Announcing…Project Tasteless!

It’s time to officially kick off my cook-off (and maybe someone will get off?!)!!

What: A six-week cooking competition

Who: YOU! People who like to cook, eat, drink, bone, and who don’t take any of those things — or themselves — too seriously.

When: The next six weeks, starting…now!

Where: In the kitchen!

How…

How to Enter: I’ll post the new challenge every Wednesday. You will have until 11:59 PM EST the following Sunday night to complete and submit your entry. Some things to keep in mind…

• The recipe you enter doesn’t have to be a new recipe, but it needs to be re-entered in context. For example, if I wanted to submit my garlic and citrus roasted chicken as something I’d cook for my boyfriend’s parents, I’d need to cook it again and write a new post about it. The point of the contest is to get you excited about cooking, so whether you want to come up with something new, or you just want to say, “Wow, this is a perfect time to submit my favorite recipe!” is totally up to you. But you have to actually cook.
• The story behind your recipe is as important as the recipe. So you could write, “Here is my roasted chicken, I hope you like it!”…or you could write, “Let me tell you why buying a turkey baster in preparation for meeting my boyfriend’s parents were two things that seemed totally at odds.” Besides getting you excited about cooking, I also want to get you excited about your sense of humor — something other contests don’t do.
• If you’re a blogger, I’d prefer that you post the entry to your blog, but I understand if, in some cases, or for some challenges, your dad reads your blog. I’ll take e-mail entries from bloggers but I’m not going to lie — I’ll probably like an entry better if the blogger just owns it and puts it all out there.
• If you’re a blogger, you need to link back to my blog and use the contest graphic in your entry post.
• If you’re not a blogger, disregard this. (But go read my post on why you need a blog PLEASE.)
• Obviously, the most important rule is don’t be ridiculous. This is supposed to be fun and entertaining, so just DBR.

Each week, you have to e-mail your entry or a link to your blog post entry to me at contest@rachelwilkerson.com. If you e-mail me and I don’t respond within a day or two, please follow up! You’re welcome to tweet it at me or leave a comment here, but please make sure you e-mail me too, just to make it official.

How to Win: There will be a winner each week! To win the weekly prize, you’ll just have to follow the directions on the individual challenge posts. Judging will depend on the challenge. Most of the time, I’ll use my trusted judges: my mom and Eric. My mom knows a thing or two about never winning contests you should totally win, so she’ll be able to help weigh in on that. And Eric is really just there to help me with the literal LOL factor, as well as the “That’s a pretty good post-banging recipe from a guy’s POV” factor. However, I may get guest judges from time to time, and I will definitely have one week where the readers get to vote, because I know some of you put out to be popular and you should be rewarded for that. Any changes in judging will be announced with the challenge.

OK so the challenges will go up on Wednesday; you’ll submit by Sunday and I’ll announce the winner the following Tuesday. Got it?

There will be one winner overall and the only way to win the whole thing is if you enter each week! But if you miss the first challenge and still want to jump in, you totally can, and you’ll be entered to win the weekly prize. So we’ll have seven winners — six weekly winners and one overall winner.

And no contest is complete without prizes, right? In each challenge post, I’ll also let you know what the prize that week will be. The prizes will be small fun things, like cute kitchen gadgets or, possibly, a nice batch of pumpkin butterscotch cookies, baked by yours truly and FedExed to wherever you are. (When I told Eric this, he just said, “She’s practically giving it away…!”)

The overall winner will not only win my total adoration, but also a new apron of her choice from my favorite Etsy store, along with some other fun shizz to keep her having fun in the kitchen. And if the winner is a guy, then the prize will be slightly modified.

All right, still with me? Let’s get started with Challenge #1: The Naked Chef.

This seems to be the one all of you dirty girls are most excited about, so we’ll start there! The inspiration for today’s contest is my naked pumpkin chili/side boob. For this challenge, you’ll need to cook something in nothing but an apron. For your entry, you need to include:

• A picture of you in the apron (PG-13 at most, but PG is fine too, if you’re a modest gal) and a picture of what you cooked whilst nude.
• A little story! You can send me the recipe, or you can send me 1,000 words on what it felt like when you burned off your nipple because you chose to make a BLT for this challenge (which I don’t recommend).
• By entering this challenge, you have to be willing to let me use the pictures in a photo collage next week. I won’t use your name and I won’t link to your blog (unless you want me to) but I am sure you guys will take some adorable, funny, sexy pictures, and I know everyone else will want to see some of the best shots.

Oh and we need a prize right?

All right, I think we’re ready to get in the kitchen! Have at it, friends!

P.S. Tell your significant others I said, “You’re welcome.”