REAP contest winners. (Not me.)

Chicago.

I have a hunch that I'll be hard-pressed to win any recipe contests like REAP's again, for one simple reason: my recipes are way too complicated. I've come to this conclusion after reviewing the winners from the 2006 Food For Thought Recipe Contest. As you'd expect, it's an interesting and well-varied collection of recipes highlighting local foods, and I really like that the "Ethnic Heritage" category produced some ideas from outside my realm of experience.

Note, however, that the recipes involve four or fewer steps, even with the occasional long list of ingredients. (The one exception is a "Kids Category" recipe, and step number five is basically "Slice and enjoy.") Then take a look at my recipes. There are no fewer than six to any of mine, and as many as eleven separate steps in one case. And these were the simpler recipes I'd come up with. If I'd come up with something akin to the stuffed peppers¹, I'm sure it would have been much more complicated, involving a sauce, batter for deep-frying, an accompanying starch or pickles, or something like that. No doubt I'd want to include slow-roasting in the oven, or cold-smoking², or something else wildly labor- or time-intensive. Like sausage-making or air-drying cured meats.

I really did try to simplify things. I swear.

Honestly, I doubt that this will have any impact on my cooking, or the recipes I submit for future contests.³ My cooking doesn't change suddenly, impacted by some external event. It evolves, adapting to new ideas⁴ and jettisoning old ones⁵ that aren't necessary any longer. I'd like to think it's improving.

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¹In better years, when we've had plenty of poblano peppers, chiles rellenos are a great little summer dish from our kitchen. This summer, though, we didn't get much of anything from the poblano plants in the garden, and they didn't seem to inundate the market like I remember.

²Those recipe ideas didn't make the cut, obviously. "Step 1. Ask the nice folks at the hardware store if they have any extra cardboard boxes..."

³Note the winner from California. I can still enter the REAP contest long after I've left Madison. I suppose I'd need to donate any winnings to someone local who can actually make use of them, though.

⁴Sausage-making and cold-smoking have been recent additions to the fold. They haven't ushered in any dramatic changes, but rather become complementary. I think of sausages as a meat plus the sauce or sides I'd want to serve alongside, in a more convenient, grillable form. Cold-smoking is just a way to get smoky flavor in where it was nigh impossible before.

⁵These days, I can't use a microwave to save my life.