Back to the Blog + A Cooking Competition!

It’s been a while since a new blog post has appeared here. Putting LCE together is definitely more of an undertaking than I imagined, and blogging seems to be the one (of many) items that consistently gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list.

But that’s about to change, my friends! That’s because we’ve got a cool social media intern on board (everyone say hi to Nick Hermon, recent grad of Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa) who is fanning the flames, getting our rears in gear and helping us put a social media plan together. Blogging is part of that and you will probably “hear” him here from time to time. Incidentally, he’s the one responsible for getting that livestream Facebook video online yesterday. Be looking for one on Friday with a special guest and a special 4th of July recipe! Yip!

Have you seen the LCE website lately? No? Well get there! Its new look is thanks to Matt Smith, a web designer and IT expert. He’s helping take the magazine to new mobile heights so you’ll soon be able to better use LCE on smartphones! A Give a Gift button will soon make its way on to the site so you now have another option for any birthday / holiday gifting dilemmas! So fancy!

Okay, a looming deadline that I need to make sure all our Iowa friends of LCE know about: This coming Friday, July 1, is the day to enter the LCE / Kitchen Craft cooking competition at the venerable Iowa State Fair in August. Here are the pertinent details:

  • What: Super Special Soups cooking competition–prepare your favorite soup using only 9 ingredients or fewer, write up the recipe and tell us why it’s special
  • When: Monday, August 15, 2016, noon
  • Where: Iowa State Fairgrounds, Des Moines, Elwell Family Food Center
  • Who: Open to Iowa resident with special needs, 16 years old and older
  • Entries will be judged on Taste, Ease of Preparation, Appearance, and Creativity
  • Prizes (these are good, people!): 1st place gets $200 + a 1-year subscription to LCE + a 1-qt. saucepan from Kitchen Craft. 2nd place gets $150 + a 1-year subscription to LCE + a 1-qt. saucepan from Kitchen Craft. 3rd place gets $100 + a 1-year subscription to LCE + a 1-qt. saucepan from Kitchen Craft. EVERYONE who enters gets a LCE spatula to use in their own kitchen! They’re pictured above and were one of our popular Kickstarter rewards.
  • Entry fee (before July 1) is $5; July 2 to July 8 the fee is $10. No entries are accepted after July 8. You DON’T have to have your soup recipe ready to enter by Friday–just enter and then spend the next few weeks perfecting your masterpiece!
  • Print the entry form here. Print the fee schedule here. Print the division description here–scroll all the way down to page 56

Please share this blog post with anyone you think might be interested in sharing their soup with us! We can’t wait to meet all the great cooks in Iowa and hear about their special soups!

Happy cooking! See you all next week,

Sue and the LCE team