New Chili Champs Reign in Valley County

BrandyLee Loran and her mother Dawna Spaulding have earned the title for best chili in Valley County. They went head to head with several other teams Saturday during the 4th annual Elks Chili Cook-off at the Elks Lodge in Glasgow.

Second place went to Rocky Thompson, third place went to Team Porcupine Road Kill: consisting of Zak, Linsey and Mia Peterson, and the peoples' choice award went to Erika Bengochea.

The teams began cooking at 1 p.m.

"Everybody starts and you bring in your whole onions, your whole celery, everything that needs to be prepped," said Kim Enkerud, member of the ELKS board. "We apply by the county sanitariums rules, so that is why they have to bring in everything whole. They cant prepare anything at home."

Judging began at 4 p.m.

"It is a blind judging so the judges won't see who it is that they are judging until the end," Enkerud said.

And, those who visited who were not in the contest got to eat their fill of chili for free.

"Everything is free," Enkerud said. "This is just a good time. Lets do something fun in January."

Fun was the reason Loran participated again this year, she said.

"I have participated for the last three years. I was the hostess the first year."

For this competition, Loran decided to try something new.

"I am going with a new recipe this year," she said. "It is combination of three recipes I found that I liked, so I am mixing it up."

Loran did not test the new mashup in advance, she said.

"Not at all. I am a little nervous about it, but it is for fun. There is a good competition going on here. Some of us have done this for a few years, so it is a fun and friendly competition. It is a great fun way to spend a Saturday, especially because we have some football playoffs coming up. I love to get some football fun going on with a local challenge."

This year, Loran was joined by her mother, Dawna Spaulding.

"It is pretty cool," Spaulding said, adding she was enjoying the mother-daughter bonding experience.

After Loran learned of her win, she noted she had not adjusted any ingredients after their first went into the cooker.

"We made the recipe, threw it in and didn't make a single adjustment," she said. "It feels super awesome."

Loran said she did not write the recipe down, initially, but is confident she can recreate her dish.

"I can probably get pretty close, but I have to write it down because it is really good."

Loran said she will "absolutely" be back next year to defend her title.

This was the first year Erika Bengochea participated in the event.

"I have always been so busy, but I was like, 'you know what? I am going to make time to do it,'" she said. "That is what I thought we would do. With all this cold weather, you have to do something, although today is gorgeous. It is beautiful."

Bengochea approached the competition without a written recipe. She makes it up as she goes along.

"Every time I make it, it is different," she said. "I don't know what is going to happen today. It is totally up in the air. We will see what happens."

For her go to ingredients, Bengochea uses mollasses to provide a little sweet taste, and sometimes curry, she said.

"That kind of warms it up. Mostly it is just the standard stuff, although I am using Bengochea beef in this. My brother-in-law raises cows. I have this stew meat I got from him so I thought I would use it in there. I did red beans, pinto beans and black beans."

The beans were raw to start with, although Bengochea had soaked them over night.

"I am hoping they get heated up and nice and soft."

Bengochea said she was excited for the judging.

"There are some good cooks here, so I am not really worried about the judging part."

As it turned out, her recipe was the crowd favorite.