__ella Rita Helfrich Recipes

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• Pillsbury staffers love to notify finalists, for the happiness that accompanies the news is often profound. "There I was," Ella Schulz says, "ill, feeling lonely, my famous sense of humor pretty frayed at the edges. I made up a recipe, just one, scribbled it on a piece of paper...and forgot about it. I really was too miserable to remember anything but my troubles. Then one Sunday, I came home from church and the phone rang! Of course, the BakeOff® Contest was like a dream. . . Now whenever I have a setback, I always remember my happiness at the Bake-Off®."From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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• When Leona Schnuelle captured the Grand Prize in the twelfth Bake-Off® Contest, she suddenly found herself a celebrity in her small town of Crab Orchard, Nebraska. "Everyone seems happier when I arrive, even at the square dances. They say 'Hi, Mrs. Pillsbury!' Even though I miss a do-si-do now and then-they think I can bake a dilly of a bread! And all the fan mail I receive! It's exciting to hear from all the different people with all their different ways of life, yet they all seem so interested in a bread recipe." Especially with a loaf like Dilly Casserole Bread to pique their interest.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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• Part of Margaret Hatheway's prize in the eighth Bake-Off® was a Cook's Tour of Europe, with stops in Rome, Paris and London. She learned how to make steak and kidney pie in England, crepes in France and pasta in Italy. In return Margaret taught all the chefs she met how to make her prize-winning California Casserole. They inquired about the casseroles of the remaining forty-seven states, but Margaret replied that that was the work of future generations.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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• Beatrice Harlib's twin sons, Sam and Joel, helped her come up with her Snappy Turtle Cookies--the famous combination of chocolate, caramel and pecans. "I have always had a very loving family, always," Beatrice says. After winning the Grand Prize in the fourth Bake-Off® Contest, and after being welcomed back to Chicago by the mayor and a police escort, and being congratulated in public ceremonies with thousands of spectators, Beatrice found "I had been called upon to make so many appearances... that I have become quite at ease before groups and enjoy speaking, whereas previously I was very shy and timid and dreaded talking before crowd. "Beatrice went on to become president of the Children's Asthma Research Institute and later became a key executive in an early feminist group, Women's Share in Public Service, which helped to promote women in public office and worked to advance women's political and economic status. Beatrice reports that her Bake-Off® experience gave her just enough celebrity to be noticed and the confidence to move into these highly visible offices.It's incredible how much happiness can be achieved through the simple addition of caramel to chocolate, of cookies to a lunchbox or of public confidence to an already special woman.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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• * One Hawaiian contestant danced the hula for photographers as her cake baked.* A mother brought her newborn infant to the Bake-Off® Contest and set the baby basket right next to her range while she cooked.* A finalist from Washington State was extremely suspicious about the quality of eggs in New York City--so she brought her own, on the train, across the entire country.* One year a woman sat beside her stove, quietly reading, as flashbulbs popped, TV crews roamed, reporters questioned, and all the hubbub of the Bake-Off® Contest roiled around her. Asked how she could be so tranquil in all the tumult, she smiled and replied that this was nothing compared to cooking with her five small children around her ankles.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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• Earlier this century the traditional woman's work really was never done. Each week required a full day of baking, of washing and of ironing. Few would return to those days, but it did leave space for quiet family interaction that many feel is unfortunately missing from modern life. "My grandmother had a hearth oven, which she used to bake bread for the week," Gilda Lester recalls. "I helped her, and she always saved a small piece of dough for a pizza for me. I wouldn't give up those days with my grandmother for anything. I helped start the fire, then when the embers had smoldered for just the right amount of time, we cleared the oven for the loaves of bread. Most of my recipes are in my head. They are things that my grandmother, and then my mother, passed on to me."From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.