scenes from the chili cook-off

Saturday was the chili cook-off at Ewan's preschool. I make sure to bring the kids every year. They don't like chili, but they do like games and dessert. Don't worry, there are sandwiches for the kids too, so they don't starve :-). They had fun. There were carnival type games to play, soda bottles to win at the ring toss (we have four bottles now that we don't even drink) and desserts to pick through. I let each of the boys pick their own desserts. Marcus picked a peanut butter, chocolate covered rice crispie looking thing. Ewan picked a cupcake with gummy worms on it. Cale picked the biggest cinnamon roll he could find and Liam helped himself to 2 cupcakes! The first one we gave him, the second one he walked up to the dessert table and helped himself too! The ladies thought that was very cute-he pretty much has most people wrapped around his finger. All I could think of was all the sugar frosting he was getting. He was a very happy little boy for the rest of the night-until his sugar high came crashing down :-).

Here's Liam ready to eat. He anticipates the flash on the camera, hence the closed eyes.


Ewan got some salad and applesauce.

I managed to get a picture of Marcus before he ducked under the table.

Finally, an eyes open pic of Liam!

But, some of the others wanted eyes closed pictures....Cale

...and Ewan.

The spoils of war. Candy, toys and soda.

The chilis Andy and I tasted were okay. None of them stood out this year as totally awesome. We didn't stay the whole time, so I don't know who won. They had a bake sale too, which I made a few things for. I made a chocolate covered cherry cake, some cinnamon blueberry bars and cookie pops. I have to share the recipe for the chocolate covered cherry cake because it is one of the easiest cakes I have ever made. I got the recipe from the Cake-Mix Doctor Cookbook.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake

1 box of devil's food cake mix

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of almond extract

1 can of cherry pie filling (21oz)

mix these four ingredients together and then pour into a greased cake pan. bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. that's it! I covered mine with a chocolate glaze, but frosting would be great too.

Delicious!