It's Poster Art Time!

A call to artists!$1500. prize awarded to winning art. If you would like to submit art to be considered for the 2012 National Lentil Festival Poster, drop off your art to the Pullman Chamber of Commerce Office, 415 N Grand Ave before November 4th. Be sure to include your contact information.

Your art should look the way you would expect it to appear on the poster, but no need to worry about lettering. The graphic designer can handle that. The art the is selected becomes the property of the National Lentil Festival. All other art will be returned.
Good luck!

Lentil Fest is a Week Away!

Hello Lentil Lovers (or is it Lentil Heads?) Just a week from Lentil Fest and things are moving quickly. Television personalities at Q6 will get to sample two of the finalists in the Legendary Lentil Cook-Off this Saturday, August 13. Be sure and tune in at 9:40 am. And let's see...fabulous entertainment is booked - check, great gobs of lentil chili will be made - check, the Lentil Express is warmed up and ready to lead a wonderful Grand Parade - check, Beer Garden is ready to pour - check. And Tase T. Lentil is ready to celebrate! A great weekend awaits... see you next week!

Six Finalists away from a Winner!

The 2011 Preliminary Legendary Lentil Cook-Off was a success. Our wonderful volunteers prepared 50 lentil dishes to be tasted and scored by a panel of 25 judges. The top 6 finalists are in no particular order:

• Mango Lentil Chili submitted by Cindie Hards of Jupiter, Florida
• Caramel Lentil Brownies Sprinkled with Sea Salt submitted by Joni Hilton of Rocklin, CA
• Bangali Dal submitted by Nipa Reza and Saeed Alam of Dielsdorf, Switzerland
• Mediterranean Summer Lentil Salad submitted by Elizabeth Koseyan of North Hills, CA
• Magical Mayan Salad submitted by Jane Bacher of Robertsdale, Alabama
• Easy Campfire "Can Do" Lentil Chili submitted by Mary Louise Lever of Rome, Georgia

The competition was fierce, the judges took it seriously. Even our "I Hate Lentils!" judge, Bill Weed, was convinced that lentil dishes could be palatable. His choice for disguising the little legume was Lentil Love Sticky Toffee Pudding submitted by Helen Fields of Springtown, Texas.
Although he admits with enough chocolate, any lentil can be effectively hidden!

400 tastings of the top six recipes will be prepared and served to festival goers on August 20th. A grand prize of $1000 will be given to the favorite. Best wishes to all!

And the winner is......

This Lentil Lady is psyched for the Legendary Lentil Cook-Off Prelim tomorrow! 118 great recipes were narrowed down to 50 by 3 of our local chefs. And thanks go out to our 50 wonderful volunteer cooks, some of whom I saw tonight at Dissmore's IGA, one of our Cook-Off sponsors, as they were picking up last minute ingredients. These top 50 recipes will be presented before 23 select judges for tasting tomorrow. These judges represent all things lentil including, Bill Weed, our official "I Hate Lentils!" judge. And I have to say the small pre-taste that we had today was fabulous! I can speak from experience that these judges will be hard pressed to make a decision tomorrow. May the best cook win!

A Record Breaking Cook-Off Year!

This Lentil Lady has a bushel of thanks to offer everyone who entered the 2011 Legendary Lentil Cook-Off! 118 luscious lentil recipes have come in from 32 different states, up from 20 states last year! (But not all 50 --we will try again next year. Get with it Alaska!) I was pleased to see an entry from Red Lion, Pennsylvania come in. The lovely women I spoke to personally on the phone decided on a lentil salad. She had never cooked lentils before. Way to go! And I am humbled by another first - we got an entry from Switzerland! This was a round about way to get an entry. Seems this cook gets visits regularly from a local resident and has cooked our local Palouse lentils many times. (They receive them as gifts!) After some encouragement they entered this year and through the miracle of computers, they got the entry here by the deadline. I am told a 'snail mail' copy is on the way, complete with Swiss postage, just to be official. I plan to frame that entry!
So my heartfelt thanks go out to all who entered and I wish you the best of luck. These 118 entries will be narrowed down to 50, and those will be cooked and tasted on July 21st to narrow it down to 6. A difficult job indeed! Then the 6 will be prepared and presented for tasting to our Festival Goers on August 20th and we will have a winner! Whew! A National Lentil Festival Cook Book, with a fresh new look, will be available soon. Stay tuned...

Little Old Lady From Pa....

This Lentil Lady had a chance to chat with a lovely little old lady - not from Pasadena but from Pennsylvania this past week. Seems she saw an article in their local paper about our Legendary Lentil Cook Off, and purchased some lentils a few weeks ago. This is the very first time she has ever cooked lentils, but she has been working up some recipes to enter into our contest. Her conversation with me was to try to narrow it down to the required limit of 1 recipe per person. Although I am not at liberty to sway an entrant one way or the other, our short phone visit reminded me that I had never even SEEN a lentil until I moved to Pullman, Washington 22 years ago. And I certainly had never cooked one, but since then I have experimented with many recipes. I have years of National Lentil Festival cookbooks at my disposal, so it's not hard to come up with a winner.
With only a week left to enter our cook-off, this Lentil Lady urges you to send in your recipes quick! After all I need the new recipes from this years cook book for my future endeavors!

We Need Your Lentil Recipes!

The July 1st deadline for the National Lentil Festival Legendary Lentil Cook-Off is approaching, but it's not too late to try and win the $1000.00 grand prize! Our goal is to get entries from all 50 states and you can help. Know a great lentil recipe? Know someone who may know a great lentil recipe? Lentils are an amazing, nutritious ingredient to add to many dishes, including desserts! We even have an "I Hate Lentils" competition! Our judge, Bill Weed from KQQQ Radio, states firmly that he does NOT like lentils. He will taste any of the recipes where the lentil presence is not visible and name a winner! Points are deducted if this special judge can see, smell, feel or taste the lentils in the recipe. Lentils are simple to prepare and take on the flavors of whatever they are cooked with. Simply rinse to remove any debris, then boil 1 cup lentils in 2 1/5 cups water for 15-20 minutes. There is no need to soak lentils prior to cooking.
Cook-Off recipe's require 1 cup cooked or 1/2 cup raw lentils. Download an application and enter today at http://www.lentilfest.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Cook-Off-Application2.pdf