Giveaway: Hood New England Dairy Cook-Off VIP Tickets and Overnight in Providence, RI

Ready to compete at the cook-off

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Kim, winner of the Hood New England Dairy Cook-Off Ultimate Prize Package!

A couple of years ago, I had the good fortune of being a judge during the Hood New England Dairy Cook-Off chefs’ competition in Portland, Maine.

Aside from the fact that I was able to taste some amazing dishes from chefs from all seven New England states – including a very memorable sour cream biscuit served with deconstructed pot pie and sour cream ice cream with candied bacon (hello! amazing.), it was clear that the rest of the crowd enjoyed the competition between chefs, and, of course, the main event, wherein home cooks competed for the grand prize – a whopping ten thousand dollars. That’s a lot of sour cream purchasing power there, ten thousand dollars is.

This year, the event is being held on Sunday, October 21 at the Rhode Island Convention Center in the city I consider home (though I am just to the north, and in Massachusetts), Providence, RI. I can tell you that my unofficial home city is a fabulous town for food-lovers, with slews of restaurants worth making the trip, as well as a vibrant arts scene, thanks to RISD and its graduates.

Happy news: Hood has generously given me a prize package for the Hood New England Dairy Cook-Off to share with one of you.

The prize package includes:

* A cookbook with the recipes from the 2011 Hood New England Dairy Cook-Off, including the Grand Prize winning recipe, Surf and Turf Sliders with Maine Lobster Sauce

* 2 VIP event tickets (I’ll be hanging out there, too, so we can hang together!)

* One night’s hotel accommodations at the Providence Marriott Downtown, arriving on Saturday, October 20, and checking out on Sunday, October 21.

The event on Sunday, 10/21 includes semi-final rounds in the morning through mid-afternoon, then a VIP reception (like I said, I’ll see you there!) from 5pm to 6pm, opening remarks from emcee Billy Costa of NECN’s TV Diner, and then the main event – the cook-off with ten thousand dollars on the line for one lucky and talented New England home cook.

Each of the following items equals one entry.

To enter:

* Please follow @hphood on Twitter, then let me know in the comments here that you’ve followed them.

* Like H.P. Hood on Facebook, then let me know in the comments here that you’ve followed them.

* Leave a comment here with your favorite recipe that uses Hood Dairy products and/or the name of your favorite Hood Dairy product (egg nog? check!).

The contest is open to residents of New England, and does not include travel to Providence, RI, so you must be able to get yourself to the event. The Marriott does provide free parking, which is a plus. We like free parking.

The contest will be open through Monday, October 8 at 11:59pm EST. The winner will be selected by random drawing and announced by noon EST on Tuesday, October 9.

If the winner does not respond within 24 hours, another winner will be drawn, so please leave me your email address in the comments (or email it to me at amy {at} tinyfarmhouse {dot} com) if there isn’t a way to get in touch with you online.

Once the winner is confirmed, I’m happy to make dining and sightseeing recommendations for Providence for your day/night in town on Saturday.  If you haven’t been to Providence before, I highly, highly recommend it!

*Hood compensated me for helping to promote the Hood New England Dairy Cook-Off, and provided me with 2 tickets to the VIP reception. As always, all opinions are my own.