Estoy Nueces

What a wacky way to spend Valentine's Day. Long ago, I committed to a listener to judge a chili and barbeque cookoff. I, like Willie Nelson, will say yes to anything that is two weeks out. Sadly, unlike Willie, I don't have assistants and agents to come along and tell people later that I can't make it and have prior commitments. I didn't feel like getting out of the house, I didn't feel like being around strangers, I didn't feel like eating, either. But I went. It was an interesting time, and if I had felt better I might have enjoyed it more, too.

I've never been a judge in these sort of things before. At these cookoffs, a lot of the cooks and members of their teams are judges, it seems, because they required a LOT of judges for every item. I first was involved in the chicken barbequeing competition. They had 21 of us at three tables and they explained rules and gave us our scorecards. Then they began passing styrofoam containers of chicken around the tables. Each had a big barbequed chicken in it. We were to note the smell and appearance and then cut off a bite to taste, using the knife that came with the chicken and our own fork that we threw away each time. I ate 17 bites of chicken. Some were icky, one was disqualified for not being cooked enough even before I saw it. Some were dry, some were too wet, some were too spicy. There were some that I would have enjoyed eating more of, none sent me to heaven.

I spent a lot of the afternoon just hanging. If I had been there with more people I knew or was in a party mood I could have been drinking and talking more. They had a full bar and all of this was going on inside (unlike most chili cookoffs I've been to) while they still had all the RVs and cookers outside. This was at the VFW and vets and their wives are smokers. The air just hung with smoke all afternoon. I pondered their silent auction items, including a "potpourri lamp" which was a jar with potpourri and white Christmas lights topped with a doily and ribbon, lovely. I chatted with a woman that works 6 pm to 6 am and laughed with that machine gun staccato hahahahha.

I didn't know what to jump in to judge next, but then it was the rib finals and my host and others said that was a good one to judge on so I went into the judging room again. This time we were judging the 17 or so finalists in the rib competition.... there had been something like 51 entries. You, again, had to cut the rib meat off of the bone and eat it with a fork, which is not the way you think about eating ribs, but most of these ribs were so meaty and tender it wasn't a problem at all. These blew that chicken competition away. These were amazingly good. Of course, it was the best of the ribs and even a couple of these weren't really good, but most were delicious and I would have enjoyed slipping of few untouched ribs into my bag for later. These made a nice meal.

When I finished this judging I slipped on out and went home. My hostess said the handing out of the prizes was when things got real fun, but, not knowing anybody there or caring who won, I couldn't see that it would be that fun. I felt like a fish out of water all day.

Next year, I'll either learn to say no early on or I will take a couple of friends and plan on drinking and going wild and making a day of it. At least I'll know what to expect.

Came home and napped. I love weekend naps. Well, I love naps, period. If I could fit them into my daily schedule again, I would. I did make my apple pie last night, but I was almost out of white flour so the crust was made with whole wheat flour and that gave it an interesting flavor, which we liked. Mark had to have ice cream and milk with his pie so he made a trip to the grocery for those non-Atkins items and we enjoyed our Valentine's pie a bunch.

Today, I'm back on strict Atkins (unless I have a final piece of pie tonight) and I'm home alone all day. Hooray. Mark is going to Dallas to pick up lots of collectible items from his former roommate that died this year. They have now been left to us to dispose of. I am going to take it easy and probably never get out of the house. An ideal day.

I've had one little mystery going this week that I hope resolves itself. I am in daily communication with my friend CGP. There is rarely a day that we don't email, although sometimes on the weekends he is quiet and I know he has gone to Houston to see his girlfriend or is with his kids or something. He panicked when I went to Colorado and he forgot I was gone and was sending worried emails wondering why I was so silent. (I'm saying I'm not the only one that worries when there is silence.) I heard from him Monday night with an email saying I should be home in bed instead of at work since I was sick. Since then, not an email... it's almost been a week. Last night, I got a little bit of a break when I got a text message on the phone with a Happy Valentines Day. My phone is weird and doesn't tell me who sends these text messages, but he's the only one that sends them and also, I sent a reply and confirmed that it was going to his phone. He has never acknowledged that he's gotten any of the ones I've sent so I don't know if he got my reply or not. Still no emails, though. Very weird.