Chili + Cinnamon Rolls

As the weather starts to cool off, I am putting soup on the weekly menu. Chili in the crockpot is one of my favorites. And if I have chili in the crockpot, I have cinnamon rolls in the oven. So, friends, how many of you are aware of the pure amazing-ness of the chili + cinnamon roll combo? I know the Mulvane grads are. Best lunch ever. If you were lucky, you would get the lunch lady that let you pick the biggest cinnamon roll with the best icing. Those were definitely the days. Because now I have to make my own. But I digress. Today I discovered not everyone has experienced this lunch. Shocked? Trust me, I most certainly was. And not only have people not eaten chili and cinnamon rolls at the same sitting, but they cannot believe why a person would want to do such a thing. This revelation prompted me to ponder how in the world this combination ever developed. So I did what anyone would do: Googled it and took an informal office poll...Because I just do not have anything better to do with my time...

My in-depth and hard-hitting research revealed that it's really a midwest thing. And I'm not talking Indiana midwest (or as one friend called it today, the mideast...HA). I am talking Kansas and Nebraska midwest. Maybe northwest Missouri, but do we really recognize Missouri? (Kidding. Kind of.) Everyone I talked to remember the "tradition" first popping up in school. I know that's where I first experienced it. The only variation I noticed was whether or not the cinnamon roll had icing. Ours always did. Obviously. BEST PART. The other similarity: no one seems to know where it started. Just that it was always served as school lunch.

For those of you foreign to this amazing duo: don't knock it till you try it. I cannot speak for everyone else, but you don't actually eat the two together. They are just included in the same meal. It's not like cornbread where you dip it in the chili. You just enjoy the cinnamon roll and the chili. Separately. But if you really wanted to, I am sure you could dip it.

One thing I know, I owe those visionary lunchladies of long ago a great big THANK YOU for giving me just another reason to eat cinnamon rolls as a "side."

Tomorrow night, chili and cinnamon rolls at the Oblinger house.