Salsa Competition - Yessiree, that's my baby!! (check out Salsa 1st Place!)

‘Chili-heads’ sure can cookOriginally published April 18, 2007By Bob T. Epstein Special to The News-Post
Preparation is the key to great food and especially chili. Randy Rolls gets to work early Saturday morning at his booth — Chile Du Claude.
Pack the car, leash the dog and grab a hat, we’re going to the Mount Airy chili cook-off!
When we drove over to Mount Airy for their March Into Spring Chili Cook-Off, sponsored by The Mount Airy Main Street Association, little did we realize just how much fun sampling 34 different cooks’ recipes of the “ultimate chili” could be.
With chili booth names such as “Burning Love Chili,” “Big Country Chili,” “Sneaky Pete’s Chili & Salsa,” and “Jacks All American Chili,” we knew that it would be fun, fun, fun ... until the Rolaids ran out.
“I had no idea how involved in this impressive sub-culture I could get ... I’m training to be an orthopedic surgeon, after recently graduating from medical school, and this is so much fun ... so much camaraderie and a great way for me to decompress from my hospital duties. I’m hooked now and plan on registering for several more events.”
The event featured several enjoyable functions, one of which was a hot-wing eating contest. Imagine eating dozens of hot wings at one sitting and being timed to boot. Well, several iron-bellied folks did just that, and frankly, the crowd loved it.
After the wing thing, came the main event — chili judging.
Chili cook-off contestants came from all over the four-state area and one of them, veteran chili-head, 85-year-old Jack Ware from Sterling, Va., who is recovering from a heart attack said: “This chili cook-off hobby keeps me active and is especially important, now that at my age I can’t do a whole lot of other outdoor, hands-on activities.” There were prizes in all categories of chili cooking, as well as the chicken wing-eating contest.
Today, chili recipes are as different and varied as there are people eating this hot icon of a beef and sauce-spiced and seasoned delight.
Winners of the Mount Airy Chili Cook off were:
For the top booth, Elvis’ “Burning Love Booth” really wowed the event with Mike Watkins’ continual Elvis music and his dancing antics.
Winning first place in two categories — both the Verde (green) category and Red Chili was Christine Johnson, from Harrisburg, Pa. She took a $250 check, numerous donated prizes as well as airline tickets and the Judges Cup Trophy. She was invited to be in the International Cook-off in Omaha, Neb.
Kelli Fry of Silver Spring won first place in Salsa. She too qualified for the Omaha event.
Altogether there were three categories and nine checks, totaling $1,000 paid out, three per category for first through third place.
• First Place Salsa — Kelli Fry (a rookie)
• Second Place — Christine Johnson
• Third Place — John Iaquinta
• First Place Green — Christine Johnson
• Second Place — Monica Parker
• Third Place — Jim Parker
• First Place Red — Christine Johnson
• 2nd Place — Janie Bauer
• 3rd Place — Doug Johnson

Confirmation - April 7, 2007