Hi Dave,

 DD> He keeps Les informed on what his doctors are really talking about.
 DD> And advises him on what he can and can't "get away with" in his
 DD> activities. Sadly Les has had to give up on cooking chilli for chill
 DD> suppers. He still can supervise, though.

 RH> Sad that he had to give up the cooking but good to know his recipe is
 RH> still going strong in the community. Does the town have a "home of
 RH> Les's (last name) famous chili" sign at the town limits along each
 RH> highway entrance? If not, why not?

 DD> Not really. We had threer chilli canners here at one time. Two of the
 DD> labels are still in business. Chilli Man, started by Joe DeFrates who
 DD> used to be part of our Thursday lunch bunch. And Ray's Chilli
 DD> established by Ray DeFrates (Joe's brother). The Defrates brothers
 DD> have passed but
 DD> their labels live on. Chilli Man is owned by Faribault Foods in (of
 DD> all places) Faribault, Minne-snow-ta. And Ray's is owned by the former
 DD> sales manager for the label, Jay Nicole, and located next-town-over
 DD> (Decatur, IL). Scully's Chilli is now being made in Carlinville, IL
 DD> and is only
 DD> distributed in central Illinois.

WOW! I didn't realise the state was so into chili. We left Pigeon Forge
a day early (weather coming in and Steve has a can't miss dr. appt.
Monday), took a country road up to I-40. On the way we passed the Bush's
Beans factory & visitor's center. We didn't stop this time but maybe
some other time when we're in the area we'll consider it. A can of beans
was in our rally goody bag.

 DD> At the end of the month the local college is putting on a "Chilli
 DD> Event" using Les' recipe. He was a volunteer instructor there for
 DD> several years The event will be held in the "Culinary Arts Center"
 DD> where they train DD> profeeionals in the culinary field.

 RH> Trained anybody famous so far?

 DD> Only locally well-known. And successful. He was also one of the
 DD> driving forces, along with his brother, Don, in the resolution passed
 DD> by the
 DD> state legislature and signed by (then) Governor Jim Edgar. The whole
 DD> thing was sponsored by former Springfield Mayor and then State Senator
 DD> Karen Hasara. You can read the story here:
 DD> https://tinyurl.com/CHILLINAME

OK, might give it a look/see when we get back home and resettled.


 RH> RV/radio net rally in Pigeon Forge, TN. Got to make sure we have enough
 RH> room to bring back some new cast iron pieces. (G)

 DD> Are you visiting a foundry in Pigeon Forge? Or stopping at the Lodge
 DD> factory outlet store in South Pittsburgh?. After Dollywood, of course.

 RH> There's an outlet store in Pigeon Forge, stopped there today and got an
 RH> 8 compartment scone pan, a 6 cup muffin pan and several small
 RH> accessories--with a military discount spent less than $90.

 RH> Stopping at a Lodge outlet store, not planning on going to Dollywood.
 RH> Had thought about the Biltmore on our way out but base level entry fee
 RH> was $90. per person, a bit too rich for us.

 DD> Did you know that Lodge is producig a line of Dolly Parton cast iron
 DD> cookware? I've bought one of the 12" skillets for gifting this holiday
 DD> season. https://www.lodgecastiron.com/dolly-parton

Saw that but went with the original stuff.

 DD> I note that I gat a "bargain". I bought the 12" skillet from Amazon
 at DD> the 10" skillet price (U$29.95)

Good deal!


 DD> I'm not big on theme parks, fairs and similar expositions. Part of
 DD> that is the amount of walking involved. And another (big) part is the
 DD> "Been there. Done that" syndrome of many older folks.  Bv)=

 RH> And a lot it (rides, honky tonk shows, etc) is stuff we have absolutly
 RH> no interest in. The main street/road/whatever you call it in this area
 RH> (Pigeon Forge runs into Sevierville) is full of "Adventure Land parks",
 RH> dinner and show theaters, souvenier shops of all sorts....I.O.W.,
 RH> anything to separate the tourist from their $$$.

 DD> When I was a kid I haunted the midway and its rides and games of
 DD> "skill". As well as climbing all over the farm machinery displayed. I
 DD> pretend drove a wide range of tractors, etc. before I was old enough
 DD> to drive them in the real world and learned it's a chore, not
 DD> necessarily a fuin thing.

I never got into them, partly because my folks never took us to anything
other than the local fireman's carnival--except for one time we spent a
couple of hours at an amuesment park in St. Catherine's, Ontario. After
getting married, we went to Busch Gardens once with Steve's folks and
several Dippemesses in Frankfurt, W. Germany. Latter is a big carnival
set up and also local potters (& other crafts folks) have seasonal
sales.


---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... Junk: stuff we throw away.  Stuff: junk we keep.

--- PPoint 3.01