Chili Cook-Off and Pie Bake-Off

We had a chili cook-off/Pie bake-off with our ward, which turned out great. People sign up to bring their chili/pies and you assign each person a number. We had the bishopric be the judges and we came up with some creative awards with silly prizes I.E. “The Not For Kids” Award for the hottest with a Hot Tamale necklace. The “One Bowl Will Do you” Award for the heartiest with a bottle of beano/tums. The “Martha Stewart” award for the best presentation with a Martha Steward magazine. And we crowned a “Chili King/Queen”. I spray- painted a burger king crown gold and hot-glued chili peppers all over it….then I made a horribly tacky trophy. Take a plastic bowl and spray-paint it gold. Take the foam used in floral arranging (The rounded one, not the square)-round side up and hot-glue it into the bowl. Take a cheap, plastic serving spoon and stick it directly in the center of the foam. Hot-glue beans all over the foam (to make it look like a bowl of chili) and then spray paint the entire thing gold. It was the trophy of all trophies! We also did prizes for the top 4 pies. The “Betty Crocker Award” for the best overall/best taste. The “Easiest on the eyes award” or “Cutie Pie” Award for best presentation. The “Sweet as Pie” for the sweetest. While the judges were judging we played a fun game with everyone to get everyone interacting. We got great feedback from people–it was alot of fun!