SECOND POST FOR TODAY

From Sue Caffey
I am very saddened to report to you the death of our friend and a good friend of CASI.

J.J. Jeffery McMillan passed from this life Wednesday night from an apparent heart attack. Per his wishes, J. J. will be cremated, there will be no services, and no Memorial. He is survived by his wife, Diana, and many many friends in his extended family.

Condolences can be sent to Diana McMillan at P. O. Box 654, Lockhart, TX 78644. Charity of choice is CASI Scholarship Fund.

Come to Sightfest and we will raise a glass to our
Buddy J.J. He always announced for us, bought stuff at the Silent Auction he didn't need. Would bring it to the next one for a donation. He never referred to the Lions' cook offs as such, but they were always "Susie's Cook Offs." He announced for us each year, blatantly told me he did not have to be reminded, that when he got a new calendar, he always marked the lst weekend in October and lst weekend in March as Susie's cook offs. My heart is breaking but I keep smiling thinking of all the good memories. John and I lost a very good friend last night. GOD BLESS US ALL AND GOD BLESS AMERICA. Mama Sue Caffey.

The picture is from Ken Rodd.

From Bruce Smith:
Wed AM
Wag is out of ICU but not out of the woods. The Dr. still says that they can not operate due to the weakness of his heart. They talked to another Dr. and he suggested stints but that it would still be a risk because of his kidneys also being weak. They have sent out his records to some other doctors outside of the VA for further opinions. He is now on the 5th floor #135 at the John L. Mclellan VA Hospital in Little Rock, Ar. I will be going up later today to check on him. His sister, brother-in-law and neice are there now. His son is due in today around noon. Keep up the Prayers.

Later Update:
Visited Wag tonight and he had better spirit but still worried. The Cardic Team of Doctors had still not made it by tonight as of 7:00. They are supposed to do some more test tomorrow to double check his heart muscle and for sure whether he can have stints or not. That is all at this time.

From Karen Reinke:
Today, Feb 25 is National Chili Day!

From Becky Allen:
Brent's brother - Clay Allen - passed away yesterday evening, after battling a short illness. He did cook chili some with The Buzzard Bar Cooking Team. Will let you know when we know more details.

From Bruce Stewart:
It is time for pay back to friends of CASI. The Irving Elks will be having their 22nd annual chili cookoff.

This event has been on the same week end for 22 years. As most of you know the Irving Elks host the CASI Directors winter meeting at their lodge.

You can ask any Director and they will tell you what wonderful host they are. The Irving EKLS are not only sponsors but friends of CASI. They send several members to TICC to judge. They have bought tables and chairs for us. Also hauled things down to the site for CASI. So lets be at their CCO March 6th. See the Terlingua Trails for other information.

From Blu Daniels:
Rose City Chili Cookoff. Although we did not advertise pre-registration for our cookoff, our reputation of having some really "Good" goody bags is spreading and I just got a boatload of more stuff donated this morning, such as umbrellas from our local paper. They are also sending a team out and said to "Bring It On" because they are coming to win Chili, Show and People's Choice.

I have at this time 7 registered with their money in my hand, so in all fairness, if anyone is wanting a goody bag, the first 25 registered AND paid cooks will receive one. I will already be gone next Friday, so if I must receive your check by Thursday, March 4 to be counted. Mail to Rose City Chili Pod, 10358 CR 3101, Winona, TX 75792.

From Bruce Smith:
For those who don't know, Dick "Wag" Wagner is in the VA hospital in Little Rock. He went to the emergency room sunday night not being able to breath. They ran a stress test last friday and said it looked okay as far as they could tell. They did an arterial gram or cath scan what ever you call it and found he had some blockage and kept him in the hospital. He has 100% blockage on the bottom of his heart, 90% on the back of his heart and 60% on the front.

James Mosely called me just a minute ago and he got to talk to Wag. Evidently Wag had a light Heart attack last night at the hospital. Wags sister and brother in law are here now with him and his son from Washington DC is on his way. They have yet got to talk to the Doctors about when he will have surgery. Keep him in your prayers.

A Later Update:  Wag is not doing well at all. the Dr. said his heart was too weak to operate and that another Dr would be there in the morning to discuss possible other options.The Dr said if they did operate that his chances of getting off the table were not good. keep up the prayers.

From Terry Graves:
Bad News Glyn Gaines is back in the hospital. Don't know any details, will try to keep you informed.

From Trea Schmidt:
I would like to let everyone know that the Texas Ladies State website has been recently updated. Please check it out at http://www.texasladiesstate.com/.

Note:  In the San Antonio Express news Sunday there was a half page article and picture of Margret Nadeau on stage at TICC with Sy Brown as she received her trophy. It was a large picture with some article about Margret and chili and how she wants to win the world championship and a recipe for frito pie,her chili recipe and a recipe for jelly.

Here is the link to the Article:  http://www.mysanantonio.com/life/food/Chili_champion_shares_some_cook-off_secrets.html


It is Wednesday and here are the CCOs for this weekend:

Feb 27, 2010-001 - Garland, TX CASI. 7th Garland Hella Temple Colder Than Hell Two day cookoff held at Garland Hella Shrine Temple. Entry fee $20, turn-in 1 PM. Beans entry fee $5, turn-in Noon, pay top 3. Benefits Texas Masonic Lodge Retirement fund. Full RV hookups (12) are first come first serve at $15 per day. Depending on weather, you can cook inside or outside. Make checks payable to Directors Staff. For directions or info email davehewlett@msn.com 214-695-3806. Location: Garland Hella Temple Hella Temple 2121 Rowlett Rd, Garland Texas 75043 Bob Sparks at bob@drbobsparks.com 972-771-5366 or Dave Hewlett at davehewlett@msn.com phone 214-695- 3806 CHILI GRIND ONLY. 50/50 cash raffle and other raffle with 6 tickets for $5.

Feb 27, 2010-002 - San Angelo, TX CASI. West TX Meltdown for Autism Day 1 of 2 day CCO, Benefits: Autism. Location San Angelo VFW Lodge, 125 S. Browning St. Limit number of hook ups. $20/ night. Jackpot beans turn in at 12 noon, entry fee $5.00. Chili turn in at 2 PM. Entry fee $18.00. CHILI GRIND ONLY. There will be a cake auction and a 50/50 pot. Payable to Concho Valley Chili Pod. Saturday night Potluck. This is a 2 day CCO. See Sunday's information. Info Sherrie Maus 5876 N Grape Rd San Angelo TX 76903. 325-658-1364

Feb 27, 2010-003 - Midland, TX CASI. Midland Chamber of Commerce Chili and Bar-B-Q Cookoff. Held at American Legion Building 501 Air Park Rd. Friday night dinner for participants 6:30 PM. Entry Fees are: $18.00 Chili with 2 PM turn-in; Chicken $25 (Noon Turn- In), Pork Spareribs $25 (1 PM Turn-In) and Beef Brisket $25(3 PM Turn-In). Prizes 1st thru 3rd for Chili, 1st thru 15th will get event cap. Prizes for BBQ 1st $300.00, 2nd $200.00, 3rd $100.00 1st thru 15th will get event cap. All cooks will receive a tee shirt at registration. Charities are: Hope House; Midland Fair Havens, MLK Center and Rape Crisis Center (Children's Advocacy Center) CHILI GRIND ONLY. Make checks payable to Leadership Midland. Contact Christopher Havins 432-686-3561 chavins@visitmidlandtx.com.

Feb 27, 2010-004 - Overland Park, KS CASI. VFW POST 846 CCO Located at 8804 Grant in Overland Park, KS Go east on 87th Street off I-35 for 1 mile then south on Grant for approximately 600 ft. CASI turn-in @ 2 pm, beans @ 1 pm and home-style chili @ 2:30. Entry fee for CASI $20.00, home- style $15.00 (both entries $30.00) and beans $5.00. This event benefits the VFW POST 846 charities. RV Parking available. Contact: Lee Kroencke 913-754-6074 gladiatorchili@yahoo.com or Larry Velasquez 913-708-2118 larry.velasquez@forbo.com

Feb 27, 2010-005 - Wichita Falls, TX CASI. Eagles Cookoff. Held at Eagles Lodge #4128, 5396 Seymour Hwy. Benefits Max Bear Fund. Entry fee $20 turn-in 2 PM. CHILI GRIND ONLY. Cooks party Friday. Jackpot Beans $5 turn-in Noon. Contact Dale Gorman 940-632-7322.

 Feb 27, 2010-006 - Sherwood, AR CASI. 5th Annual Sherwood Rotary Chili Bowl. Held in Sherwood Forest, 1111 West Maryland. Take I-40 west to exit 107/JFK. Take right at traffic light onto JFK/Hwy 107 to Maryland St in Sherwood. Take a left onto Maryland, go about a mile to Sherwood Forest on right. For Sherwood Rotary charities. Entry fee CASI $20, Rotary $5. Turn-in 1 PM. Inside cookoff, tables and chairs provided, entertainment on stage, silent auction, big screen TV for sports, $2 tasting cups, goody bags for 1st 30 chili cooks. CHILI GRIND ONLY. Contact Hershel Bowman 501-833-8844, or Linda Nickle 501-791-2191

Feb 27, 2010-007 - Tyler, TX CASI. Half Moon 3rd Annual Cookoff. Held at Half Moon Grill & Saloon, 16884 on the corner of FM 2493 & FM 2823 five miles South of Tyler, TX 75703. Benefits St. Mary Magdalen Church Youth Group. No RV overnight parking. CHILI GRIND ONLY. Entry fee $20, turn- in 1 PM. Beans 50/50 $6, turn-in Noon. Contact Jan Young 903-780- 5767 or 903- 780-5766, moe09190@yahoo.com for more info and directions. Keep updated at www.halfmoongrill.com. This is the 1st cookoff in the 1st Ever Bob Conley Memorial Challenge. The cook with the most points at the end of the 4 weekends in a row in Tyler cookoffs (Feb. 27, Mar 6, Mar 13 & Mar 20) will receive a Wendell Rankin hand- painted stove commemorating this event.

Feb 27, 2010-008 - Quartzsite, AZ CASI. 7th Annual Its Chili in Quartzsite CCO & State Salsa Championship. Held at Tyson Wells Showgrounds Kuehn Blvd. Benefits Chamber of Commerce. Entry fee $15 turn-in 2 PM. Salsa, Peoples Choice, Showmanship. Make checks payable to CASA. Contact Dick Smith 623- 465-9353, 602-828-0800 email dsmyway@aol.com.

Feb 27, 2010-009 - Silverton, TX CASI. Silverton Vol. FD Chili Cookoff The Silverton Volunteer Fire Department is hosting a chili cookoff to raise money to offset the cost of a new truck and equipment. There will be a domino tournament on the same day as the cookoff. Public tasting will begin at noon with the chili turn in at 1 pm. There are RV hookups and a limited number of cabin rentals available off site at Silver Wind RV Park. Please contact Silver Wind RV to make your reservations 806-823-2166. Event will be inside the Briscoe County Showbarn. Take Hwy 86 to Silverton, turn south at the courthouse (Broadway) go 4 blocks turn left. Entry fee $25. Contact Juannah Brice 806-336-7161, email juannahbrice@yahoo.com. ON ADVERTISING PROBATION.

Feb 28, 2010-001 - Garland, TX CASI. 7th Day 2 Garland Hella Temple CCO Held at Garland Hella Temple, 2121 Rowlett Rd. Entry fee $20, turn-in Noon. Full RV hookups (12) first come first served. Fee will be $15/day for hookups. CHILI GRIND ONLY. Depending on the weather you can cook inside or outside. Make checks payable to Directors Staff. For info or directions email request to Bob Sparks at bob@drbobsparks.com 972- 771-5366 or Dave Hewlett at davehewlett@msn.com phone 214-695- 3806.

Feb 28, 2010-002 - San Angelo, TX CASI. Relay for Life Day 2 CCO, Benefits: Relay for Life. Location San Angelo VFW Lodge, 125 S. Browning St. Limit number of hook ups. $20 night. Chili turn in at 12 noon Entry fee $18.00. CHILI GRIND ONLY. Payable to Concho Valley Chili Pod. Saturday night Potluck. This is a 2 day CCO. See Saturday's information. Info: Sherrie Maus 5876 N Grape Rd San Angelo TX 76903. 325-658-1364

From Jen Windsor:
Need to send out a big TEXAS SIZED THANK YOU to: Tony Del Nano from Mountain City Meats he was able to get all the meat donated for the CASI Last Battle Over Bagdad Chilicook of in Iraq. Rick Goodman is our shipping guy. David is from Killeen TX, he is a chili cook and is a CASI member. Lastly but certainly not least Donna Conrad coordinated all of this and made it happen. Without these folks the troops would not have chili meat to cook with. Please take a moment to thank them!!

ED Notes:
Have you visited the History section of CIS lately?  There is a lot of information in this section.  The Board of Director's Meeting Minutes are posted as well as the Financial report.  There is a section that contains the Annual Report information that was reported by each Pod.  

This is where you will find each Terlingua Trails posted.  Each month the new Trails is posted around the 15th of the month.  This allows you to read it prior to receiving it in the mail.

If you select the CASI State File and follow it to the end, you will find that to date there have been 194 CCOs, 5,998 chili's judged raising $523,390.00 reported to date.

There is a lot of information on our Web Page.  If you haven't visited our web page lately and see what's there.  You will find the official documents posted in the Resource Center.

It is snowing here in San Angelo.  Hopefully we will not get enough that I could go sledding!  Here's hoping that Spring is on its way!

From Cindy George:
I need table monitors for Men's State, and if you are interested and want to volunteer, you can respond to me at: cinlargeo@yahoo.com. or call me at 214-770-4592.

NOTES FROM THE ED

The minutes of the Winter Board of Director's Meeting have been posted on CIS in the History Section.

I am still asking each Pod to provide me with the History of their Pod.  I have 4 of them at this time.  If you send it to me in a Word document, I will convert it to a PDF file and post it.

Do you know the rules for requesting and holding a Regional Championship CCO?

REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS - A Regional Open Championship should be a high-profile prestigious event drawing the attention of the public and media that will bring positive exposure for CASI and the cookoff charity.


a. APPLICATION – A Regional Open Championship may be requested by submitting an application to the CASI Executive Director.


1) APPLICANT – A Regional Open must be applied for by a participating pod.


2) DEADLINE – Application must be received no later than 120 days prior to the event.


b. APPROVAL – A Regional Open Championship may be approved by the CASI Board of Directors upon recommendation by CASI Executive Director and regional Great Peppers, based on the following criteria:


1) REGION – A Region must have defined areas but do not have to bound exclusively by state lines.


2) POD REQUIREMENT - Region must have a minimum of two (2) CASI-recognized Pods.


3) COOKOFF REQUIREMENTS - Each region must include fifteen (15) CASI cookoffs in the prior year.


c. REGIONAL REQUIREMENTS - Region involved must maintain the minimum requirements of applicationfor continuance of a Regional Open Championship. Any region falling below the minimum requirements when those standards have been met.


d. TRAVELING - Regional Opens may travel. Rotation would be determined by local organizers.


e. ONE PER YEAR - No region may be the site of more than one Regional Open Championship per chili year.
 
Enough for today.

From Jen Cook:
March 6-7th @ Gander Mountain
Rose City Chili Pod will host thier Annual Cook-offs
CASI Chili, Junior's Chili, Beans and Wings will be prepared and judged on Saturday and People's Choice Chili will be served to the public for a small donation.

Saturday benefits CAMP TYLER and Sunday is for Points Only and will raise money for the RCCP operating account.

We are looking for cooking teams, volunteers, judges and of course Sponsors for this awesome event.

There will be cooks from all over Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and maybe California.  So come Cook, Volunteer, Judge, Sponsor or ALL OF THE ABOVE!

Just let us know you are coming and what your interests are.  Invite your friends to come judge People's Choice for small donation to Camp Tyler.

Sunday is CASI Chili and Showmanship-we need judges and volunteers.

From Jen Windsor:
Last Battle over Baghdad

Here is where we stand today:

We have all the tomato sauce (50 cans), all the sayzon, 25 beef/chicken broth donated. Meat is going thru Ft Hood from Donna Conrad. Mild Bills is sending enough spices for 50 cooks - none of it pre mixed or ready mix or whatever the term is.

Tamara Dees (Mild Bill's Spices) set up a donation area on her website. It will be used to offset any large shipping costs for supplies sent. The balance of the money collected will be a donation to the Boys/Girls Scouts of Iraq.

An anonymous donation of $750 came in yesterday. It was for 50 pots at $15 a pot. We only need 30 more pots so those will be purchased from a Dollar General, good will, etc type store and shipped direct. The balance of the donated money will be used to offset shipping costs. About 10 cooks have stepped forward to donate and send slightly used pots, with their recipes and other momentous to the soldiers. Pretty neat idea!

We are shipping everything directly to Roxanna Ponce De Leon at her APO addy. If it doenst have her name on it, she wont get it.

At this time we need about 15 can openers and 15 measuring spoon sets.

The FB page is up and we are updating it daily with info and the names of donors. Our drop dead date on shipping is March 10th. Its taking about 15 +/- days for supplies to reach Baghdad.


Here's hoping that everybody has a GREAT weekend!  

From Dana Plocheck:
The March issue of the Terlingua Trails is available for viewing on the CASI website. Read about some great cookoffs that took place that you will want to put on your calendar for next year. In addition, check out the Upcomings; there are a lot of cookoffs coming up you don’t want to miss. Most importantly, please continue to send in your articles and photos for publication. Thanks.

From Jenny Windsor:
Thanks to Tamara Dee's, we now have a link on the Mild Bill's website for anyone wanting to make monetary donations for the CASI Baghdad CCO.

http://www.mildbills.com/p-123-baghdad-cook-off.aspx  

From Bob Horan:
Donations Needed - Please Help Us Support Your Soldiers!

The Soldiers' Angels, http://www.soldiersangels.org/ have adopted the Combat Support Hospitals in Iraq and all the Military hospitals worldwide. Soldiers’ Angels Germany supports the patients at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Receiving comfort items as donations from everyday Americans provides a level of personal support that has a very positive impact on a patient´s morale, and therefore on the recovery process.

Soldier’s Angels is an outstanding organization helping all wounded service members, Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard. I will have some additional information on their Cooking With The Wounded Project later.

MOST-NEEDED ITEMS FOR FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010

- Sweatpants and Zippered Hoodie Sweatjackets, size MEDIUM (grey, black, dark blue)
- Sweatpants and Zippered Hoodie Sweatjackets, size LARGE, need more pants than tops (grey, black, dark blue)
- Sweatpants and Zippered Hoodie Sweatjackets, size EXTRA LARGE, need more more tops than pants(grey, black, dark blue)
- Lounge/sleep pants/pj bottoms (M, L, XL - any color or pattern)
- Shorts, baggy basketball-type (M, L, XL - any color)
- FlipFlops to wear while showering (men's large sizes)
- Body lotion, travel size only
- Lip balm
- Shaving cream, aerosol cans, travel size only
- Calling cards (see web site for details)

Further details and shipping instructions can be found at:
http://soldiersangelsgermany.blogspot.com/2005/07/donations-needed-for-landstuhl.html