Last year, we decided to have a yearly chili cook-off for Halloween. Our kids and grandkids gather at our home for Trick-Or-Treat each year.
Our house is decorated with spooky and fun Halloween decorations to create a festive ambiance.
Everyone brings their own unique chili recipe, and we have a blind taste test to determine the winner.
The kids dress up in their Halloween costumes and go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.
It is another great way to bring our family together and create lasting memories.
Chili Cook-Off Scorecards
I don’t know about your Halloween night, but in our neighborhood, there are a lot of Trick-Or-Treaters. It’s a little bit chaotic but in a good way. That’s why we opted for simple chili cook-off scorecards for this event.
Guests only have to choose their best tasting, most creative, and the tongue burner, or hottest.
Chili Cook-Off Entry Numbers for Scoring
For scoring, you will also have to have a way of identifying each of the contest entries.
There’s a link below to download and print this graphic for nine entries on cardstock, cut, and fold the entry numbers. You can see one folded and free-standing in the picture above.
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Checklist for the Chili Cook-Off:
- Ladles for serving
- Spoon rests for ladles
- Disposable Bowls
- Condiment bowls
- Utensils for serving garnishes and condiments
- Bread basket to hold cornbread
- Spoons for eating chili
- Napkins
- Palate cleansers such as water, light beer, or soda
- Assorted hot sauces
Chili Cook-Off Toppings
Offer plenty of versatile toppings! Your guests can put their own spin on every serving. Consider offering sliced avocado, green onions, diced red onion, fresh cilantro, grated cheddar, sour cream, fresh cilantro, hot sauce, butter, oyster crackers, Premium Saltines, and Fritos.
Last year I sliced the red onion and it just didn’t seem as well received. This year, I’m dicing the onion instead.
The toppings display well on white 3-section serving platters.
Chili Cook-Off Trophies
After searching Pinterest for chili cook-off trophies, I found the idea of wooden spoon trophies. If the wooden spoon has a hole at the top of the handle, it will be easy to tie a winner tag on it. The winner can actually use the spoon or keep it for bragging rights for next year.
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Then, I changed my mind and created a graphic for an apron for the first-prize winner. I used special pencils, Derwent Inktense colored pencils
, that can be used on fabrics. The pencils are water-soluble and when the colors dry, it is permanent! With just a little water on a paintbrush, the vibrant colors can be softened. These are the pencils I used on Mem’s Scarlett O’Hara dress.
Last year, I ordered two white aprons from Amazon and planned to make a first and second-place apron. Time ran out and I only finished one.
This year, I bought a cotton chambray apron from Home Goods and chose to print the graphic onto transfer paper. This method takes a lot less time than using colored pencils. All you have to do is iron it onto the apron.
With the transfer paper I have, the directions are that if there are words on the graphic, you must first reverse the image. Be sure to read the instructions for the transfer paper. Some require reversing the images and some don’t.
You can edit or download the apron graphic, the entry numbers, and the ballots here on Canva for FREE!
I used the same graphic I created last year and just changed the year. The font for the ‘CHAMPION 2023’ is Chelsea Market. If you’re doing this in the future, you can change the year on your favorite editing software, PicMonkey, or Canva.
You can find Dave’s winning Chili Cook-Off recipe ◄ here.
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