October 2002 “Cooking Tips” Winner —
Jim Cooke

There are many granular no calorie sweeteners on the market today . Some are better than others in the way of sweetening without that notable"aftertaste".
I have found that by putting 1 or 2 fresh vanilla beans in the box, that "aftertaste" is greatly reduced and also enhances the flavor of the sweetener. Of course, this is not a new idea to pastry chefs who have long been doing this with granulated sugar . Nevertheless , everytime I recommend this to fellow diabetics the suggestion seems novel to them .
I hope you can pass this tip along .

Jim Cooke

Prize:

• Cooking tips: Dean Jacobs Meat Seasonings

October 2002 “Cooking Disasters” Winner —
Diane Brooker

I never could make fudge like my mother. A woman at work said she had a recipe for fool proof fudge that you make in a skillet on top of the stove. She said no one could mess it up. Well I did! I cooked it exactly the way she said step by step and the fudge was so hard we could not get it out of the skillet. We soaked it and and my husband took it out into the garage and used a hammer trying to beat it out of the skillet, so that we could rescue the skillet. But nothing worked! We had to throw the skillet out. I have no idea what I did wrong. We had several friends over that evening and my husband had to parade each and every one them into the garage to see how hard it was. He swore I had invented a new building material because it was as hard as cement.

Diane Brooker

Prize:

• Cooking Disasters: Dean Jacobs Poultry Seasonings

Previous Winners

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