My First Recipe Contest

As you know we recently returned from our spring vacation spent at our vacation home in Florida with a side trip to Aruba.  I have so many wonderful foodie things to share with you from that vacation alone.  However, on the home front things are in full gear in the kitchen.  I've been busy taking advantage of a pork loin sale at $1/lb, as well as canning mainly in season fruits and jams.  A couple of days ago, I received an email asking me to participate in the Hidden Valley Ranch™ Recipe Challenge.  I accepted and am pleased to say this is my first official recipe contest!  My acceptance letter read that "you've been selected as one of Canada's top online influencers"!  I am beyond flattered!  What an amazing honour to bestow on this humble blog!  Can you tell from all the exclamation points how extremely excited I am?

I am up against 15 of Canada's top food bloggers!  The recipe will be judged by Chef Ned Bell*.  Three runner ups will receive a $100 gift certificate for Williams Sonoma.  The grand prize is a Kitchen Aid stand mixer and we all know how much I love mine!  Plus Chef Bell will do a live demonstration of the recipe at this year's Calgary Stampede and the winner gets full bragging rights!  I was sent five full sized bottles of Hidden Valley Ranch™ and $100 gift card to help buy the food needed to create a recipe for the contest.  Recipe submission deadline is July 1, 2012.

That means between now and the end of the month I will be working on a recipe hopefully good enough to be in the top four of the contest so I will be posting some of my recipes using Hidden Valley Ranch.  At the same time I will be sprinkling in posts about foods enjoyed during our recent vacation as well as canning since for many, it is the start of canning season.   Watch for exciting things from the kitchen over the next couple of weeks plus my ultimate culinary experience at being invited into the kitchen at Matthew's Beachside Restaurant in Aruba.  Now that was an absolutely amazing experience!

*From my acceptance letter:


Arguably one of Canada’s foremost culinary talents, Ned’s new and imaginative dishes are inspired by fresh and local ingredients. He started his career in Vancouver where we worked as a sous chef at Robert Feenie’s Lumiere. He has since enjoyed successful stints as executive chef at Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Peninsula Ridge Estates Winery, Toronto’s Accolade and Senses Restaurant, Murrieta Grill and Hotel Rosewood Georgia in Vancouver. He is host of The Food Network’s “Cook Like a Chef” as well as Co-Host of CTV’s “Its Just Food”. Ned Bell is currently the executive chef of the Four Seasons in Vancouver and will join the Hidden Valley Ranch team at this year’s Calgary Stampede to ring in the Stampede’s Centennial Anniversary.