Crazy Ass Texas Weather

I can't tell you how many times I've heard people declare "wait five minutes and the weather will change in Texas." Usually they are talking about how it was 80 degrees at 9 am....raining and 70 degrees at 10 am....and 105 degrees by High Noon. It's been an unusually chilly winter here in the North Central region of the great State of Texas. The high tomorrow will be in the 20's...and the lows the next few nights in the teens....and this is just January! We usually don't experience our "winter" until February. I guess this is what you call the El Nino effect. I don't know...but it gives me an excuse to nest, build a fire, make a lot of comfort food and put the flannel sheets on our bed for more than just one day. The downside of this cold spell is that I do not like to cook chili when it's super hot or super cold. We take a break from chili during the summer to hit Gruene, relax and float down the river every day. I don't have another hobby (besides drinking!) that I can participate in when the weather is this cold. The Tri State Championship Chili Cook Off will take place this Saturday in Amarillo and I will not be there to defend my title. It's just going to be too cold...and I don't really think I should leave my dogs out in the cold while I go cook chili and drink beer and wine in a warm indoor building. The Hubby may take the reigning back to back North Texas Jr Chili Champ with him and go cook...but I think I may sit this one out. There are plenty of cook offs coming up and I won't have to freeze my ass off to get a point.

Tonight, I will be making my delicious turkey meatloaf. I will post pictures and the recipe tomorrow. And, in the interest of keeping up with the name of my blog, I'll also be posting a recipe and step by step instructions on cooking a pot of real Texas Red chili! For those of you who haven't had real Texas chili, I hope you find it easy to follow and make a pot of your own. Who knows - you may love it and find yourself visiting www.chili.org in search of more information about CASI and where the next cook off near you can be found.

Stay warm everyone!!