Sunday, November 27, 2011

Beer and Chili...Staples of Fall

We hosted our First Annual Baker Beer Bash and Chili Cook-off last night! This event combined our love for good beers and spicy chilis into one epic party. ;) We've hosted beer tastings and chili cook-offs before, but never together...so was born an annual event in the Baker household!


Despite the rain yesterday, we had a great turn out of 40 friends! Wow, just writing that made me smile at how blessed we are to know 40 people who love us enough to attend our party. Or maybe they came for the beer and chili... :) Blaine and I spent the last couple of weeks getting ready for last night, and I think it paid off in the final product. We had a beer tasting competition in which guests brought their favorite beers, I poured them into unmarked bottles, and away we went at scoring each beer (11 total) on taste, texture, smell, and type of beer. We also had a total of nine pots of chili for the chili cook-off, which were all scored based on favorites. We crowned three winners after all was said and done and I think a great time was had by everyone!



Enjoying good beer, great chili, and AWESOME friends!





Our set up...very warm and cozy!



We even had a tent...which was a great decision considering that it rained on and off all night!



Beer tasting station #1...with beer-ritas for the non-beer drinkers




Beer tasting station #2


Dessert and cornbread spread!


Chocolate Stout Cake Shots...mmmm, chocolate cake made with chocolate stout beer!


Grand prize for the favorite chili...a chili cookbook, a set of Williams Sonoma kitchen towels, three different Williams Sonoma spices, a Rogue Chipotle Ale beer, and a blue ribbon made by yours truly! ;)


Scoresheets and pencils...yes, Blaine insisted on buying 20 clipboards.


Enjoying the beer sampling!


Is Steve eating chili directly from the pot?! ;)


The girls from our 'hood!


Linsey and Erin...the same sweet girls that surprised me with a birthday cake last year during softball season!

Rain, rain, go away...Crystal is not deterred!



Blaine announces the winning favorite beer...Alaskan White Ale!

Thanks, Jon and Ashley, for the winning submission! The prizes for the beer winners were Rogue Chipotle Ales and gift cards to our local liquor store.

Bobby guessed the most types of beer...8 out of 11!

Jason and Linsey take the chili prize! Yummy chili!!

The sign of an awesome party...


Looking forward to our Second Annual Baker Beer Bash and Chili Cook-off! I hope our new neighbors in Alabama are ready to party!! :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a great party!! And I have to give a little shout-out to the Alaskan White... it's a staple at any get-together up here and always a popular choice. :o) Howdy went to their brewery about 3 weeks ago and I now have cases of various types of beer in the garage fridge!

Lauren Chestnutt Coburn said...

I have heard lots and lots about this Alaskan White. I am excited to try it! And of course you had a lot of people at your pary! You are, indeed, an amazing person! :o)

Jill said...

It was a fabulous party...of course Steve was eating right out of the crockpot! :)

Sorry we bailed so early. It had been a long day. Just think of how epic your going away party will be! (even though that makes me very sad to write)