12th VFW/ALA Chili Cookoff boasts many winners

The chili was hot, the beverages cold and people's spirits were lively at the 12th VWF/American Legion Auxiliary Chili Cookoff in Malta on Sunday night. About 40 hungry souls showed up to taste five different team's chili and hors d'oeuvres while spying the team's table decorations during the function.

The 3 Amigos – Chris Barthelmess, Kari Hould and Richard Dunbar – said that they had just arrived to town from Mexico in order to compete in the cookoff, each sporting long black hair, curly black mustaches, wide-rimmed sombreros and think Latin accents.

"We just got here last night," said Barthelmess, "and our ingredients just got barely in time."

"I grew the cactus myself," said Dunbar of the giant rubber cactus sitting near the Amigos cooking station.

Besides the chili, the 3 Amigos also had barbecued meatballs wrapped in bacon and cornbread muffins.

The Mint Bar Gang, Brent and Mary Waters and Krista Fahlgren, served a mean chili with sweet cornbread and cilantro-lime-honey butter. The group was also selling raffle tickets for a Rag Quilt to benefit the Order Of Eastern Star Of Montana, Sacajawea Chapter No 37, for their Americanism Program event to be held on March 28.

The American Legion team, besides their chili, brought asparagus and cream cheese wrapped in cold cuts and onions and cheese wrapped in meat as their side dishes. The crew won best chili when the event was last held at City Hall in Malta. Vince Schmoeckel said that the American Legion team used the same recipe on Sunday as they did with their winning chili all those years ago.

"There is no secret to making good chili besides practice," Schmoeckel said. "It's all trial and miss. I think we got a winner here...it kept the Army happy for all those years."

The fourth team at the event, Kathy Lundstrom and Carol Brown (the mother/daughter duo known as Just Us) was at the competition for a third year, winning for best chili at one of the three events. They agreed that they weren't sure how they would do with the judges, but gave away one of their trade secrets.

"It's all about the spices," Brown said. "Ours isn't very spicy. I like it that way so I can actually eat it. We made it one year with our own homemade salsa, but it was so spicy that I couldn't even eat it."

The last, but not least, of the five contestants was team Rough Riders – Chip Pewitt, Mickey Mecklenburg and Margaret Pewitt – were the only first time entrants in the contest, but their lack of experience didn't dampen their expectations.

"We are going to win, of course," said Mecklenburg.

When all the chili had been tasted, the secret judges had made their choice and the folks in attendance voted for "People's Choice Chili," "People's Choice Hors d'oeuvres" and "People's Choice Decorations," Mecklenburg's prediction came to fruition.

People's choice for best decorations went to the 3 Amigos, people's choice for Hors d'oeuvres also went to the 3 Amigos and the Rough Riders, just like Mecklenburg predicted, won for people's choice best chili.

As an added bonus to the festivities, and because not as many teams showed up as had been hoped, American Legion Auxiliary Secretary and Treasurer announced during the award ceremonies that because of a generous $300 donation, each of the teams would win a cash prize.

"Our cash payback was going to be really low," she said. "But we had an individual who added $300 to the purse and that individual is Mickey Mecklenburg and I think he deserves a big round of applause."

Taking home the first place trophy was the 3 Amigos – who generously gave their cash winnings, $100, back to the VFW and the American Legion Auxiliary -- second place went to the mother-daughter duo of Lundstrom and Brown,third place went to the Mint Bar team, The Rough Riders took fourth place, American Legion finished fifth.