__dorothy Wagoner Food

__KAREN DURRETT

Steps:

• I grew up in a large family--seven children--in a small town in Indiana," Karen Durret says. "It was great. My mother was the traditional homemaker, and my greatest memories growing up all relate to food. There was always a pot of something on the stove. My mom expressed love through food." The beuaty of American cooking is that a small-town Indiana girl can combine elements of Italian, Mexican and Midwestern cuisines to create a spectacular result that is pure American: Chicken and Black Bean Tostizzas.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

__TERESA HANNAN SMITH

Steps:

• Cooks tend to be a generous lot, and Teresa Hannan Smith makes a point of sharing the bounty of her life not just with guests at her table but with four-legged folk wherever she is. "I carry three kinds of dog and cat food in my car and feed strays everywhere I go." While she never gets the raves from her animal guests that she got from the Bake-Off® Contest judges, Teresa considers cats and dogs among the most gratifying of her diners.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

__DOROTHY WAGONER

Steps:

• Many of the recipes in this book are heirloom recipes, passed down from parent to child over many generations. However, many of us aren't lucky enough to have our own family recipes. Dorothy Wagoner had the idea of inventing her own heirloom recipe, describing the effort as "searching for a flavor to match a memory.""My father came to this country [from Germany] when he was a young man, and I was never to meet any of his family," Dorothy said. "Dad had a vivid memory, and through the stories of his childhood I could picture Grandmother's kitchen, the many wonderful things she baked and the dark, luxurious pastries that were Dad's favorite." Dorothy tried different flavor combinations, and then decided to make her dessert a pie, combining her own memories of her mother's cooking--her mother died when Dorothy was twelve--with her father's memories of his mother's pastries. "My mother was a wonderful cook, and loved to bake. Saturday was baking day, and our big old kitchen would be filled with the fragrance of bread and sweet rolls, and always pie." Through long experimentation Dorothy came up with her Vienna Chocolate Pie--a true labor of love. Since the 1959 Bake-Off® Contest, Dorothy's pie has become an heirloom recipe for families nationwide.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.