Recipe Contest Announcement

Today has been a very frustrating day between my computer and myself... let's just say there is no easy (or quick) way to make 30 copies of a dvd I made for my students (especially since it took forever to get one good copy). Anyway, I finally got things sorted out and I want to get to my planned post. I've wanted to do this every Friday for months now, but I have always been up against a deadline. But today is different: I planned it out last night!

For my latest contest (I need to get interest in this blog up), I'm asking for your submissions of recipes. To make things clear, I have made some guidelines and criteria for judgement.

Criteria to win this contest:

• Ingredients must be widely available. If it's not in my regularly used grocery store you will be penalized - and moreso if I can't find it in a few others.
• Cost should be as minimal as possible. It shouldn't cost me $30 for one serving. I'll rank them from most expensive to least expensive (barring no sales - I'll do the math. Math makes me happy).
• The dish should be easy to make. I will actually be making these and ranking them based on how easy they were to make (which also means your instructions should be clear).
• The dish should be creative. That means no ripping it off from the internet (though I admit it will be hard to catch). If you give me a recipe to make hot dogs or rice crispie squares I will be a bit suspect of your efforts - though why anyone would submit that as their recipe is beyond me.
• The dish shouldn't be too simple or too complex. Basically I'm talking about the number of ingredients here. It shouldn't be one thing (I'd say 5 is probably the minimum) and it shouldn't be 30 ingredients. Use your common sense when judging this. I'm more concerned about things being too simple than too complex (see above points about complex dishes though).
• Is the dish tasty? I'll be sharing my cooking with others so I won't be the only judge on this matter.
• Is the dish healthy? Lots of sugar (or other chemicals) is probably not a good idea. Natural foods are best (though I will accept pastes, sauces, etc. - don't go overboard with stuff like that though).
  
• The dish can be anything you want it to be (though don't think that you can bribe me with desserts).
• Please use measurements that I can understand. Cups/tablespoons/etc. or L, mL, etc. (including both would make my life easier).
  

All entries become the property of my blog and me (Michael Davidson) and will be posted (all entries that are at minimum edible) in this space the weeks following the judging of this contest.

Each recipe will be given a score (probably an average of the above 7 criteria - evenly weighted and out of 10 each). The winner will receive a Season One DVD of The Next Great Chef (I'm too sick of technology today to get a camera out and take a picture of it - perhaps in an update for this contest).

Entries are due no later than Thursday July 5th, 2007 at 11:59pm Pacific Time (that's a Thursday night and gives you three weeks). All entries are to be emailed to pieceofdust@gmail.com. Each individual may submit only one entry and must include their mailing address with their entry for it to be valid.

If you have any questions regarding rules or anything else, please post them as a comment so that everyone can see them and I will respond to everyone (so that it's fair).

Happy cooking!