Lithia Resident Takes 1st Place in Aliquity Chili Fest

Julie Coggins of Lithia grows her own peppers – jalapeno, cayenne, habanero and serrano – and she used them in the chili that won top prize at the 2012 Aliquity Chili Fest at Bell Shoals Animal Hospital on Feb. 28.

There she served up a dish including "ground Italian and pork sausage and a little white wine and a little beer,” she said, “and I just keep tasting it as a I cook.”

When she won top prize, her natural inclination was to call her mother.

Only her mother died a month ago from cancer at the Sun City Center Hospice House, following her husband nine years earlier, also from cancer, under hospice care at home.

“Hospice has taken care of both my parents in their final days,” Coggins said, which is why she chose LifePath Hospice as her charity of choice for the Aliquity competition.

Proceeds of the annual event benefit the charity of choice of the winning chef, with the top three awards determined by the number of tickets each chef receives from attendees buying tasting cups for $3 (or two cups for $5).

“I just signed up Wednesday, I didn’t even know I was going to do this,” said Coggins, who with her sons earlier this year opened Junk's On Us, a Lithia business that specializes in household, office and general junk removal.

For more information on Aliquity and the Chili Fest, read the complete in Brandon Patch.