Back in the groove of things

It's nice to be back home and back on a regular schedule. I've been busting my hind end last week getting all my recipes tested and made for last Saturday to travel to Winnie, Texas for the State Rice Festival cook-off. A special thank you to my husband who took amazing pictures of our day there's 314 of them on my photo site if you care to see the details of how we get our dishes ready. Let me know and I'll give you the password.

Saturday started out by waking up at 4am so I could take a quick shower and start packing up the truck and finishing some last minute details. We pulled out of the drive way at 6am for an hour and 1/2 drive to Winnie. Once we got there we unloaded the truck fired up the generator so we could plug in the food processor and microwave and start plating our dishes. My dad and I each had 8 dishes so we needed all the time we had. Overall we both finished well. I got a trophy for Most Creative, 1 fist place, 1 second place and 2 third place ribbons. My dad got a trophy for Most Original, Reserve Grand Champion platter, 2 first place, 1 second place and 1 third place ribbons.

First I'll share how my photos did:

3rd Place winning $10 with "Waiting For The Snow To Stop"

Honorable Mention with "Parking With A View"

Honorable Mention with "I Promise I Didn't Make Him Cry"

2nd Place winning $15 with "Nothings Stronger Then A Family's Love"

Now on to the food!! If you would like to see any of the recipes let me know and I'll post them.

This dish won the trophy for most creative and also got 1st place. "Tropical Rice Shooters"

"Roasted and Toasted Salad" won 2nd place

"Broccoli Rice Salad" won 3rd place

"Black Bean Rice Tasters" won 3rd place

Here's some of the other dishes I entered but didn't place:

"Brown Rice Blini"

"Jackpot Rice"

"Chocolate Coconut Rice Covered Cherries"

"Caramel Rum Rice S'Mores"

Hope you enjoyed the look into the contest world. I'll be back on Friday with another tasty recipe.