Ever since returning from the DOLE California Cook-Off ***hummm, who won? Click and see**** I’ve been obsessed with finding ways to incorporate many of their packaged products into my Boho recipes. Rather than just looking at fruit in the juice as ‘fruit in the juice’, I’m thinking of ways I can use their delicious goodies in everything from cookies to lamb chops!

That’s one of the perks of entering contests – you’re opened up to not only new people and challenges, but you take away from these competitions a new energy of creativity that fuels your culinary juices.  So, rather than just seeing a food/cooking contest as a finite beginning and ending, this kind of challenge or contest, whether you win or not, becomes a mechanism for moving you into other territories of growth with your passion and love affair with food.  And, believe me, with my upcoming huge competition in the 2013 World Food Championships, I need all the inspiration I can fuel because that’s where the very best of the best meet to compete!  Whatever you create has to be something that dazzles and wows the palate and the palette; that doesn’t mean complicated recipes or dishes, it simply means really knock your socks off good eats!

In essence then, cooking contests build upon each other for the competitor making you more confident, giving you experiences that can transfer from venue to another, and preparing you for boundaries that keep expanding! This ‘Mandarin Orange Sauce’ would be really sassy on other meats like pork chops, chicken, shrimp, white fish, and then, of course, it’s a great stir fry sauce and even a warm sauce over ice cream with a sassy heat flair!

Check out the recipe here!