In many of my various recipe books, I mention going hunting, fishing, and being outdoors waiting for the morning sun to come up so I can catch the light just right as it falls on the water coming off one of the falls near my daughter's home in Gainesville, Georgia.

It's cold as the dickens outside. She is with me to fulfill her love of photography also and said, "Dad, you know what would be good... a bowl of your famous award-winning homemade Chili!"

Nothing... and I mean nothing, warms the body and soul like a hearty bowl of chili.

If you have never attended a Chili Cook-off, you must try it someday. You must be careful tasting all the chili after the judges finish judging, and you go to taste the participants' chili.

One such story introduces my recipe book on one such Chili Cookoff for the Texas Department of Transporation, better known now days as TxDOT.