Good Press

Has your chili got game? Are your cookies cause for celebration? There are national contests where you can prove your culinary skills. I've had a little success and a lot of experience entering local cooking contests. I have won blue ribbons at the Buckwheat Festival and at a small pie-baking contest at the school's fall festival for Blueberry Dream Pie and my mom's butterscotch pie. Almost four years ago I entered a chili cook-off. I think I had to make 8 gallons of chili and find ways to keep it hot while driving an hour and waiting to serve it. I took at least two electric roasters and a crock-pot. So did the 20 other competitors. All those current-suckers were too much for the mall's electrical system and breakers kept blowing. It's not an experience I have rushed to repeat. The most fun I had was dressing, with my little girl, like cowgirls and ringing dinner bells to draw attention. I'm more familiar with holding or judging food contests. Being asked to j...

I have some leftover boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. Now before you get too excited, I don't have any Samoas or Thin Mints. I DO have Trefoils, Do-Si-Dos, Tagalongs and Lemon Chalet Cremes if you prefer that kind. Now through Monday, June 13, if you follow my blog or make a new comment on a post, I will enter your name in a drawing to win a box of Girl Scout Cookies of your choice. The winner's name will be drawn by our resident Girl Scout. Please do not offer to buy my cookies -- the organization frowns on Internet selling. These cookies are extras that I purchased and this is for fun and to get more visits to my blog. Enter more than once as long as you have something worthwhile to say. There will be plenty of chances to participate, including new posts, throughout the weekend. Good luck! Here is a link to a Girl Scout Council's site that lists lots of recipes if you'd like to cook with your cookies instead of just eat them: Recipes using Girl Scout Cookies

Five years ago today the weather was unrelentingly steamy, a lot like today's 89 degrees. About this time I was waking from a nap, 41 weeks pregnant, exhausted from a busy day walking around a charity chicken wing cookoff and getting a flat tire on the way home. Within hours I would realize I was in labor. Arabella would be born the next afternoon. I was past my due date and I did a lot of walking and had some stress with that flat but I teased that the "special" wings from Legends bar put me in labor. Legends wasn't at this year's wing-off, held last weekend. But our favorite bar, Archie's, was. We love love love their Corona wings. In past years, when we had more patience, we dutifully sampled two wings from each vendor standing in line after long line, cast our ballot for our favorite and went back to our favorite with more tickets for a whole dozen. This year, we divided our tickets and chose four of the nine vendors -- knowing we were going to vote for Ar...