I made some plaques for our annual chili contest at work.
The big one is about 6" tall, the small one about 3.5".
I stained the bottom differently on the 2 small ones by accident (I did them at different times).
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Flames look great!
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Don’t show these to my wife - she’ll want me to make them for HER work contest that she holds every year. I obviously wouldn’t complain - I’d love to do it!
FYI - https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/true-texas-chili-355049
We made that last year as we were looking for a true red Texas chili to enter. Hands down it beat every chili anyone entered into the contest. In fact a few that were convinced they would win said this didn’t qualify as a “chili” because of the meat. It was a stew to which I called bravo sierra on. Chili is chili because of the spice or chili’s in the dish. NOT because of the meat. She had several chili’s in the competition that were meatless vegetarian dishes, stuff with fruit (WTH!) as the main component, etc. And because we kicked all of their collective a%^#es they got angry! 
Didn’t mean to hijack your thread - Love the awards! But that recipe is killer! Make it EXACTLY as it’s described and you’ll love it.
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Thanks. I’ll have to try that recipe!
They’ll be a hit for sure … Just adds to the fun.
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What did you use to stain? (Figuring actual wood stain, but I’ve seen people here use markers, paint, colored pencils… so just wonderin’.)
They look great! Love the flames.
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Qualify because of the meat 
Here ya go - full CASI rules.
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I do my own chili powders with about seven different kinds of dried chilies. But I do like the meat part of the tradition. I like to use short rib meat. That really has a distinct flavor. But the best chili I make is using beef cheeks. You can’t mistake the flavor. It really is the best beef cut of all!
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Love these! Now WHO gave you permission to make something so cute it makes the rest of us look bad?! 
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As I recall, the debate in Texas is over whether chili is allowed to have BEANS in it. 
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I can go either way on beans. I like them, but I also like it without them.
But the Peeps and peanut M&Ms are mandatory:
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The hotter the chili the bigger the reward.
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I used various wood stains. Most of them are Verithane Gel stains in small cans. I have about 20 different cans of stains, so I’m not sure which ones specifically I used for this project.
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There’s no debate. Chili (aka chili con carne) does not have beans. Beans are are cheater ingredients - everyone thinks they’re put in as cheap bulk ingredients to make the chili cheaper to make but they’re really there to let your taste buds rest for (micro)seconds while eating the chili as the starch doesn’t release or amplify the hotness of the chili peppers like the meat does. 
Friends don’t let friends eat faux-chili with beans.
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Oh, I see. On the trophies, NOT in your chili. Whew. 
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Exactly. 
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Great trophies. But I really (be kind) do like chili with beans 
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Then how do you guys get the after meal musicals going?
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As soon as I saw this thread, I knew you would jump in and I was glad you did!
My family’s chili recipe is from the Sunbeam pressure cooker recipe pamphlet from the 50s. My dad mad the chili in our house and he used Brooks chili beans for his chili. I understand after reading about Texas chili, that there is certainly a purist tradition at play here and I respect that, but I learned to love green and red peppers, garlic and cumin because of my dad’s chili. I had held a 30th birthday party for 25 years and the lunch was always dad’s chili for whoever showed up on Saturday early.
Perhaps Shakespeare can guide us in this debate: a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
I just got back from a month of Spanish immersion in Mexico. Definitely understand the non-univocality of food names. Around these parts we call them “flautas”. In Cuernavaca they call them “taquitos”
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I liked this just so that I could unlike it.
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