NEW! Ready, Set, Cook Recipe Contest -- $5,000 grand prize!

[Kristine at Food.com]

We’re back with another special edition of Ready, Set, Cook! This next round of the popular Food.com community contest has our best prizes yet (hello, $5,000!) thanks to our sponsor Hidden Valley Ranch®.

The general premise for the contest is simple! Show off how you ranch up your favorite dishes by submitting up to three original recipes that feature one of our sponsor’s Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® ingredients and at least four other official contest ingredients! Create a main dish, appetizer or side dish, and add in any other ingredients you choose! Your recipe MUST serve at least four and the official contest ingredients must be integral to your dish (that is, not just garnish!).

Here are the basics….

THE PRIZES:
When you enter the contest, you have a chance to win one of FOUR great cash prizes!
• Grand Prize: $5,000
• TWO(!) Runner-Up Prizes: $2,250 each
• People’s Choice Prize: $500


OFFICIAL CONTEST INGREDIENTS:
This is where the challenge comes in! Your recipe submissions (remember you can enter up to three!) must feature at least one of our sponsor’s ingredients and at least four other contest ingredients.

Use 1 of these ingredients:
• Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Dressing
• Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Light
• Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Seasoning Mix
• Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Dips Mix

Use at least 4 of these ingredients:
• Chicken breast
• Ground pork
• Shrimp
• Baby carrots
• Red potatoes
• Spinach, fresh or frozen
• Corn, fresh or frozen
• Shallot
• Pizza dough, homemade or store-bought
• Macaroni noodles
• Bread crumbs, homemade or store-bought
• Lemon juice or zest
• Parmesan cheese
• Greek yogurt
• Chives, fresh or dried

Along with five required contest ingredients, you may use as many other ingredients as you like. Remember: The contest ingredients you use must be essential to the recipe – meaning that if you took any one of them away, it would significantly alter the flavor dish. No using them as garnish!

HOW TO ENTER:
1) Create up to three (3) original recipes that feature at least five (5) of our official ingredients (they’re listed above!). Make sure your dish serves at least four. The more recipes you enter, the better your chances!

2) Submit your recipe(s) to the main contest page. (NOTE: Submissions are closed now!) Photos aren’t necessary but are great additions for making your dish look even better!

3) When entering your recipe(s), please include the following in your recipe info:
• Add “#RSC” to the end of your recipe title. For example, “Mama’s Grilled Surprise #RSC”
• Add “Ready, Set, Cook! Hidden Valley Contest Entry” to the beginning of your recipe’s description
• Be sure all five required contest ingredients are listed in the ingredients for the recipe

4) Make and share your dish with friends and family to test, taste and review – their ratings could help you win our People’s Choice $500 community-favorite prize.


IMPORTANT DATES TO KNOW:
January 14 – February 11:
* Folks can submit up to three recipes
* Make, rate and review other contest entries as they come in

January 14 – February 25:
Recipe submissions are closed as of February 11, 2013 at 4:59:59 pm EST and any entries received after that will not qualify. BUT you have another two weeks to continue to share your recipe with friends for them to test, taste and rate. Or be generous and try out your competitors’ dishes – remember there’s a People’s Choice Prize!

February 25 – March 10:
Our guest judge will review the entries to help determine our Grand Prize and two Runner-Up Prize winners. The Food.com team will tabulate scores for our People’s Choice winner.

March 11:
Our Grand Prize, Runner-Up Prize and People’s Choice Prize winners will be announced on Food.com!

SPECIAL GUEST JUDGE & CHOOSING OUR WINNERS
After the entry and rating and review periods end, a panel of judges from Food.com will whittle down all the qualifying entries to 10 semi-finalists – vetting the submissions for ones that are both highly rated by the community and/or creatively use the contest ingredients.

Next, the semi-finalist recipes will go to our guest judge. We’re so excited for our special guest judge for this edition of Ready, Set, Cook -- Food Network host and celebrity chef, Sunny Anderson! Along with help from folks in the Food Network Kitchens, Sunny will be testing and tasting recipes to choose our Grand Prize and two Runner-Up Prize winners!

The semi-finalist recipes will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
1. Use of a Hidden Valley® Ranch ingredient in the recipe: 25% of overall score
2. Creativity of recipe and use of other contest ingredients: 25% of overall score
3. Flavor and taste of dish: 50% of overall score

The recipe with the highest score from our guest judge(s) will be the Grand Prize Winner and the two recipes with the second-highest score will be our Runner-Up Prize Winners. In the event of a tie for Grand Prize, the Grand Prize winner will be selected based on the highest rating in the flavor and taste category.

There’s also a People’s Choice Prize that will go to the highest-rated recipe as reviewed by our members. We are using a points-based system to determine the highest-rated recipes. Points will be assigned to each recipe based on ratings it receives from the community. If we suspect you are cheating and/or gaming the review system, you will be investigated and possibly disqualified.

All recipes will start with 0 points. Additional points will be determined using the scale below:
For each 5 star review, 2 points will be added to a recipe’s score.
For each 4 star review, 1 point will be added to the score.
For each 3 star review, 0 points will be added to the score.
For each 2 star review, 1 point will be subtracted from the score.
For each 1 star review, 2 points will be subtracted from the score.
At the end of the contest, the recipe with the highest score will be our Peoples' Choice Winner.

NOTE: Recipes that win the Grand Prize or one of the Runner-Up Prizes cannot also be the People’s Choice winner. In the event that the Grand Prize winner or Runner-Up Prize winner are also the highest community-rated recipe, the next highest-rated recipe will be awarded the People’s Choices Prize.

OFFICIAL RULES:
These are just some of the basics:
Must be a U.S. resident to be eligible to win (sorry, international folks!)
Must also be 18 or over to be eligible to win.
Submit up to three original recipes. Any additional recipes entered will be removed and/or disqualified.
Qualifying recipes must include five official contest ingredients and serve at least 4.

Any recipes entered after February 11 at 5:00pm EST will be disqualified.

For the full nitty gritty of the rules, GO HERE.

TO SEE THE MAIN CONTEST PAGE, GO HERE >>.

We’ve created this forum thread for questions and cheering everyone on. (Please don't veer off topic or derail the thread -- we want to keep this thread easy to follow.)

- Kristine & the Food.com Team

PS: I've updated this forum post to remove the entry info as the entry period is now closed!

[**Jubes**]

I'd love to play.......but as I'm not in the US .......guess I'm ruled out again

[rosie316]

I can't wait to enter this contest! I love a good challenge... especiaally when it comes to cooking. I use my family & friends as "guinea pigs" when I create a new dish

[Kathy at Food.com]

I can't wait to see the creative ideas everyone comes up with. I'm always blown away by the great recipes. This is going to be a fantastic contest -- Good luck to everyone!!!

LET'S GET THE PARTY STARTED!

[Kristine at Food.com]

**Jubes** wrote:
I'd love to play.......but as I'm not in the US .......guess I'm ruled out again

Hi Jubes,
We know it's a bummer to the international folks. As we've mentioned before, it's the rules and legal aspects of the contest that, unfortunately, exclude everyone from outside the U.S.

In the case of the United States, for example, we have to ensure that these larger contests comply with the rules of all 50 states, since each state often has different regulations and requirements regarding contests and sweepstakes and awarding prizing. Just to allow residents of the 50 United States to participate (not even including US territories!), we have to turn to a team of lawyers to craft official rules, which often end up containing many subsections and span many pages (lawyers like to cover EVERYTHING).

Assuming that all things are equal when it comes to rules, if we assumed the same amount of rules requirements we need for the US would need to be covered and noted uniquely for all 193 United Nations member countries, we'd end up with hundreds of pages of rules! And then in some cases, laws governing contests and sweepstakes are also often handled at a local level and not just by a national government -- that's even more to consider! Makes my head spin, for sure.

We'd have to spend more money hiring attorneys and legal researchers than we'd give away as prizes in 1,000 Ready, Set, Cook contests. And we'd rather keep as much money as we can out of those kind of expenses and reward our participants instead!

Then there's the issue of the sponsored ingredients possibly not being available outside the U.S., which would make participation a challenge for many international visitors.

And also another wrinkle with having an international contest is if something were to go wrong, like having a dispute over prizing, etc., it'd be tricky and expensive just to figure out which country would have legal jurisdiction to resolve the matter.

That said, we do appreciate your participation here in other parts of the site and value all your contributions very much. We hope you'll keep tabs on the contest and help cheer others on and welcome any new faces to the contest and the forums, where we have so many other games for them to play, too!

I know that's a lot of detail but hoping it will help you understand the background.

[**Jubes**]

Hi Kristine

I do understand and also we also do not have the same access to products/brands here as in the US.

Realistically, I cant enter this competition as I can't buy this product to try or know how it tastes, texture etc ... to be able to develop a recipe for it.

-Julie

[katie in the UP]

rosie316 wrote:
I can't wait to enter this contest! I love a good challenge... especiaally when it comes to cooking. I use my family & friends as "guinea pigs" when I create a new dish

I use guinea pigs too!! (DH, inlaws, friends)

[Rita~]

My Husband raved over my first recipe entered Waiting for it to post so I can add the photos! Winter evening photos aren`t the best. I like the sun!

[Kristine at Food.com]

Rita~ wrote:
My Husband raved over my first recipe entered Waiting for it to post so I can add the photos! Winter evening photos aren`t the best. I like the sun!

Sounds like if your hubby raved about it, he wouldn't mind you making it again for breakfast (ha!) so you can take pictures in natural light!

[Rita~]

Kristine at Food.com wrote:

Rita~ wrote:
My Husband raved over my first recipe entered Waiting for it to post so I can add the photos! Winter evening photos aren`t the best. I like the sun!

Sounds like if your hubby raved about it, he wouldn't mind you making it again for breakfast (ha!) so you can take pictures in natural light!

I need to prepare and test my next two recipes. But I will amke again. Sorry my photos weren`t as good as I/you like.

[Kristine at Food.com]

Rita~ wrote:

I need to prepare and test my next two recipes. But I will amke again. Sorry my photos weren`t as good as I/you like.

Don't apologize, Rita -- you're crazy! The fact that you went to the trouble at all is amazing and we appreciate every last recipe and photo you add to the site...and boy, have you been busy over the years!

[Rita~]

Kristine, Yeah I must say Im crazy crazy for creating. Love making new meals. Heres my pizza

[Rita~]

Is there a reason why my recipe isn`t showing up here?
http://www.food.com/contests/hidden-valley-ranch

[Kristine at Food.com]

Rita~ wrote:
Is there a reason why my recipe isn`t showing up here?
http://www.food.com/contests/hidden-valley-ranch

Was just wondering the same thing to someone else here at Food.com and I'm told it might be a caching delay. Sometimes it takes up to 24 hours since it's been published before it will show.

If it's not there by tomorrow, I'm going to flag it for investigation.

Your recipe is live, though -- I checked!

[alligirl]

I was wondering how long before recipes go 'live'?

TIA!
Alli