November 2006 “Cooking Tips” Winner —
Tina Wang

I always roll out my pie crusts between sheets plastic wrap. Wet your rolling surface with a damp sponge. Place two strips of plastic wrap on the surface, overlapping the edges. Put the flattened ball of pie dough on top and cover with two more overlapping strips of plastic wrap. Roll out the dough! Your pie crust will be much moister because you won't be adding additional flour from rolling on the traditional "lightly floured board." It is also less messy. Yeah!

Tina Wang

Prize:

• Cooking tips:
  Clam Dip Kit
  Blue Crab Bay Company

November 2006 “Cooking Disasters” Winner —
Joanne Erstad

When I was first married, I wanted to impress my new in-laws. We invited them for dinner, and I decided to roast a chicken, and serve with harvest vegetables. Everything was going very well, until I noticed that the turnip was still very hard. I delayed dinner a little, thinking it just needed a little more time. After giving it some time, it hadn't softened any. Dinner was going to have to go ahead without the turnip, which was no big deal. My mother-in-law kept popping her head into the kitchen to make sure everything was OK. Just as I removed the chicken from the oven, and was putting it on a platter, she popped back in again - to see that I had cooked the chicken without removing the plastic underpad packaged with the chicken! Now, if she hadn't already seen it, I might just have served it as though nothing was wrong! My mother told me later that the turnip had a hard wax coating on it that we weren't used to seeing, as they were quite fresh where we come from. I will never make the same mistake twice, and I think we ordered in Chinese that night!

Joanne Erstad

Prize:

• Cooking Disasters:
  Fire Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
  Original Juan

Previous Winners

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