"PillsburyBake-off" news and stories

• New Jersey suburbanites are starting to ditch the perfect lawn in favor of sustainable food gardens.
• And the kids are right there with them, complete with eco-friendly lunchboxes.
• Chablis has gotten a bad rap. The Louis Michel Chablis may help change all that.
• Wondering who won the Pillsbury Bakeoff? Turns out she's from New Jersey.

Since 1949, home cooks across the nation have cooked and baked with focus and intensity, striving to create fresh, inspired recipes in the hopes that they'll be crowned the winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off. The longest-running and most prestigious cooking contest in the U.S. is held every other year, in order to give people plenty of time to be inventive. The grand prize winner receives $1 million dollars, so the stakes are high.

Entering the contest is easy. You submit an original recipe that fits into one of the four recipe categories (Breakfast and Brunches, Entertaining Appetizers, Dinner Made Easy or Sweet Treats) , and use at least two different eligible products.

Entries for this 44th Bake-Off must be submitted by April 20th, 2009 and the finals will be held April 11-13th, 2010 in Orlando, FL. Visit bakeoff.com for all the official details.

[via Baking Bites]

Source

You can't help but really like Ellie Matthews. Ten years ago, she won the Pillsbury Bake-Off with her Salsa Couscous Chicken recipe, a blend of salsa and the flavors of Morocco.

Now she's written a book about her experiences: "The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir."

NPR's Steve Inskeep recently chatted with Matthews. Turns out, she's an unbelievably down-to-earth, sweet woman with a self-deprecating streak that you can't help but appreciate. Throughout the interview, she insists that she's not anyone special, that she "doesn't claim to be a better cook than anyone else." Typically, Matthews says, she will "buy ingredients that look good, wrestle them into a pan, and serve a meal."

"I'm not a fussy cook," Matthews said. "I don't put four different kinds of sea salt into something, or 18 different kinds of vinegar" (it could be assumed that the book title partially refers to the fact that her final recipe for the contest wasn't garnished or artfully arranged, but she won anyway).

What's more, she didn't even really seem all that impressed with the prize money. She simply enjoys cooking, and was a little disappointed when she won because she knew it would disqualify her from participating in the contest again.

As for what she did with the money? She admitted, "I'd like to think my life is just more than just what I buy on a whim or how I indulge myself," and then said that if she was, say, at a plant nursery, she could maybe splurge on a new plant for her garden.

Again: how can you not like this woman?

Source