And so it begins

I figured a good place to start a blog titled "In the kitchen..." would be in MY kitchen.  I plan to slowly take you on a tour of my kitchen in future posts.  I spend a LOT of time there, so I figured I would share some of it with you.  You can read about the history of my kitchen and it's remodel HERE.  It went from being the most unlovely room in the house to one of my favorite places to be.  I love, love, love my kitchen, the layout of it, the decor, colors, etc.  It's just a happy place for me.

The first food I want to blog about is chili.  It's chili weather and our church is holding it's 5th Annual Men's Chili Cook Off tomorrow evening.  Cary is entering 2 different recipes of chili.  One of the recipes I will share sometime this week, when I can post pics with it.  The other recipe I am not at liberty to divulge as it was given to me in confidence.  It is award winning and Cary used it last year for the first time.  His ranking in the chili cook off raised dramatically.  It is Johnny Purtle's chili recipe.  Johnny won the chili cook off at Unity Baptist Church of Hope more than once with this recipe.  Cary and I were thrilled when he shared it with us in 2008.  Johnny passed away a few months ago and I thought of him as I was helping Cary make the chili.  Johnny was a great cook, as is his wife Judy, and they both spent a lot of time in the kitchen together.  It is bittersweet that I dedicate this first post on the ITK blog to a fine Christian man, Johnny Purtle.  I have a number of his and Judy's recipes in my collection and I plan to make and share several of those with you in the future.

See you in the kitchen!