Final tally: I totally lost, but I had a great time coming up with three original recipes for the challenge. It might sound a little goody-two-shoes of me, but I really enjoyed stretching my cooking muscles and creating three new, original recipes from scratch. It was a lot of fun, and I might just take a stab at the contest again next year. Many, many thanks to every single person who voted for my recipes. You’re all so lovely and nice.
Another Update! My hazelnut mocha tart was chosen as the Everyday Chef Challenge Everyday Pick! This means the recipe gets featured on the front page of the challenge website, a development that is causing me more excitement than seems reasonably allowed. Still, every bit of exposure and voting helps. Yay!
Update! I just found out that you can cast votes in this contest once a day until the contest is over! So, should you be feeling generous, you can not only vote for all three of my submissions, but you can vote for all of them once a day, every day from now until November 14th.
I’ve entered a contest! It’s a recipe contest, and you lovely readers can help me win part of the contest by voting for my entries. Perhaps it’s because I never, ever enter contests, but these recipe submissions of mine have gotten me all excited and hopeful, so much so that I have decided to take to my website and shamelessly beg you all for some votes. The recipes are good ones, I promise, so I swear I am not asking you to vote for things that are not deserving of winning at least some type of reward, even if that reward is just a simple “Hey, these look great!” from one of you guys.
The first of my submissions is this cherry almond cake. It’s super moist, utterly delicious, and completely vegan. With a little bit of lemon zest added to heighten the almond tones, it’s a great cake for any occasion. Vote for it HERE.
My second entry is a hazelnut mocha tart in a graham flour crust. I’ve topped it with a bit of hazelnut whipped cream, and, ever since I made it this morning, I have had had to force myself to stop eating it. It’s creamy and intensely chocolaty without being at all heavy, and it’s just lightly sweet. In lieu of pairing this tart filling with a standard graham cracker crust, I developed this buttery tart crust that is made with graham flour. I have to admit, I am in love. The graham, chocolate, and hazelnut flavors are a fantastic combo, and they make for just the sort of dessert that would serve as the perfect end to a festive holiday meal. Vote for it HERE.
My third entry is a bold vegetarian–not just vegetarian, actually, but also vegan–entry into the main dish category. Roasted portobello mushroom caps filled with an apple pecan stuffing, accompanied by caramelized onion mushroom gravy. As a testament to how satisfying and hearty this dish is, I served it to my food-loving, meat-eating, always-hungry husband and he was completely and totally surprised when I told him that the entire meal contained no meat, no eggs, and no dairy. The meaty mushrooms make a great base for the savory stuffing, and the fantastic mushroom broth in the gravy really rounds out the rich flavor of the caramelized onions. Truth be told, I think anyone could serve this dish at a holiday meal and easily satisfy everyone at the table. Vote for it HERE.
The contest runs until November 14th, and I’d be absolutely bursting with thanks if you could head on over to the corresponding links and vote for my recipe submissions. I had a great time developing these recipes, and I think that, should you choose to try them out, you’d have a great time making (and eating!) them too.
Endless thanks,
Elizabeth of Savory Salty Sweet
Savory Salty Sweet 
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