awarded next weekend in Texas.  And I haven't yet been notified that I'm a finalist.  I'll admit, part of me really thought that I would receive an email at 12:01AM on the 26th letting me know that I was in.  Here it is, two days later and I've heard nothing.  Is it possible that I'm not a finalist?  I don't see how, my chili was both delicious and clever.  I mean really, peanut butter and jelly chili?  Doesn't that just scream award-winner?

Since one of the rules in the contest states that the recipe can't be previously published anywhere (including the internet), I don't want to eliminate myself by posting the official entry here.  But since my first entry was disqualified for having too many ingredients, I can't get into trouble for adding it now. 

Here it is, my not-so-famous Peanut Butter & Jelly Chili.  If you don't have the sauce on hand, or don't feel like ordering it, you could probably substitute some grape jelly and add heat of some kind (jalapenos, jalapeno chili powder, whatever hot stuff you like).  Bon appetit.