Utah Woman Competiting Philadelphia Cream Cheese Contest

DeAnn Hilterbrand has a chance to win a dream trip to Greece plus $3,100 in cash, as  one of the five finalists in the Real Women of Philadelphis recipe contest. Her My Greek inspired recipe is Baklava Ice Cream in Fillo Cups.  The judges have picked the five top recipes, and the one that gets  the most votes on the internet wins the prize. 

I met DeAnn a few years ago when she was a finalist at the Pillsbury Bake-Off in Dallas with a recipe for Chicken Mole Poblano. It's clear that she's still using her culinary creativity to come up with winning recipes. 

The voting continues through next Sunday.  People can vote one time per day.  They can go to the Philadelpha web site at to view her recipe and video at http://realwomenofphiladelphia.com/blog/post/the-5-finalists-for-a-dream-trip-to-greece-have-been-chosen

I'm wondering, though, why DeAnn's last name isn't listed while all the others have their full names. 

Pillsbury Bake-Off: My Experience

Last week at this time I was at the 45th Pillsbury Bake-Off in Orlando, at the Peabody Hotel.  It's taken awhile to sort out what I wanted to share on my blog.  So many seminars, demonstrations, experiences, interesting people and yes, food! all packed into just a few days.  

Who's got the bigger tummy from sampling all the contest entries?

The Scottish salmon served at our dinner at Luma, a well-known restaurant in Winter Park (where the locals eat, according to Heather McPherson, the Orlando Sentinenel's food editor).  

Saturday morning's seminars started at 8:30 a.m. with a presentation by Kelsey Nixon of  the Cooking Channel's "Kelsey's Essentials."  A Utah native and fan favorite from "The Next Food Network Star," Kelsey talked about the importance of family mealtimes, and ways to make it happen.  She recalled her mom's commitment to family mealtime, and its positive impact on her life. 

It was fun seeing Kelsey again and hearing that she's hosting a new show, "The Perfect Three," as well as "Kelsey's Essentials." And she will be appearing on "Chopped!" as well.  

Kelsey's husband, Robby Egan, was celebrating his birthday — a great time for a trip to Florida and hanging out at the pool, then taste-testing some Bake-Off entries.  

This tray of little tastes was part of a seminar by McCormick on flavor trends.  Every year McCormick does a Flavor Forecast.  They correctly predicted the popularity of chipotle and smoked paprika. And a few years ago they predicted root beer would be a biggie, which is supported by all the microbrewed root beers out there.  But frankly, some of the other predictions (such as hibiscus or tarragon with beetroot) don't seem to gain traction in the average American kitchen. 

Some of the up-and-coming flavors they mentioned include red tea (a caffeine-free product of South Africa), grapefruit with red pepper, Meyer lemon, dill, sweet soy with tamarind and black pepper, and harissa. We'll see....

I was also happy to see another familiar face, Brigitte Nguyen, now host of the Cooking Channel's "From The Kitchens Of..."  She was one of this year's Bake-Off judges. In 2009, I covered the National Chicken Cooking Contest when she won the $50,000 grand prize for her Asian-flavored chicken burger. She also took second place in Sutter Home's Build A Better Burger contest.

While competing on the Food Network's "Ultimate Recipe Showdown," she caught the eye of producers, which eventually led to a job with the Cooking Channel.  She also has a weekly TV cooking show in Lexington.

We enjoyed a cooking demo from chef Jeff Henderson, whose show. "The Chef Jeff Project," is on the Food Network. He served nearly ten years in prison for drugs. While on pots-and-pans duty, he found a passion for cooking. When he got out of jail, he worked started at the bottom and worked his way up to becoming the first Africa-American named "Chef De Cuisine" at Caesars Palace. He was also executive chef at Café Bellagio.

He told his story in a New York Times Bestseller, "COOKED,"  (William Morrow, February 2007), and is being made into a movie. 

Henderson's Food Network show takes six at-risk kids and puts them to work in his catering store in an effort to turn their lives around. 

At this seminar, Henderson represented GE, which is gearing some of its appliances towards men. Their research discovered that more men are getting into the kitchen. The recession put a lot of men out of work, so many are taking care of the household while their spouses are working. As you can guess, these new stoves and refrigerators have more bells and whistles. There are some pretty cool features. But somehow, I can't quite picture an out-of-work husband whining for a new tri-ring burner range, double oven, or a snazzy french-door refrigerator that dispenses both hot and cold water.  

The media and supermarket consumer relations people had dinner at Emeril's Tchoup Chop (pronounced Chop-Chop). Martha Stewart, who was the host of this year's Pillsbury Bake-off,  was the special guest. The woman in the photo works on Martha's camera crew, and she did a huge favor for me that I will talk about in a future blog post!

Martha gave a slide presentation on her new book, "Martha's American Food: A Celebration of Our Nation's Most Treasured Dishes, from Coast to Coast." After such as great send-up, we were hoping she would give us review copies. Alas, no. She did give one to General Mill's head of advertising, Mark Addicks, saying her assistant thought he was "hot."

That was our "Food News Media Day." I'll follow with photos of the Bake-Off amd More Martha soon. 

Dutch Oven World Champions

Doug Martin, left, and Matt Pelton are the IDOS World Champs.

Matt Pelton of  Provo and Doug Martin of Draper won the International Dutch Oven Society's 2012 World Championship Cook-Off on Saturday during the International Sportsmen's Expo.

The event attracted teams from Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Washington, and Idaho, as well as Utah, the headquarters (or I guess you could say "hotbed") of IDOS. I covered the event for the Deseret News (you can look for the story posted on Desnews.com Tuesday evening).
Robert Love, an IDOS member who has photographed the competition for years, supplied the photos for my Deseret News story and for this blog. Thanks, Rob!  

This was the duo's first time at the World Championship — the first time a "first-time" team had ever won. Most of the contestants who were cooking in Saturday's finals had cooked in at least one or two past World Championships.

When asked the secret to their success, Matt said, "It's practice, practice, practice, every weekend for the past six months. We've probably cooked 60 loaves of our winning bread recipe, and about 40 of those cakes.  We've cooked for our friends and family, and we solicited people to cook for them if they would pay the food costs."

Winning Chocolate Four-Layer Cake. (Rob Love photo)

The investment paid off, as the two won with recipes of Hibachi Surf and Turf, Rustic Tuscan Bread, and a Chocolate Layer Cake & Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting. 

 To get a berth at the event, teams had to win an IDOS-sanctioned cook-off in their region, and then qualify in the semi-finals held Thursday and Friday evening at the ISE at the South Towne Expo Center.  

Winning Hibachi Surf and Turf   (Rob Love photo)

Each team cooks three dishes: a main dish, a bread, and a dessert, all with burning charcoal as the only heat source. There were some with regional twists, such as a Cajun-seasoned Snap' N Pork with alligator stuffing from Bill Ryan and Jeff Jimes of Bossier City, La., and prickly pear cactus used in Duck Breast with Raspberry Sauce from George and Carolyn Dumler of Tucson, Ariz. The Dumlers took 4th place overall.  

Bill and Toni Thayn took second place with Asian Inspired Beef Tenderloin Filets with Sushi, Buttery Rosemary Rolls, and Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake. Third-place winners Mark and Cindy Romrell of Kearns did Blueberry BBQ Baby Back Ribs, Honey Wheat Bread with Five Tempting Toppings, and Caramel Spice Cake.  Fifth place winners, Jason Jensen and Mike Lambert, both of Stansbury Park, served New Mexican Pork Tenderloin and Sweet Potato Tamales, Five Topping Bread, and Apricot Cheesecake. 

The International Dutch Oven Society pays homage to the black cast-iron pots with a rich history. Pioneers lugged them across the plains, and they were an integral part of cowboy chuckwagons. But the dishes cooked at the World Championships have evolved w-a-y beyond the those simple stews and johnnycakes cooked over a campfire!

The recipes for all the contestants' dishes are sold at www.idos.com for $15 plus shipping. Also for those who want to learn about Dutch oven cooking, there's a spring convention May 5 at the Davis County Fairgrounds in Farmington. The convention features cooking demonstrations, seminars and samplings, and you can find out how to join IDOS and locate a chapter in your neck of the woods. 

PILLSBURY BAKE-OFF: Two Utah Contestants

In a couple of weeks, I'll be going to the Pillsbury Bake-Off in Orlando. On March 27, the $1 million dollar winner will be announced on the Martha Stewart Show, and I'll be in the audience along with the contestants, their families, and other food writers. 

Two Utah contestants are among the 100 finalists. On March 26, Cameron Bailey of Salt Lake City and Elizabeth DeHart of West Jordan will cook their original recipes for the judges and master of ceremonies, Martha Stewart. Bailey's recipe is Bacon-Chicken Sliders with Raspberry-Onion Spread; and DeHart will cook her Falafel Sandwiches with Fire-Roasted Tomato Aioli.

This is the 45th Bake-Off, which was begun in 1949, now takes place every other year. It remains the premier national home cooking contest, as other long-running cook-offs have been downsized or discontinued.

For being a small state population-wise, Utah has a good track record for Bake-Off finalists, with at least one — and sometimes three or four — finalists in every contests. But so far, nobody from Utah has won the grand prize. Could 2012 be the lucky year?

Bacon-Chicken Sliders with Raspberry-Onion Spread

Falafel Sandwiches with Fire-Roasted Tomato Aioli.

I interviewed the two Utah contestants for a Deseret News story. 

Cameron Bailey hopes to be the second male grand prize winner (the first one was Kurt Waite in 1996). But the Bake-Off isn't his only competition that weekend.  He will get to Orlando a day early to run in a half-marathon near on Saturday morning.

"I wanted to come home with a medal even if I don't win the million bucks," he said.

A project manager at 3-Form, a building materials company, Bailey said began cooking at a young age.

"I was raised in a large Utah family with four siblings, all of us had to learn to cook because Mom and dad were both busy," he said.

He's been entering the Bake-off since 2002.

"Those first recipes I entered were horrible," he said with a chuckle during a telephone interview. "But I've learned how to play the Bake-Off game."

He's now realized that sponsors are seeking recipes that best showcase their products such as Pillsbury's "Poppin' Fresh" dough, Jif peanut butter, Smucker's jams, Hershey's chocolate, and Muir Glen Organics vegetables.

"My first recipes used a bare minimum of the sponsor ingredients," he said. "This time around, my recipe used seven sponsor ingredients. I used the greatest number of sponsor ingredients to raise my chances."

He also raised his chances by entering seven different recipes. "They were very concise and all winners, I thought. I was surprised that my appetizer recipe was the one selected, though, because I love to show off with my desserts."

He came up with his recipe during a time period where he was "on a kick to find wonderful things to do with balsamic vinegar."

After hearing a discussion on the radio program "The Splendid Table," he was inspired to make a reduction sauce of chicken broth with raspberries, balsamic vinegar and a touch of honey, "And it was wonderful. So when the Bake-Off came along, I thought I could take Smucker's preserves and use it instead of the raspberries to get the right degree sweetness and savory.  The balsamic spread sounds odd, but when it comes together, it's really wonderful."

He considers himself a home cook who makes "approachable" dishes using ingredients that he already has on hand.  So as far as food TV idols go, he enjoys watching Rachael Ray and Ann Burrell — "I think she's fun and sassy and stands up for herself in the way she cooks."

Martha Stewart has been a lifelong idol of Bailey's, "So I about died when I found out she was going to be the host.  I have watched her shows for years and take her magazine.  She's been a real inspiration to me."

If he wins the million-dollar prize, he will use the money to pay off his MBA student loans. for his MBA, buy a new used car, and have a down payment on a house, "all responsible choices," he notes.

Finalists can bring guests for a fee to watch from the sidelines during the Bake-off. Bailey, who is single, will have his parents from Cache Valley there cheering for him.

Elizabeth DeHart is a proponent of fresh, local, healthy food. And she has no trouble reconciling that the fact that she's competing in a contest sponsored by food industry giants.

"I'm an advocate of everything in moderation," she said. "And the only convenience foods in my recipe are canned beans and canned organic tomatoes which don't have a lot of processing or additives, and Grands biscuits. There's also fresh spinach in it, and that's very healthy. So it's really good food."

DeHart, a mother of two who works part-time as a medical sales representative, is also semi-vegetarian.

"I was on a quest to find a really good vegetarian sandwich that appeals to everybody. I came up with falafel."

The spicy sandwich gets added smoky notes from the fire-roasted tomatoes used in the aioli.

DeHart said she entered "five or six" recipes, and was surprised that the falafel sandwich was the one they picked.  "But my kids and my husband really like it, and it's a good recipe."

Dehart said that she is a self-taught cook. "My mother was a good traditional meat-and-potatoes cook.  I like cooking ethnic dishes — Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Thai, and Mexican."

She's dabbled in a few recipe contests, winning $500 for her use of Philadelphia Cream Cheese in a Creamy Tomato and Artichoke Gnocchi recipe. She's also had recipes published in Taste of Home magazine.

This is the first time she entered the Pillsbury Bake-Off.

 "I was ecstatic to hear I was selected," she said. "There's a lot of satisfaction in the realization that I can actually cook. Also the financial incentive would be a relief, as we have been hurt by the economy. I would like to be able to go back to school."

DeHart's husband, Timothy, is accompanying her to the contest. And, she's gotten a lot of cheering from family and friends.

As for TV food stars, "I'm a huge fan of 'Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.' He's a big proponent of fresh local food and an advocate for health, and I think that's important."

Bacon-Chicken Sliders with Raspberry-Onion Spread

1 can Pillsbury Place 'n Bake refrigerated crescent rounds

1 Land O Lakes egg, beaten

1 to 2 teaspoons McCormick poppy seeds

1 tablespoon Crisco pure vegetable oil

1 cup chopped red onions

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon McCormick ground black pepper

1 cup Progresso chicken broth

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup Smucker’s red raspberry preserves

1/4 cup Smucker’s apricot preserves

1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked, thinly sliced

4 slices hickory-smoked bacon, crisply cooked, broken in half

1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Line large cookie sheet with cooking parchment paper. Place crescent rounds on cookie sheet; press each crescent into 2 1/2-inch round. Brush with egg; sprinkle with poppy seed.

2. Bake 8 to 13 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

3. Meanwhile, in 10-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, salt and pepper; cook 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently, or until onions are tender. Add chicken broth and balsamic vinegar; cook 12 to 17 minutes or until sauce is reduced by half. Stir in red raspberry and apricot preserves; cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently, or until slightly thickened. Cool 5 minutes.

4. Cut each crescent round in half horizontally. Place bottoms of buns on serving platter; top each with 2 teaspoons of the onion mixture, chicken, bacon, cilantro and top of bun.

— Cameron Bailey, Finalist

Pillsbury Bake-off

* * *

Falafel Sandwiches with Fire-Roasted Tomato Aoili

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup Muir Glen organic fire roasted crushed tomatoes (from 14.5-oz can), drained

3/4 teaspoon McCormick minced garlic

1 16.3-ounce can Pillsbury Grands! Homestyle refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

5 tablespoons Crisco light olive oil

1 15-ounce can Progresso chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed, drained

1/2 red onion, chopped

1/4 cup fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, chopped

1 teaspoon McCormick chili powder

3/4 teaspoon McCormick ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon McCormick ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon McCormick ground roasted coriander

4 tablespoons Pillsbury all-purpose flour

1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves

1. To prepare aioli, place mayonnaise, tomatoes and 1/2 teaspoon of the minced garlic in food processor or blender. Cover; process until smooth. Cover and refrigerate.

2. Heat oven to 350°F. Place biscuits on ungreased cookie sheet. Brush tops of biscuits with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil.

3. Bake 11 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, in food processor, place chickpeas, onion, remaining 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic, parsley, chili powder, turmeric, cumin and coriander. Cover; process, using quick on-and-off motions, adding flour 1 tablespoon at a time until mixture is well blended.

4. With wet hands, form about 3 tablespoons chickpea mixture into 3-inch patty. Repeat to make 7 more patties. In 12-inch skillet, heat remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook patties in oil 6 to 8 minutes, turning once, or until golden brown.

5. Split biscuits; spread a generous tablespoon aioli on bottom half of each biscuit. Top each with patty, spinach leaves and top of biscuit.

— Elizabeth DeHart, Finalist

Pillsbury Bake-off

Utah Woman Wins $20,000 Smuckers Recipe Contest

In Wednesday's Deseret News, I wrote about Carmell Child of Provo, who was headed to New York to compete for a $20,000 grand prize in a recipe contest. Today she was announced as the winner of the  fourth annual Spreading Smucker’s Traditions Recipe and Essay Contest.Her winning recipe, Chicken Bacon Burgers with Cherry-Chive Mayo, was inspired by a treasured dish her mother used to make their family for Sunday night dinners. 

Carmell will be able to celebrate her family’s traditions and create new ones with the $20,000 grand prize to host a family reunion and $1,000 to enlist a personal planner to help with the details.

Childs used Smucker’s Orchard’s Finest Michigan Red Tart Cherry Preserves to give her burger a sweet-tart flavor boost. The addition was inspired by a treasured baked chicken and cranberry dish her mother, Delaina Nielsen, used to make for Sunday night dinners. Childs wanted to do a savory chicken dish with a similar sweet-tart dimension.

The second part of the contest was an essay, and Childs waxed poetic about her mother's cooking skills, with all the lines rhyming in poem.

"I wanted to stand out from the other entries," she said.  "I had a lot of fun writing it. I learned everything I know about cooking from her, and she was a self-taught cook."

Childs, a stay-at-home mother of three, said, "My kids don't consider me the best cook in the world, but my husband does."

She got excited about recipe contests when she entered the Utah's Own Ultimate Recipe Round-Up two years ago. "I didn't have much luck, but I didn't want to wait a whole year before entering another contest, so I looked online and found a wealth of contests to enter." 

Practice apparently makes perfect, because Childs ended up as grand prize winner of last year's Utah's Own contest, with her Utah Truffle Crepe Cake. and was also a finalist in the Philadelphia Cream Cheese "Real Women of Philadelphia" contest as well.

With the Smucker's contest, she chose to do a savory recipe instead of a sweet dessert in order to stand out from the competition.

"But the other finalists are on the same brain wave, because none of them did a dessert," she said.

Her ground chicken burgers have some chopped apple, "Because I wanted to add some moisture since ground chicken is so low in fat.  I used onions and apples, and they gave it flavor, too. The Smuckers cherry preserves add a little bit of sweetness — it's a great combination."

Since the prize money goes toward some type of family reunion, Childs said her kids are hoping to do a Disneyland reunion.

"I'd like to just have the whole family come over and have crab legs, because my family really likes seafood," she said.

Childs is just getting started in the recipe contest world. "The fun part for me is coming up with ideas. I lie awake in bed and come up with ideas when I can't sleep. I keep a notepad and pen under my bed."

Here is Child's winning recipe. The other finalists' recipes  are posted on www.smuckers.com.

 Chicken Bacon Burger with Cherry-Chive Mayo

Crisco® No-Stick Cooking Spray

Tangy Cherry-Chive Mayo:

2/3 cup Smucker’s Orchard's Finest Michigan Red Tart Cherry Preserves

1/2 cup real mayonnaise or low-fat mayo

2 tablespoons fresh chopped chives

Burger Patty:

2-3 teaspoons Crisco® Pure Olive Oil

1 cup Jonathan apple, cored and finely chopped

1/2 cup sweet yellow onion, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

2/3 cup panko breadcrumbs

1/2 cup chopped crispy bacon

16-ounce roll of ground chicken

1 egg (or egg white)

1 1/4 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons Montreal steak seasoning

Burger Assembly:

5 slices provolone cheese, for topping

5 sourdough English muffins, split and toasted

5-10 thin slices red onion

5-10 pieces, red-leaf lettuce

1. Heat broiler on high. Spray broiler pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Combine the preserves, mayonnaise and chives in a small bowl; set aside.

3. Heat a large skillet with the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the apples and onions; season well with salt and pepper.

4. Cook and stir until softened, about 3-5 minutes.

5. Stir in the panko crumbs and then transfer to a large mixing bowl to cool.

6. Add the remaining burger ingredients into the apple mixture, season with salt and pepper and mix to combine.

7. Form the mixture into 5 patties (thinner at the center and thicker at the edges for even cooking). Mixture should be pretty sticky for a moist burger, but you may sprinkle in a little extra panko crumbs if needed.

8. Place patties on broil pan on the center rack. Broil 7-10 minutes, or just until centers are no longer pink, flipping once.

9.Place one slice of cheese on top of each patty during the last minute of cooking.

10. Assemble burgers on bottoms of split toasted muffins by layering lettuce, patty, Cherry-Chive Mayo, and 1-2 slices of red onion. Top with remaining split muffins and enjoy.

Carmell Childs' family essay:

Growing up in a family of eleven,

Mom knew how to cook with flavors from Heaven!

With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good,

Making 11 PB& J's, she did what she could.

It didn't end there, oh no, there's more Smucker's flair!

From savory to sweet, Mom won all at the fair!

Her tangy meatballs; their flavors divine

With real fruity goodness straight from the vine.

The thumbprint cookie with its strawberry sphere

Was always my Smucker's favorite this time of year.

Mom's love of cooking she passed down to me.

Her Sunday roast chicken with berries was inspirational -- you'll see.

My juicy chicken burger with cherries and chives

Is a tantalizing dish for your taste buds and eyes!

These flavor combinations are tried and true.

Mom shared them with me -- I'll share them with you!

On holidays this burger is always requested

For those are the days that we are truly invested

To creating good food and close family ties.

Mom's legacy is now mine. I'm the proud mother of three!

I create recipes for my family.

It just may be the preserves that hold us all together

Smucker's is the "sweetness" that we'll love forever!

Pillsbury Bake-Off Winners

What recipe is worth a million dollars? 

Two Utah contestants, Cameron Bailey and Elizabeth DeHart, are competing in the Pillsbury Bake-Off. I'll be there in Orlando on March 27 when the winner is announced on the Martha Stewart Show. And I'll be walking the contest floor as I have for the past seven Bake-offs.  I'll try to guess which of the 100 finalist recipes will win the million-dollar grand prize. 

I have to admit, I've never been able to predict the winning recipe. I've correctly guessed some of the category winners. But when the grand prize is announced, most of the food writers are looking at each other with a "Who knew?" expression.

Suzanne Conrad of Findlay, Ohio crushed up granola bars and mixed them with walnuts and chocolate chips to make a winning Oats 'n Honey Pie for the 2004 contest. 

"It's an obscene amount of money for a really simple recipe," Conrad told me in a telephone interview a few years ago. "I think it helped that it was simple, old-fashioned and has a different flavor. The granola bars are the only unique thing about the recipe."

The recipe has to taste good, but creative use of sponsor products also helps.  Since General Mills had recently bought Pillsbury, Nature Valley granola bars were one of the sponsor products, as was Fisher nuts, Hershey's chocolate chips and Land O'Lakes butter and eggs. 

I remember 2004 well, because Dick Clark hosted the Bake-off in Hollywood. It was pretty exciting to see the "American Bandstand" icon and marvel at how youthful he looked. Sadly, he suffered a stroke later that year. 

In 2006, Anna Ginsberg of Austin, Texas, won for her Baked Chicken and Spinach Stuffing. She made stuffing from Pillsbury Dunkables frozen waffle sticks and used the accompanying syrup to glaze the chicken. It was an innovative use of a sponsor product, although I wondered how many people would actually go out and buy Dunkables in order to make a chicken dinner.

"There are people who want to trash me for using waffle sticks," Ginsberg told me in a telephone interview. "But if I were a songwriter, I wouldn't expect everyone to like every song."

The judges — mainly food writers, supermarket consumer folks and food personalities — take their duties very seriously. But taste buds are subjective. Sometimes they have passed over recipes that ended up becoming classics with the public. 

For instance, Peanut Blossoms — peanut butter cookies topped with a Hershey's Kiss — didn't win anything when they were entered in the 1957 Bake-off. But the people fell in love with them, and they are still popular in kitchens across America. In 1966, the Tunnel of Fudge Cake took second place to Golden Gate Snack Bread, which was flavored with cheese spread and onion soup mix. But the cake with the molten fudgy center captured America's interest, taking the bundt pan from obscurity to booming sales almost overnight.

In its early years, the Bake-Off was considered the World Series of homemakers who spent hours making layered tortes and flaky pies from scratch. When Pillsbury raised the stakes to a whopping $1 million in 1996, Kurt Wait of Redwood City, Calif. won with Macadamia Fudge Torte, a moist chocolate cake with pockets of rich fudge and a macadamia nut streusel topping.

Then in 1998, the contest changed to a "Quick & Easy" format. Flour — upon which the Pillsbury empire was built — was no longer a required ingredient. Instead, cooks had to use at least one ingredient from a list of company products such as Old El Paso Salsa, Green Giant vegetables and biscuit dough. The point was to give the public recipes that were less complex so people would actually make them, and of course, to showcase the growing stable of convenience products.

That year, Ellie Mathews of Seattle won with Salsa Couscous Chicken, with salsa providing a flavorful shortcut to the North African-style dish. It took just 30 minutes to make.

That was my first Bake-off. I was in awe when I saw the Orlando contest floor buzzing with 100 finalists mixing, chopping and cooking as tantalizing aromas mingled in the air. I sat next to one of the judges at the press conference the next day, and was told in hushed tones that the judges had been deadlocked between Mathews' Salsa Couscous Chicken and Edwina Gadsby's Brownie Souffle Cake. The chicken narrowly edged out the cake, and Gadsby ended up with a $10,000 runner-up prize.

During the 2000 Bake-Off, Bobbie Sonefeld of South Carolina won for a Cream Cheese Brownie Pie — layers of brownie and cream cheese in a pie crust, topped with pecans and hot fudge. I remember it because I had suffered a skiing accident a few weeks before the contest, and I hobbled around the Bake-off floor on crutches. 

In 2002, Nashville accountant Denise Yennie won with Chicken Florentine Panini. She baked a refrigerated pizza crust and filled it with chicken breasts, frozen spinach, caramelized onions and provolone cheese. The morning after the 2002 Winter Games concluded in Salt Lake City, I stood in long lines at the airport to catch my flight to Orlando for the Bake-off. I had never seen so many people wearing those Roots berets. 

Carolyn Gurtz of Gaithersburg, Md. won in 2008 for Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies, which had a pocket of creamy filling inside.  When I got home from the Bake-off, I wanted to make the cookies but couldn't find Pillsbury's peanut butter cookie dough. I use my from-scratch dough recipe and added the peanut butter filling for a similar version. 

In 2010, Sue Compton's Mini Ice Cream Cookie Cups took the top prize. It happened that this was the last entry I tasted as I left the Bake-off floor. I loved the pretty raspberry garnish, and they had a nice mouth-feel of cold, creamy and crunch. But I certainly didn't predict that it was THE recipe to win the big bucks.

A lot of people criticize the Bake-Off because it uses convenience products. It's not necessarily about baking or cooking skills, but innovative use of those sponsor products.  

To me, the cachet of the Bake-Off is that an "everyday" home cook can use a little creativity and walk away with a million dollars.

Whether from scratch or not, that's still the stuff American dreams are made of.