Another amazing year! Thanks to everyone who came out.

First, what you’re all waiting for: THE PICTURES.

And now, the winners:

BEST PRESENTATION OF GUAC:

1st place: Tim McKeon, “The Guacapellas”
2nd place: Adam Pava, “Little Guac of Horrors”
3rd place: “Marta and Matt Knudsen, “LolliGuacs”

BEST TASTING TRADITIONAL GUAC:

1st place: Julie Halton, “Thug Life” (aka, TuGuac Shakur)
2nd place: Craig Anderson, “Don’t You Wish Your Guac-Friend Was Hot Like Me”
3rd place: Christine Landry, “First Place Guac”

BEST TASTING ALTERNATIVE GUAC:

1st place: Tim McKeon, “The Guacapellas”
2nd place: Sean Cole, “Can’t Stop Spin’n Guac”
3rd place: Catie Moore, “Guac Muffins”

THE ICARUS AWARD:

1st place: Greg and Michelle Steele, “GWARcamole”
2nd place: Kara Ulseth, “Junior Guacs”
3rd place: Tim McKeon, “The Guacapellas”

Some highlights:

• We had more people crammed into my house than ever before, but a few less guacs. Maybe it’s because we’re in an economic downturn. Maybe it’s because people saw pictures of Rob’s Han Solo from last year and were scared off from even trying. Whatever the case, we can celebrate that the guacs themselves continue to get better and more creative each year – especially in the Alternative category, where people go crazy with culinary skill. Today, we had guac gaspacho (Ian Nyeste and Maggie Flynn), guac chocolate mint candy (Kara Ulseth), guac cannolis (Rob Saccenti), guac lollipops (Marta and Matt Knudsen), guac muffins (Catie Moore), guac rice crispies (Emily Bloom), and a bunch of others. Amazing!
• Tim McKeon repeated his 2005 coup by winning both Best Presentation and Best Alternative Guac. This time, he hired an a capella group, the USC Sirens, to sing songs about guacamole throughout the party. “The Guacapellas” were a great idea, a great pun, and the orange-guac that accompanied them wasn’t half bad either. Everyone agreed they were Best Presentation-worthy… but the Best Alternative Tasting win was a surprise to many. (Maybe it helped to have a group of hired singers who could all vote for you! Hmm…)
• Every year, there’s some type of new guac concoction that multiple people enter, creating an unintentional smackdown. Three years ago, it was dueling Japanese-themed guacs. Two years ago, it was dueling guac cookies. Last year, it was dueling guac alcohols. This year, we had two guac smoothies. Rob Wilson and Emily Bloom had their Jamba-style “Guaca Guice,” and Michael Zimmer came with “Guacamoothie.” There were heated debates over which one was better. I had to drink Zimmer’s sludge to get the taste of Rob and Emily’s slurry out of my mouth. But others had the opposite reaction. Ultimately, we all decided with our votes… and both smoothies came out noble losers.
• We had our first entry ever to get votes in all four categories — a statistical impossibility because, by definition, a guac can’t be both Traditional and Alternative. Yet Julie Lofrano’s “The Golden Guacs” was actually four guacs in one, one for each of the Golden Girls: Rose’s was sweet and simple; Dorothy’s was tall and salty; Sophia’s was small and old; and Blache’s was spicy and sinful (“and always leaves men satisfied”). This was clever, but also left voters scratching their heads as to how to vote. Even though I gave it a yellow sticker (for Alternative), someone voted for it in Traditional as well. Ultimately, it was a great entry that split its votes, leaving it trophyless.
• This year, contestants took self-promoting to hilarious new levels. Lara Grant printed up and handed out little cards to advertise her “America’s Next Guac Model” entry. Kysa and Lauren didn’t wait for people to come to get their AvocaDaiquiries – they walked around passing them out. Christine Landry (always a great self-promoter, as her blog post below explains) went so far as to present her guac in the trophy she won last year! And of course, The Guacapellas were a walking, singing billboard for Tim’s guac.
• The youngest guac partier, one-year-old Rowan Lee (Josh and Alie’s daughter) wasn’t a fan of guacamole… except for Catie Moore’s Guac Muffins. She ate seven of them.
• This year, together we used 209.75 avocados for some cheap laughs. Which reminds me: don’t forget to donate to Haiti relief efforts.