January 2005 “Cooking Tips” Winner —
Cathy Delgado

Whenever I make homemade tomato sauce I always add 1 tablespoon of Balsamic Vinegar to my recipe. It really adds great flavor. I have even added it to jarred sauce when I am in a hurry. Try it and you will be happily surprised!

Cathy Delgado

Prize:

• Cooking tips:
  Crab Cake Kit
  Blue Crab Bay Company

January 2005 “Cooking Disasters” Winner —
Natalie Vawter

I'm a self-professed dessert diva. My cakes are moist, my brownies are decadent and my cookies are second to none. Naturally, when I set out to make my first batch of old-fashioned fudge, I tied on my apron, prepared my trusty candy thermometer and readied myself for inevitable success.
The mixture bubbled and steamed until it reached the correct temperature. Following Ms. Crocker’s simple instructions, I turned off the burner and watched like a vulture until the pan cooled enough to be ready for beating. Now, to my credit, someone should have warned me. Who knew that making candy was such hard work? Someone does. And that someone didn't bother to share the information with me.
After beating the fudge until my arm felt like an overdone pasta noodle, I called for reinforcement. My husband rushed in for the save, but the fudge quickly gained the upper hand. After three or four minutes, he broke a sweat and handed the pan back to me. We traded back and forth, massaging our arms and cursing at the brown mixture which stubbornly refused to "lose its gloss" as Betty had assured me it would.
Betty was right. At some point, it happened, but that point occurred and passed too quickly for me. My husband told me the goo was turning to glue, so I sprinted for the chopped pecans. I tossed them in the pot and he dutifully attempted to fold them into the increasingly stiff fudge. We rushed for the buttered pan, turning to dump the candy mixture. When nothing came out, I took the spoon from my husband, aiming to scrape the contents into the pan. Peering inside, I discovered that the once glossy sludge had turned into chocolate mortar. Not fudge, mind you. Fudge is edible; this substance was better suited to paving one’s driveway.
The fudge being lost was bad enough, but my favorite wooden spoon gave up the ghost as well. In my effort to jerk it from the newly created concrete, it snapped in half, leaving me with a jagged wooden handle and little bits of fudge shrapnel all over the kitchen.
I'm still a dessert diva, ask anyone who knows me. My cakes are still moist, my brownies are decadent, and my cookies are without a doubt the best you've ever tasted. But ask me about my fudge and I'll pull out my faithful jar of marshmallow fluff. To this day, the foolproof recipe on the back is the only fudge I don't fudge.

Natalie Vawter

Prize:

• Cooking Disasters:
  Funny Face Pizza Party
  Kids Cooking Kits

Previous Winners

Click here to see our previous "Cooking Tips" and "Cooking Disasters" contest winners!