January 2007 “Cooking Tips” Winner —
Brenda Riley

I like to make my own salad dressings and buy the packets of dried mixes rather then buying bottled stuff. Lately, I've been cutting way back on the amount of the mix used, thus cutting back on a lot of sodium. I also use olive oil instead of vegetable oil, and flavored vinegars and or lemon juice for more unusual dressings. A recent favorite with my hubby was olive oil, the juice from a bottle of green olives (which is olive flavored vinegar) crumbled feta cheese, and black pepper. Quick, easy, cheap and delicious.

Brenda Riley

Prize:

• Cooking tips:
  Crème Brulee Gift Set
  Dean Jacobs Gourmet Selections

January 2007 “Cooking Disasters” Winner —
Becca Brant

At 21, I foolishly tried to open my own bakery in a small town- with little business knowledge and even less self motivation. Needless to say, I was ready to close my doors after only 6 months, but still had one order to fill- baked Alaska for an Elk's Club dinner. All of the town's "high society" were members, and my husband's boss was to be honored. I had never made this dessert before, but achieved two flawless trial runs beforehand. What I did not do was check out the kitchen I'd be working in at the club. I was assured over the phone that there was a full kitchen and plenty of freezer space. Upon arrival, I found one old oven which didn't heat past 250 degrees, and a normal kitchen fridge/freezer that didn't hold half of the Alaskas. I placed 2 desserts outside, hoping they'd stay cold and began to whip the meringue. The egg whites stayed flat. I couldn't figure out what had happened until I looked inside the fridge and saw a steady drip of water right over where the bowl had been sitting. I had no extra eggs or time to get more, so I spread the mixture as it was over the ice cream, placed it in the oven and prayed for the best. Upon opening the door I found the "meringue" had pooled at the bottom of the pan and was not at all brown and crisp. But there was no time and nothing I could do. The woman who placed the order had insisted on a grand entrance with the desserts carried in flaming. So I placed egg shells in the top of the sorry messes and poured in the booze. I lit them up and carried them into a pitch black room where everyone had been hyped up to see this amazing flaming dessert. But instead of lit alcohol streaming down the sides of a browned meringue dome, there was a weak little flame that was put out by melting ice cream every time it sloshed over the edge of the egg shell. The lights came back on and everyone just sat there. The woman who had ordered the desserts wouldn't even look at me. I began to exit the room but realized no one was serving the desserts. Apparently, that was my job. To add the the humiliation, there were no dessert plates (I wasn't told to bring any!). I quickly found some old "Happy Birthday" plates stashed in the kitchen and served up the now melting desserts and handed them out to the seated guests, all 60-some of them, while everyone stared. Apparently they couldn't go on with their program until everyone had dessert. I was even stopped by one man and scolded for using alcohol in the dessert because he couldn't have anything with alcohol in it. It was all I could do to grab my things and flee through the back door without breaking down. I never heard from the woman about my payment, and I definitely didn't call her! My husband's boss never spoke about it, but also never spoke directly to me again. I was so glad when we moved 3 months later and I didn't have to see those people around town anymore!

Becca Brant

Prize:

• Cooking Disasters:
  Mousse Gift Set
  Dean Jacobs Gourmet Selections

Previous Winners

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