Results tagged “cook-offs” from Logos Bible Software Blog

With the weather in Bellingham turning cooler, we decided to heat things up last Friday with our annual Salsa Cook-off. This year we had fourteen competitors vying for fame and glory. Congratulations to our winners!

In the HOT category
First place: #7, Eric O. – Vicious Verde, with 90 points
Second place: #1, Darren W. – Cilantro Lime, with 70 points
Third place: #9, Lindsey K. – Deliciously Spicy, with 67 points

In the MILD category
First place: #14, Sarah E. – Pampered Palate, with 99 points
Second place: #2, April T. – California Dreaming, with 87 points
Third place: #12, Lindsey K. – Cool and Refreshing, with 66 points

Sarah E. was kind enough to share her winning recipe for Pampered Palate Salsa:

16 servings (2Tb. Each)

Note: I served this to 9 people and it was enough to have seconds.

Ingredients:
1 jar (6.5 ounces) marinated artichoke hearts, undrained
1/4 cup pitted ripe olives, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped red onion
3 medium plum tomatoes, diced
1 garlic clove, pressed
2 tablespoons snipped fresh basil leaves

Directions:
1. Drain marinade from artichokes into bowl. Chop artichokes, olives and red onion. Dice tomatoes.

2. Place vegetables into bowl. Add pressed garlic. Add basil to vegetable mixture; mix gently. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Yield: 16 servings

Nutrients per serving: (2 tablespoons): Calories 17, Total Fat 1 g, Saturated Fat 0 g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Carbohydrate 2 g, Protein 0 g, Sodium 80 mg, Fiber less than 1 g

Aaaah, summertime! Fourth of July, the Mid-Summer Classic (MLB’s All-Star game), and, of course, your favorite pie! Today, eleven employees treated the Logos office to one of the sweetest lunches ever—for the Logos Pie Bake-off! As soon as you stepped foot into the kitchen, it smelled like a sweet-factory . . . too bad you can’t capture smell and taste in a photo.

The pies were so good, and the competition so close, that there was a tie for third until a straggling voter cast his last-minute ballot pushing Brittany Young’s Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry Shortbread into third place. But that was not the only close call. Marketing’s very own Sarah Knepper just barely edged out Kyle Anderson’s Family Peanut Butter Pie with her Pavlova—by only two votes!

Sarah has graciously made her Pavlova recipe available, so after enjoying a few photos, give her Pavlova a try for your next summer party!

Last Friday we enjoyed our annual chili cook-off here in the office. We had about a dozen different entries, and they were quite tasty! But three stood out from the crowd.

By popular vote, the winners were:

• 1st Place: Jana Gering’s Mojito Chicken Chili (#2)
• 2nd Place: John Barry 8 Bean Fit n’ Lean Turkey Chili (#6)
• 3rd Place: Dave Dunkin’s Basic Chili (#1)

Jana has graciously allowed me to share her winning chili recipe with you, our readers. So be sure to download the PDF and give it a try. It’s sure to please!

Last Friday was our annual Curry Cook-off. I missed it, but I heard from a somewhat picky eater that several of the curries were simply amazing.

We covered the event on Twitter, so if you’re not following us and missed out, here’s a rundown of the action Twitter style courtesy of my office partner, Ryan Burns:

• Curry Cook-off has begun! 12:02 PM Feb 13th
• http://twitpic.com/1gyej - Serving line. 12:13 PM Feb 13th
• The line is growing - http://twitpic.com/1gyb5 12:13 PM Feb 13th
• http://twitpic.com/1gyf4 - Yup... I am at the back of the line. 12:13 PM Feb 13th
• Twitterverse place your votes - http://twitpic.com/1gybz // @logos your top 3 choices and I'll vote top twitter picks for my vote. 12:21 PM Feb 13th
• http://twitpic.com/1gyxv - Happy people. 12:33 PM Feb 13th
• RT @o1mnikent: eating curry @logos 12:44 PM Feb 13th
• http://twitpic.com/1gz98 - Brought mine back to my office to savor. 12:46 PM Feb 13th
• http://twitpic.com/1gz9k - Perfect palette cleanser. 12:46 PM Feb 13th
• RT @ryan_burns: 12seconds - Logos curry cook off. http://tiny12.tv/JVS0B 12:50 PM Feb 13th
• http://twitpic.com/1gzn6 - It was bound to happen. Curry spill. 1:02 PM Feb 13th
• Looks like everyone is finished eating. Now it is time to tally the votes. 1:22 PM Feb 13th
• http://twitpic.com/1h0zl - Official curry cook-off results are on the way. 1:57 PM Feb 13th
• Logos Annual Curry Cook-off results: 1st place @danpritchett2 with #8. 2nd place Vincent with #1. 3rd place Jenni with #15. 2:06 PM Feb 13th

First place went to my boss, Dan Pritchett, second place went to Vincent Setterholm, and third place went to Jenni Pritchett. If I can round up the recipes, I’ll update the post later.

Here’s a brief slideshow of some pictures of the event. (Notice that the winner entered three different curries!)

Today's guest blogger is Adam Navarrete, who works in the marketing department here at Logos.

Just in time to get you thinking about your holiday cooking calendar, we held another bake-off this past Friday. There were more than a dozen delicious treats, but three rose to the top.

Our winners were as follows:

1. Heidie Godfrey with her Chocolate Raspberry bars
2. Elise Starkovich with her In Search of Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo (translation: Cookie Cheesecake)
3. Elizabeth Sanborn with her Keebler Bars

We invite you to download the recipes and give them a try!

If you make any of these for your household, church function, or holiday event, let us know how you like them.

Enjoy!

Today's guest blogger is Adam Navarrete, who works in the marketing department here at Logos.

A few weeks ago, I started renting and watching HBO’s John Adams. It has been an interesting and exciting series to watch. I chose the optional facts-popups to display during the episodes in order to learn about the underlying facts that are relevant to the scene, and have to say that I have found a new patriotism welling within me. Not wanting to miss further facts, I went down to my local library and checked out the book John Adams by David McCullough, on which the movie was based, in order to learn more about our founding fathers and what it was like for them to gain the freedom and independence we celebrated this holiday weekend. Before shutting our doors here at Logos in order to celebrate Independence Day, we went out with a bang (of-sorts) of our own—our annual Chili Cook-Off.

Twenty chilies lined the kitchen wall by noon, each with its distinct sign, smell, taste, and toppings. It is rumored that one contestant wanted to see how well an out-of-the-can chili would fare against the homemade chilies and so he heated up canned chili.

One surprising entrant in the cook off was Sarah Knepper, a Logos employee for all of three days! She is a welcomed addition to the graphics/marketing department and is clearly not intimidated around here. Nor is our Bible Study Magazine editor, John Barry. His Mama Victoria's Turkey Chili took home the win by a landslide. If his chili is in any way a foreshadowing of the magazine, we are in for an amazing treat come September. Bringing in the second place trophy was Jerry Godfrey, manager of customer service and organizer of this year’s event. Third place went to D&E’s Johnny Cisneros.

If recipes become available, we’ll be sure to share them.

Today's guest blogger is Adam Navarrete, who works in the marketing department here at Logos.

Once again one of our quarterly cook-offs has come and gone. While there were some familiar faces in this year’s bunch, a few stepped aside so a new group of competitors could get a chance to claim the prestigious “Curry Champion” title.

The halls were quickly filled to overflowing as the inter-office email was sent out informing employees that the competition was underway.

As usual, the meal was blessed in prayer before the awaited array of curries and steamed rice was fair game. With the head-count nearing one hundred and fifty in the office, it was a mad dash to the front of the line to make sure a sample of the competing curries was available.

Once everyone had a chance to get their curry samples, side dish of rice, and a drink from the free-drink refrigerator, tasting each and deciding on a winner was in order.

After the votes were tallied, the cooks gathered in the large conference room and provided a little information about their recipe before the top three curries were revealed.

The number three spot went to Electronic Text Development’s (ETD) Anthony Apodaca and his Roasted Red Pepper Curry. Challenging for the number one spot was Paul Williams, also from ETD, who settled for second with his Number Two Vindaloo. And the winner of the 2008 Curry Cook-Off was Eli Evans from Design and Editorial, who prepared Red Pepper Beef.

The winners have graciously agreed to share their secret recipes with you. Enjoy!

See also the past Curry Cook-Off posts from 2007 and 2006.

Whether they integrated pineapple, mango, shrimp or good ol’ cilantro the entries at the 2008 Logos Salsa Cook-Off did not disappoint. Sixteen Logos employees entered their best recipes in today’s cook-off – some were time-honored family secrets and others were spur-of-the-moment culinary experiments.

Today’s winner was long time Logos employee Tom Fay from the Dealer Sales department and his salsa titled "Clasico Domingo Salsa." There are always some creative names in this competetion but (in my humble opinion) winner of this year’s “Best Name Award” goes to Miles Custis of ETD with “The Michael Scott Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Rabies Awareness Salsa.”

In all it was another great cook-off. The chips were salty. The salsas were spicy. And a great time was had by all.

Click on any of the images below to view a larger version.

You've probably learned by now from our posts about Chili Cook-Offs (2007, 2006), Curry Cook-Offs (2007, 2006), Soup Cook-Offs (2006, 2005), Salsa Cook-Offs (2006), Bake-Offs (2006), and Thanksgiving Dinners (2007, 2006) that we like to eat! This is just one of the many reasons that working here is so much fun!

Last Friday we had the 2007 Logos Bake-Off. There were 12 entrants and lots of hungry judges! Here they are in action.

While everything was delicious, four desserts rose to the top.

Here are the winners:

1st Place: Don and Tara Everett's “Chocolate Everything” creation (#12)

2nd Place: Katie Swanson's Coconut Cream Cake (#6)

3rd Place: Pete and Shara Heiniger's Chocolate Bundt Cake (#8)

and: Deborah Mickens' Eggnog Butterscotch Cookies (#9)

We also have one recipe to share. While it's not one that placed, it's still sure to please.

Chocolate Star Cookies

by Ryan Husser

Components:

• ½ cup peanut butter
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 1 egg
• 1 ¾ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• About ½ cup addition granulated sugar in separate bowl
• About 60 Brach’s chocolate stars (available in bulk at Fred Meyer)

1. Preheat oven to 375° (190 Celsius).
2. Cream butter and sugars (granulated and brown) in large mixing bowl.
3. Mix in peanut butter and egg.
4. Mix in flour, baking soda, salt, milk and vanilla.
5. Roll dough by hand into ½ inch balls.
6. Roll dough balls in additional granulated sugar.
7. Bake for 4 minutes.
8. Remove from oven, press a chocolate star into the middle of each cookie.
9. Bake for another 3–4 minutes.

This past Friday was the seventh annual Logos Chili Cook-Off. Guest blogger Mark Van Dyke manned the camera, took some pictures, and files this report. Thanks, Mark!

On Friday, June 29 twelve Logos employees entered their time-honored (or recently 'Googled') chili recipes in a battle royale of meat, beans and tomato sauce.

Even before the clock hit high noon, this competition was unlike any other in Logos history. You see, when National Sales Representative Ed Hale heard about the contest he knew he had to enter. There was just one small problem – he lives in Escondido, CA and the competition was taking place at Logos headquarters in Bellingham, Washington. In order for Ed enter the competition he needed to figure out a way to get his chili to the Pacific Northwest.

The story could only end one of two ways: either this would turn into a messy disaster at the post-office or Ed’s chili would win and he would enter cook-off immortality. The result? Ed won the chili cook-off, got the girl and is selling his story to 20th Century Fox for millions.

And that was just in the "Mild Chili" category. This year's competition required contestants to declare their chili as being "mild" or "real". The "Real Chili" gold medal went to Scott Sanders of Logos' Electronic Text Development department. This was a great send off for Scott as it was his last day working at Logos. Scott will be taking his 'Roasted Robot Chili' on the road as he bikes around the northwest for the next couple weeks. All this made for an memorable event and a great time for all involved.

Check out the chili-rific pictures below!

As promised, here are the results of the seventh annual Logos Chili Cook-Off. A good time (and a little indigestion) was had by all. There were thirteen chilis entered, but three were named the crowd favorites.

Watch a 3.5 minute video of Chili Day 2006! (.wmv | 9.4MB)

Every year, around the 4th of July, Logos has a company Chili Cook-Off. This is the grandaddy that started them all (the curry cookoff, the soup cookoff and the salsa cookoff are spinoffs of the chili cookoff!).

Today, July 7, 2006, is our Seventh Annual Chili Cookoff. You can check out some photos and commentary from last year's Chili Cookoff if you'd like.

We'll post the results on Monday, so stay tuned!

We mentioned our Sixth Annual Logos Curry Cook-Off last week and promised recipes of the top three curries.

James Van Noord's curry "Green Monster" was another excellent curry, garnering the third most votes. Here are James's curry making notes:

My base recipe can be found at AllRecipes.com.

My modifications (with thanks to Vincent and Eli for pointers):

• added lime juice
• added kafir lime leaves
• added bird's eye chilies
• added extra green curry paste
• I didn't use as much lemon grass as is called for. I fished out most of the lemon grass before lunch.
• I used 14-oz cans of coconut milk

I tripled this recipe for the cook-off.

We mentioned our Sixth Annual Logos Curry Cook-Off last week and promised recipes of the top three curries.

David Kaplan's curry "Fire and Nice" was second only to Bob's first-place effort. Here's the recipe. David's notes are a little more involved, but the curry was really yummy so it is worth the effort.

• Three pounds chicken tenders – DO NOT CUT UP
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• Two tablespoons Habanero powder
• Two 15 oz. cans of chicken broth
• 5 large onions – cut into large chunks
• Three medium heads of Broccoli – using only the flowerets.
• Two very large red apples — Peel and cut into ¼” thick slices. DO NOT DICE UP.
• A Boat load of curry powders — three different kinds. One was a Jamaican Style by “Spice Right” where the first ingredient was ginger. One was a “Miami Spice” curry powder where the ingredients are unknown, all it said was “A Blend of Natural spices including Tumeric”. The other Curry powder was from the bulk section at the grocery store. I never measured the curry powder, just kept dumping it in until I saw the color I wanted and it smelled robust.
• Salt
• Pepper
• one tablespoon Garlic powder – not too much. It will overwhelm the other flavors.

First I put the chicken tenders in a huge bowl and dumped in a boat load of curry powders and mixed it up real good. Then I let the tenders sit for about 15 minutes mixing every five minutes. It was kind of like doing a rub.

Then I put the chicken tenders and vegetable oil in a large soup pot and cooked them until firm – stirring often.

Then I added the onions cut into large chunks. (This is for texture in the final product). and more curry powders. Cook for another 15 minutes stirring every three minutes or so.

Then add in the Chicken broth, garlic powder and the Habanero powder, cook for another 20 minutes. Stirring every five minutes.

Then add in the apple slices, and broccoli and more curry powder and cook until you can’t discern that there was ever any broccoli in the recipe (about 45 minutes). Stir vigorously every ten minutes or so. There will be a few small chunks of apples still discernable. The chicken will be fairly chunky still, but a lot of it will have broken down into the mix.

All the while you’re cooking - keep tasting, and salt and pepper to taste.

Then put it in the fridge over night. It tasted better the next day.

We mentioned our Sixth Annual Logos Curry Cook-Off last week and promised recipes of the top three curries.

Bob Pritchett's curry "Columbus' Loss" garnered the most votes in our 2006 Curry Cook-Off. Bob's notes on the recipe are brief:

Here's the recipe.
I used boneless chicken thighs and ground ginger. And the strongest cumin I've ever tasted.
— Bob

So if you like curry, check it out and slip it in the recipe box. The folks at Logos approve!

We were treated to some excellent salsa from 11 competitors this past Friday. It was tough to vote for just three salsas from all the tasty picos de gallo, tomato salsas, and an avocado concoction...but that's what some would call a "high class problem."

The results were announced shortly after the event and one of the Logos bloggers placed...congrats, Eli!

First Place: Guillermo Powell’s Powe - R - Salsa
Second Place: Kim Vail’s Salsa con Aquacate
Third Place: Eli Evans’ Hello Pain-o

Some photos from the event (click for a larger version):

Kim Vail, salsa 2006 coordinator, prepares the salsa buffet.

I entered, missed 3rd by 2 points, but am proud of my sign

Eli (speed eating?)

Jahan, Logos book designer, narrows the field

The happy remains

What...Leftovers?

And the winner is...

Followed by this shocking revelation from the winner, Guillermo Powell
Windows Media (416KB)

The winning recipe:

Powe - R - Salsa
from GuillermoPowell ("actually should be Elsa Powell, my wife")

1 - Pace Picante sauce (4 lbs) can be purchased at Walmart
1 - cucumber, minced
1 - bundle of fresh cilantro
1 - lemon (squizzed fresh by Guillermo)
1 - onion, medium size, minced
Add salt and tabasco to taste.

Cook-offs are just part of working at Logos — one of my favorite parts. We do a Curry Cook-off sometime in the spring (April) and a Chili cook-off around July 4. If it is September, it must be time for soup! I'm not sure if the folks at Logos have realized it yet, but my favorite cook-off is always the next cook-off. That means as of now, my favorite is the Soup Cook-off.

Speaking of which, the Soup Cook-off is scheduled for September 16, and my soup is already made! (Made it on Tuesday night). I don't know if it'll win, but I do know it'll be good. Even better, we have 15 soups scheduled to appear, and we may end up with even more!

If you're into soup, stay posted. We'll surely blog more about the Soup Cook-off, and may even have photos of the event to share.

Bob, Eli and Daniel (all of whom have entered, I believe), beware!