Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Exciting Recipe Contest News

I'll bet most of y'all have noticed the $1000 contest by now, but just in case, I'll give you a few details. All you have to do to win is make your best Sweet Potato dish and then post the picture and recipe on your blog. More details can be found on the right hand side of this page.

We already have a couple of great entries!! Kath from the Kath Eats Real Food blog has submitted a delightful soup - Nutty Vanilla Sweet Potato + Kale Soup, to be exact. With coconut milk, garam massala, and vanilla extract, it is sure to get your taste buds excited! She even tops it off with roasted peanuts and shredded coconut. It sounds so good!

Another excellent entry comes from the Slow Cook, Ed Bruske. His recipe is a Sweet Potato Galette that has layers of home grown sweet potatoes, fresh greens and creamy blue goat's milk cheese. With the pungency of the greens and blue cheese contrasting the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes, this recipe knows how to layer a lot of flavors into one delicious package.

Wow, two completely different takes on sweet potatoes, both so unique and different! These opposites have attracted...attracted me to the kitchen, that is, where I intend to give them both a try. I hope you are inspired to send in your recipe. Whether it is a down home favorite, or something a little more avant-garde, we would love to see it!! Who knows, you might just a have a winner on your hands.

27 comments:

  1. This contest sounds very fun! I think I will get some of my best recipes together.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am thinking about entering this contest, do you have any tips on taking a clear picture of food up close. I have a digital camera.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great Question. In my experience lighting is one of the key issues when taking close-ups. You have a flash on the camera, but that often whites out close pictures. If you can, hold your camera back further and zoom in.

    Try to take pictures when the sun is bright and the curtains are open. Turn on extra lights and lamps if you have them. I have made reflectors by placing a lamp close by and focusing the light with aluminum foil. Necessity really is the mother of invention.

    For framing the picture, I like to use a 3 quarter perspective (downwards at an angle) instead of straight down. Make sure that there are no distractions in the background and take lots of snaps. The pros take hundreds to get one perfect shot, and you can just delete the bad ones later. Good Luck and Happy Blogging!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am going to tell all my friends about this! $1000 could come in real handy right now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cool Contest. I wish I had a blog so I could enter.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello, I found your link online. This looks like a fun idea. I have never blogged before, but I might give it a try.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow - the sweet potato galette looks amazing! I definitely want to try making it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the invite, I will try to enter.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Looks fun, thanks for the link

    ReplyDelete
  10. I wish I had a blog so that

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great Blog, I tried the pizza recipe. Wow, it was so good. I have a real sweet tooth so I enjoyed that aspect of it. Keep the recipes coming.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Sounds like a fun contest. I better get out my recipe box. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sounds like fun, I love sweet potatoes

    ReplyDelete
  14. This is so exciting. I love this site. I have tried two of your recipes and my friends and I are regulars. Very colorful and very different. Keep it up

    ReplyDelete
  15. i can't wait to see the winner, I'll bet it is something very creative and different.

    ReplyDelete
  16. These two recipes look goo, cant wait to see more.

    ReplyDelete
  17. great recipes, I never knew that sweet potatoes could be cooked in so many ways, and all that I have tried are GREAT!!!!! I can't wait to try the next recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I love sweet potatoes, too!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I am one of those who received the invitation, and I would like to know how many creations we can submit.

    Right now I am in the process of my first recipe I created....but I have more in mind to make. I grew up (in the Philippines) eating sweet potatoes; it was almost a daily part of my eating life. Now with your contest, I have even thought of using sweet potatoes beyond what I had used them for in the past.

    ReplyDelete
  20. You may submit more than one entry, as long as each entry is a different original recipe. Only one recipe submitted by each person will be a finalist.

    It sounds like you have some great ideas. Each recipe should be submitted on a different form. Be sure that your recipe is complete with easy to follow instructions, cooking temperatures, etc. Also be sure to post a picture of the completed recipe on your blog and mention if you found the contest information at Sweet Bytes Blog.

    Thank you very much,
    Good Luck. Happiest Cooking!
    Jocelyn

    PS. The full rules can be found at the following link...http://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/images/stories/pdfs/conditions.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  21. Sounds like a cool contest. Now, I wish I had a blog.

    ReplyDelete
  22. thanks for the invite, i will try to think of something

    ReplyDelete
  23. i can't wait to see the winner! I'll bet it will be very different from what I cook when I make sweet potatoes. I wish I was more creative, but at least I can use your recipes and you can be creative for me.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I can't wait to see more entries. This is a fun idea. I am surprised how many ways you can cook sweet potatoes. I used to just mash mine, but now I have so many new ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Sweet potatoes are so much fun to cook with, I love this blog. Great Idea!

    ReplyDelete
  26. I Came back to get the pizza recipe, again. It is so good. IT is like Californian style pizzas. Good luck with the contest.

    ReplyDelete
  27. My sweet potato recipe entries are now completed and I compiled them in a series that you can find here (though that does not mean I won't cook with them anymore). The latest/last one makes use of two previously made recipes (leftover idea). The beauty of a blog is this way of presenting a whole new "recipe" from two different recipes.
    I thank NC Sweet Potatoes for sponsoring this contest, as I have discovered a most wonderful dough recipe for use in sweet breads/rolls. Whether I bag a cash prize or not, I feel like a winner already because of my discoveries.

    More power to your site! I am looking forward to other recipes submitted by co-foodbloggers.

    ReplyDelete