Just because invitation

Chili Showdown

The brass rosette has lived at Gary's house for eight of the nine years.

Part of the TinselLux™ collection: invitations in stitched leather, tufted velvet, linen and satin.

The material is the card: linen with a visible weave, velvet with a nap, leather with its grain. It costs the same as every other invitation.

See the collection

A just because invitation for a backyard chili cook-off that has quietly become an institution. Pots arrive at four, still warm, wrapped in dish towels on the back seat. They go on the folding table in order of arrival, each with a numbered card in front of it, and the lids stay on until everyone has a bowl and a spoon.

Then the tasting starts and the conversation gets specific: cumin, bean policy, whether chuck beats ground. Scorecards get filled in with a pen that keeps going missing. There is a tie-breaker in most years, and a complaint about the tie-breaker in all of them. The rosette changes hands, usually not far, and next year's entry gets announced before the table is cleared.

What goes on it

Every line replaceable

The wording on this card

NINTH ANNUAL COOK-OFF
Bring a pot. Gary wins anyway.
Saturday, November 6, 2027 · 4 PM
THE GRISWOLD BACKYARD · 415 Pecan Hollow Lane, Kerrville, TX

Every line of the wording is an example, and yours to replace. The title is painted into the artwork. Type your own and it is drawn again with your words.

What to actually tell people

Count your outlets first Six slow cookers on one backyard circuit is how the lights go out mid-tasting. Run two heavy extension cords from different rooms and mark which pot is on which cord.
Number the pots, not the cooks Index cards folded in half, one through however many, placed before anyone walks in. Blind tasting is the only thing that keeps the scoring honest, and it saves you from naming a winner to their face.
Print the scorecard Three columns is plenty: heat, body, would eat again. Decide the tie-breaker rule before the first bowl is poured, because nobody accepts a rule invented after the fact.
The host supplies everything but the chili Cornbread, sour cream, shredded cheese, saltines, and twice as many small bowls as you think you need. Tasting portions mean each guest uses four bowls over the afternoon.

Start from this one

The artwork
Keep this one, or describe your own party and get artwork drawn for it.
The wording
Every line on this card is an example, the painted title included. Change all of it; the design holds.
Sending
By text, from your own number. Guests open a link. Nothing to download.
The price
One credit for the invitation. Six guests or sixty, the number does not move.