Ugh. Connecticut just won the championship. Ugh.
This year the NCAA basketball tournament was a little disappointing for me. My faves (BYU and Ohio State) both went out relatively early and we were left with VCU, Butler, Kentucky and UConn in the final four. I mean who do you even cheer for? (I say Butler because they’re kind of the Cinderella team). But really, it’s kind of a let down, right?
That’s how I felt about my crockpot tournament. I was sure that everyone would feel the same way that I do about my recipes and vote accordingly. But it didn’t go that way. Some of my faves went out relatively early (like for example the Thai peanut chicken, chicken artichoke dip, creamy tortilla soup, cashew chicken, tomato basil Parmesan soup, Greek chicken pitas, garlic lime chicken, Asian chicken BBQ, tomato basil ravioli soup…). And then I was left with the final four that I couldn’t get all that excited about. I’m sorry but that’s how I felt. I mean they’re good recipes but they’re not the best recipes in my opinion.
I was expressing my disappointment to my husband last night and he just said “different strokes for different folks.” I guess he’s right. Everyone has different tastebuds and letting others try my recipes and pick a winner was all in all a good thing.
Lessons for next year:
1. Seed the brackets and even them out (it seemed like there was a lot better recipes in the A and B brackets than the C and D brackets)
2. Have a specific judging sheet for each and every round to make judging fair
3. Have judges take pictures of each and every recipe
4. Split the brackets into four different categories (beef, chicken, pork, and miscellaneous??)
5. What else???? Anybody have anything to say?
I’m tired. I’ve literally done 87 posts in the month of March.
What a fun idea! Glad I could participate in one of the "playoffs"!
I'd try more of your "favs" that you thought would win … however, my husband rarely wants chicken… and he prefers breasts over thighs… (chicken breasts seem to dry out in the crockpot). Alas… with just the two of us in the house – might as well cook something he'll eat!! Probably others who partipated have "soup haters" or "vegie haters" or something that skewed the results!!
I really appreciate all the work that went into this. My final four also didn't match up with the winners, but I had so much fun keeping up with the results, and reading the reviews. I've also bookmarked many new recipes that I cannot wait to try. I like the idea of standard judging sheets next time as taste can be so subjective. However, this was a lot of fun!
Great contest. But two suggestions for next time:
1. Different brackets for different types of food. Don't mix main courses with desserts for example.
2. Recipes should be made exactly as written. No "We don't like Item A so we used Item B instead" or "Item C seemed to be too much so we decreased (or increased) the amount". Keep the recipes true to the original. I can't enter a tennis tournament and decide to play with a volleyball. Keep the recipes true.
I am definitely going to try some of these recipes very soon.
Yes, I think desserts should be their own bracket. Pair up a chicken dish vs. another chicken dish, and so on. To me that would make it much more interesting. It seemed strange to have a soup going up against a dessert. In my book, desserts always win anyway. LOL
Thanks, Karen! I understand that you might not have gotten to hand-pick the winner, but that says something about variety and a good old-fashioned upset! I feel like so many good things came out of this venture…thanks for taking it on; for, truly you are the one who put forth the greatest effort! So, my hat's off to you! Thanks again! And I ditto what others have said about putting things in different brackets.
I think the desserts should have been in their own bracket if possible. I guess eventually they would have had to face a main dish but it is tough to judge a sweet against a meat.
I agree that everyone really likes different things. And that is hard to swallow sometimes. I liked what Karen Dyck said about empowering people and losing control.
But thought it was really fun and really interesting and has inspired me to try lots of new recipes. And yes I'd be interested to hear what your Final Four and Champion would be.
In the bracket I filled out originally I had thai peanut chicken, chicken artichoke dip. tomato basil parmesan soup and asian chicken bbq…
I'm curious…if you had chosen the final four, or even the number one recipe…what would they/it have been?
I too want to thank you. I loved reading these March Madness posts and plan on making most of these meals in my own brackets this summer. Thanks for an entertaining month!
Now take a break!
Thanks for doing this. As a spectator and fan, I found it interesting and informative. Also, it's a good reminder that when you empower people to make choices for themselves, you don't also get to control the results. But look, your recipes have a life of their own!
Wow, what a busy month of March for you! But I do want to thank you for putting this tournament together. It was a lot of fun for me, and I'm sure everyone else, too.
And another good thing that came out of it … I've had the Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice soup recipe saved for so long, but now that I see it did so well in the tournament I'm really excited to make it. It's on the menu for next week!