__julia Hauber Recipes

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• When Nina Reyes came to the United States from Cuba to attend school in Pennsylvania, she knew right away that she had found her true homeland. When she returned to Cuba to marry, Nina decided, "I will never give up until I return to the United States and this time it will be for good. Because this is the country of my heart."Nina and her husband did return to the United States and raised their family in Miami. She entered numerous recipes in cooking contests. "Every time I entered, my son would say 'Mom, don't you ever give up?' and I said 'I'll keep on trying, and we shall see who laughs last.' Many times I lay awake at night, mixing up things in my dreams. If I can't go to sleep, l cook in my mind. Sometimes I get up and write the idea down, so I don't forget."One night Nina's dreams turned to what has been called Cuba's national dish, Picadillo. Picadillo is a special dish, almost like barbecue, or chili, in that every cook prides herself on her own version, with many variations. Some cooks use beef, eggs, wine, peppers, raisins or almonds others wrap their picadillo with a yeast bread instead of a pastry crust."I used to use so many people for guinea pigs," recalls Nina about testing her Bake-Off® Contest recipes, "and everybody feels differently. This time I thought, 'I'm not going to ask anyone how they like it. I'm just going to make it and send it in." Nina says she quit making her picadillo for years "because my crusts were nothing to brag about," but when she discovered refrigerated pie crusts she started making it again. Now Nina's Chicken Picadillo Pie is on its way to becoming an American classic. "That makes me so happy," says Nina.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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• Most people hear about Roberta (Bobbie) Sonefeld's Bake-Off® 2000 Contest win and immediately zero in on the $1 million Grand Prize she was awarded for her decadently rich Cream Cheese Brownie Pie. But Bobbie says the richest part of the experience was the Bake-Off® weekend itself, a dazzling trip she and her husband, Steve, have christened their "second honeymoon."The 2000 Bake-Off® Contest took place in the San Francisco Marriott, an opulent hotel in downtown San Francisco. "Neither of us had ever been to the West Coast," recalled Bobbie. "The way Pillsbury treated us was just great: Three gourmet meals a day plus all kinds of tours and sightseeing." An added benefit, said Bobbie, was that "all the activity had a calming effect." When the day of the cooking contest rolled around, "I was used to the idea." Didn't she get nervous? "Well, yes," she admits, "But I didn't get the butterflies bad until the night before. The next morning--once I was done baking and there wasn't anything I could do about it--I was fine. Then I thought, 'Wow, I already feel like a winner, it doesn't matter what happens next.'"What happened next is part of history: Bobbie's Cream Cheese Brownie Pie, entered in the Fast & Fabulous Desserts & Treats category, won the Grand Prize. The Sonefelds' second honeymoon became even more extravagant, as they jetted to New York City for a whirlwind round of television and radio appearances. They also went to Philadelphia to appear on QVC. Bobbie remembers New York as another great restaurant town where she had meals she never even dreamed of two weeks before.After an amazing week traveling the country together, Bobbie and Steve returned home to Hopkins, South Carolina, their full-time jobs and their family. And that's when the trip stopped being a honeymoon, and turned into a homecoming, as Bobbie and Steve returned to the loving arms of their very excited sons.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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• Did someone invent birthday candles? Christmas trees? Jack-o'-lanterns? If someone did, that someone deserves applause for introducing a whole lot of happiness into a whole bunch of lives.And who came up with taffy apples? Chocolate truffles? Pecan pralines? No one knows, but we know for sure that someone did invent the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, and that someone was Ella Rita Helfrich. She spent days of "trial-and-error baking" to come up with the distinctive treat, and her cake has become an American classic, one which hundreds of thousands of people make for their special celebrations.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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• Grace under pressure--one of a cook's most necessary gifts. That's where the saying "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen" comes from. "A tornado alert once sent us to the basement for an hour," Julia Hauber remembers. "Everyone else worried about being killed. I just worried about my rare roast beef, and kept running upstairs to check it." Despite the approaching storm, Julia's guests arrived. "We had our first course, hors d'oeuvres and drinks, in the southwest (safest) corner of the basement...which unfortunately was the powder room." Amazingly, the roast turned out perfect, and grace was triumphant.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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• So much of American cooking has international roots, but a sense of what the cooking of indigenous Americans was like can be gleaned from Cape Cod resident Ellen Burr's harvest. "I love to gather wild edibles: bolete mushrooms, dandelion greens, sassafras leaves (to dry for file powder for gumbo). I pick lots of berries--blueberries, strawberries, shad berries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, cranberries, elderberries, rosehips, rum cherries, and English blueberries--for desserts, for freezing, for preserves, and for jellies. I also dig clams, gather oysters and mussels, go crabbing and fish for trout and perch." Although Ellen has devoted so much of her keen attention to native foods, she also turns to foods with an international heritage for inspiration, and comes up with hits like her Dotted Swiss and Spinach Quiche.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.