Bacon cheesecake and mayo cookies: Everything we ate at Hogs for the Cause

The big picture: We judged the entries for wings, sauces, bacon dishes and Blue Plate Mayo dishes.

• The sides had to incorporate bacon and mayo, and we truly didn't know what we were going to get when we opened the boxes.
• Many chose to go sweet, with entries including peanut butter/chocolate/bacon hand pies, bacon praline cheesecake and mayo-shortbread cookies with bacon crumbles.
• Others focused on nailing the basics with a pimento salad cracker appetizer and a crawfish-boil potato salad.

How it worked: There were about 15 tables staffed by six judges. Each table sampled food from six different teams per category.

• The fest had two more shifts to judge whole hog, ribs and other meat categories. Talk about meat sweats!
• Judges at our tables were locals and visitors from as far away as California.

Zoom in: Carlie loved the sauce category.

• Some were sweet and traditional, while others were vinegary and mustardy.
• Maddy enjoyed seeing the teams' creativity in the bacon category. Case in point: pork belly funnel cake.

Zoom out: Many of the festival-goers focus on the food, but the main point is to raise money to fight pediatric brain cancer.

• This year, Hogs for the Cause raised $5.25 million, up 25% from last year.

If you go: It's an annual festival on the UNO Lakefront grounds. The teams build elaborate booths with pig-themed names like Jurassic Pork, Pork Illustrated and Sir-Pork-A-Lot.

• Pitmasters are cooking on wood-fired grills and smokers and selling the food to raise money.
• Plus, there's music with grassy spaces for picnic blankets and chairs.

Go deeper

• Spring festival guide
• The story behind Blue Plate Mayo's new logo