WOW! What a great way to warm up on a cool fall afternoon!  The GEMS Leaders had a Chili Cook-off as a fund raiser for them to be able to go to the Leader’s Convention this summer.

There was a lot of trash talk going on on Facebook and I know it came from a real Pittsburgh fan... however, his chili came up a little short.  Also there was some really good competition going on between the Yowtz Family, of course Mom taught the boys how to make chili so they tried to out-do her by adding their own hidden ingredients.  Adam really did when he added a lot of the HOT STUFF to his, and sent everybody heading for the water pitcher. By the way he did win the Hottest Chili Award.  The most unique Chili was won by the Voodoo team.  The judges for those two events were Alyssa and Alexis Kiekover and Jim Crandall.

Some of the tables were decorated as their theme such as the Voodoo with all the spooky things and the Lions team even wearing their jerseys.  The Kiekovers I guess were not real sure about their recipe and offered “GasBgon” pills and “Bean-o” pills.

There were 9 participants:

• The Kiekover Family:  “Rookie Recipe”
• The Koetje Family: “Super-deliciose”
• Jeff and Sally Allen:  “Voodoo Chili”
• Mary and Pete Ludwig:  “The LIONS”
• Doug Kellar:  “Pittsburgh Pride”
• Adam Yowtz:  “Adam’s On-going Chili Experiment”
• Mom and Dad Yowtz:  “Grandma’s Chili”
• Christopher Yowtz:  “Yowtz Tec.”
• Dar Grit and Grandkids:  “Harvest Chili”

The winners were:

* First Place:  “Voodoo Chili”

* Second Place:  “Harvest Chili”

* Third Place:  “The LIONS”

Thanks to everyone who came out to support the GEMS Leaders!  It was a lot of fun and we are all ready to step it up for the next challenge.