Home Sweet Home Recipe Contest Cookbook
One thing you’ll never hear a Hokie complain about is the food on campus. With award winning dining services and lots of options available, students at Virginia Tech eat very well. Each year, Virginia Tech invites students’ family members to submit a recipe for their “Home Sweet Home” recipe contest. The dining services’ chefs test every recipe and select a winner from each category as well as a grand prize winner. The winning recipes are served in the dining halls during Family Weekend.
All of the recipes are compiled into a comb-bound cookbook and each entrant is given a cookbook. This is the type of cookbook many organizations use for fund-raisers, so there are no pictures. Recipes are divided up in categories and there is an index of contributors and an index of recipes in the back. There are some other helpful resources too, such as measurements & substitutions and an equivalency chart. I’ve entered this contest all but one year since Vance has been at Tech, and while I’ve never had a winning recipe, I do consider the cookbook a prize.
I was excited to see that this year’s grand prize winner was a salad since I’m a real salad lover, and I decided to give the recipe a try. This recipe was submitted by Ann L, the family member of a student from Bethesda, Maryland. I divided the recipe in half and did make a few substitutions based on what I had in my pantry, but I found the recipe to be delicious!
Goat Cheese & Pear Salad
2 cups pecan halves
1 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup water
½ cup dried, pitted, tart cherries
2 ( 5 ounce) bags of spring mix salad greens
4 ounces crumbled goat cheese
3 large ripe pears, sliced
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup champagne vinegar
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
2 teaspoons honey
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
Spiced pecans for salad: Grease cookie sheet. Mix pecans, sugar, cinnamon, salt and water in large skillet. Stir over medium heat until all moisture is absorbed. Pour onto cookie sheet and separate. Cool.
Dressing: Whisk together olive oil, champagne vinegar, mustard, honey, salt and pepper. Chill 30 minutes of up to 3 days.
Salad: Mix cherries, salad greens, goat cheese, pears and spiced pecan halves. Toss with champagne dressing. Serve immediately.
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Sounds and looks yummy!
I’m a sucker for these types of cookbooks. I just received one from my daughter’s school last week! So many great recipes to try!
That sounds like a fabulous recipe. I’m thinking it would especially wonderful in the fall when the pears are at their best. So pretty.
I too like these kinds of cookbooks.
Thanks for sharing! This looks deelish! I love these kinds of cookbooks too, and am impressed that the recipes were judged!
Ummm YUM! I wish I was home to make that right now! Great choice of recipe
I love these cookbooks too…I have a few myself. That salad looks soooo good. I have a “thing” for goat cheese.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen champagne vinegar but I love champagne so I’m going to have to find it. This sounds like a great salad to serve for company.
This is a fantastic recipe. I love each of the ingredients and how clever to put them all together. I am definitely going to try this one. (I’ll have to start looking for champagne vinegar. Haven’t heard of it.)
The salad looks great! I make a similar one but use blue cheese instead. We like the bite that complements the sweetness of the pears!
The salad looks delicious. I love goat cheese and pears. Thanks for sharing.
My friends and I eat out every Friday at any of the several restaurants that we have still not had a chance to try. Sometimes we find exciting discoveries – like the French restaurant, Boudreaux’s, this Friday, and some months back, the Ethiopian restaurant, Excellent Table, hidden behind a building in downtown. I have to agree, we will probably not complain about dining options out here.
Nice concept though about this book. I don’t remember really hearing about it. Not sure why. But I love this idea!
That does sound yummy! I love anything with pecans and goat cheese.
Sounds delicious! I just bought some perfectly ripe pears, and now I know just how to use them.
This looks yummy!
This is such a neat idea, and I would just love to get my hands on a copy of this very interesting cookbook. I also love the recipe you’ve posted because lately my salads have been a bit boring. So glad you posted this, Cathy. I will be looking for it for sure!!
These are the best kind of cookbooks. The salad sounds great.
Sounds good! Neat idea from the college!
This cookbook and recipe contest is a great idea.
All I can say is YUMMY!