Southern Living is running its annual $100,000 contest. You don't have to be Southern to enter or win, but you do have to be a resident of the United States. There are four categories you can win in as described on their website:

Taste of the South: New twists on Southern classics.
Easy Entrées: Easy-to-make main dishes with hands-on prep time of 30 minutes or less. (No limit on cook time including baking, grilling, smoking and slow cooking.)
Signature Desserts: Any sweet creation that is the perfect ending to your casual or elegant gathering.
Healthy and Good for You: Have you made one of your favorite recipes better for you? Enter and tell us how.
Kids Love It!: Recipes that make kids say "yummy!"

Winners of each category get $10,000, the three finalists in each category get $1,000 minimum, and the grand winner gets $100,000 plus a $10,000 donation to their favorite charity.

So I get to thinking - I know where I can find a group of talented food-types. We ought to be able to come up with one of us who can get to the finals and possibly win this thing.

So what do you say, fellow food bloggers? Who's up to the challenge? Wouldn't you love to see the winner announced as "So-and-so, who writes for the such-and-such weblog"?

The recipe has to be original and you do have to use one of the "sponsor ingredients". You can find the sponsor ingredients listed on the same contest page. Most of the ingredients have a $500 bonus if you come up with the best recipe that uses that ingredient (kind of an Iron Chef: Appalachia, eh?). I'm intrigued to see who wins the $500 for best use of Viva paper towels in a recipe.

If you want to see what it's all about the 2003 contest is being broadcast tomorrow on the Food Network at 9:00pm Eastern, 8:00pm Central. You've got until June 16th to enter. I know I'll be trying to figure out what to make this weekend.