Iron Foodie Winners!

25 food bloggers entered the arena to do battle and vie for the ultimate title, each using their chosen weapons: three of the following surprise ingredients: Dulse Seaweed, Fennel Pollen, Bourbon Vanilla Beans, Maple Sugar, Dried Porcini Mushrooms, Tellicherry Peppercorns, Smoked Salt and Aji Panca Chilies.  Now the dust has settled, and judgment is upon us.

Iron Foodie competitors, we stand here awed by your creativity, skill, and drive to challenge yourselves.  Collectively you baked, broiled, roasted, confit-ed, churned, grilled, brulee-d, and marinated your way to a whole new level, submitting some of the most impressive recipes we’ve yet seen in Marx Foods competitions.  You truly are an impressive bunch, and are to be commended.

In the end though, there can only be one Iron Foodie 2010…no matter how many of you we’d love to crown.

Iron Foodie 2010 is La Buona Cucina

When the call to culinary battle came, La Buona Cucina rolled up her sleeves and made a Timpano.

A Timpano!

Previously, we’d imagined timpanos to be creatures of myth and legend…not actually to be consumed (much less made) by human beings, but held on a pedestal until a deity worthy of their consumption wandered along.

Homemade meatballs and three distinct layers of pasta and sauce, all baked into a giant, drum-like crust…it’s a stunning achievement, and with 204 votes to her name, clearly we were not the only ones impressed.  With her title and bragging rights, Ann also receives a $200 credit to the Marx Foods store.  If you haven’t seen it already, be sure to check out her Timpano Recipe!

However, there are also several other winners.  While bloggers were jockeying for position in our reader poll, a secret, quieter ballot was making its way amongst the competitors, for who else could understand the blood, sweat, tears and hours that went into the creation of recipes of this stature?

Cookistry Wins the Competitors’ Choice Award!

Along with the admiration of her fellows, Donna will also be receiving a $200 credit to the store.  Be sure to check out her delectable dessert. “What is it?” you may be wondering.  Oh nothing…just brown butter vanilla bean ice cream and butter-toasted pecans with a maple sugar smoked salt topping.

What are you still doing here?  I know, you just got back from drooling at the Timpano-of-the-Gods, but who cares!  Go check her recipe out right now!

The Competitors’ Choice votes were widely cast, as follows: A Good Appetite (2 votes), A Little Bite of Life (1), Adventures of an Amateur Foodie (1), At Home with Rebecka (2), Chef it Yourself (1), Chez What? (1), Coco Cooks (1), Cookistry (5), Everyday Southwest (2), Foodalogue (2), Kate in the Kitchen (2), Seriously Sassy (2), The Growing Foodie (2), The Well Lived Life (3).  The votes (in parentheses) total 27 because each of the 25 challengers, Marx Foods, and Foodie Blogroll had one vote.

Runners’ Up Awards:
Second Place in the reader poll (and a $100 credit) goes to Kate in the Kitchen for her Warming Winter Soup Recipe!
Third Place in the poll (and a $75 credit) also goes to Donna of Cookistry!
Fourth Place (and a $50 credit) goes to Julie of A Little Bite of Life for her Pfeffernusse Crème Brulee recipe!

Be sure to visit the Iron Foodie 2010 recipe post to see ALL the submitted recipes!

Stay tuned to the Marx Foods blog!  In the new year we’ll be holding a truly massive recipe challenge: The Ridiculously Delicious Challenge.  A giant, multiple tier contest pitting a field of both blogging and non-blogging home chef competitors against each other.  As an additional prize, all four of these winners will be eligible to compete in the Ridiculously Delicious Challenge if they so choose.