Sore loser

I am convinced that I am just not made for food competitions. I have lost all four battles I have entered and a little piece of my ego goes with it especially since cooking is such an important part of who I am. The first was the Super Bowl chili cookoff, the second was the Macaroni and Cheese cookoff, the third was the Iron Chef battle and the fourth was the Dip Off at work. Four competitors entered but only one would be the victor. I unhappily placed fourth. The winning dishes in cardinal order are as followed: Lauren's Raspberry and Cheese dip, Heather's Buffalo Chicken dip, Tchicaya's 4-supposed-to-be-7-layer dip, and Q's 3-cheese, Chorizo and Beer dip. Lauren's dip featured two ingredients, hot (hot as in spicy, not temperature) raspberry jam and borsin cheese with chives. (Similar to my Raspberry-Chipotle Cream Cheese dip but of course I think mine is better) She spread the cheese on the bottom of the serving dish and poured the hot raspberry jam over top. The dip was served with toasted sesame crackers. Heather's dip was a warm concoction of cubed chicken breast, blue cheese, hot sauce and other ingredients. The dipping utensils were tortilla chips and celery stalks. Tchicaya's dip was a traditional 7-layer Texmex dip...olives, tomatoes, sour cream, cheddar cheese, lettuce, refried beans served with tortilla chips. I will redeem a little bit of my ego and have a separate post featuring my recipe complete with pictures.