__leonard Len Thompson Food

__MARILYN BELSCHNER

Steps:

• Many Bake-Off® Contest finalists agree that the feelings that come out of preparing and sharing a meal are as significant as the ingredients that go into it: "I feel meal time is a very important together time for the family," Marilyn Belschner says. "A time when family members can communicate with each other under pleasant circumstances, while enjoying food that will nourish their bodies. Of all the ills that threaten mankind today, few can penetrate a happy family at a well-appointed table."From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

__ELIZABETH ZEMELKO

Steps:

• Cooking for a large family is one of the most absorbing and challenging kinds of work, and Elizabeth Zemelko has been involved with food and cooking from an early age. "I grew up in a Slovak-speaking home, with Ma, Pa, ten kids, and three boarders. We ate in three shifts: those who worked, those who went to school, and then us little ones, with Ma, had the leftovers. What a beautiful survival, now that I look back on everything. Once Ma said to me, 'I can't believe how much these hands have done in work.'" When the work is raising and feeding a family, it is a labor of love and the rewards are profound.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

__LEONARD (LEN) THOMPSON

Steps:

• Challenges are as certain in life as love and taxes. "1 like challenges," says Leonard Thompson. Len remembers childhood baking, using a temperamental gasoline stove. "You would have to tiptoe across the floor so the cake wouldn't fall." Len didn't get a chance to perfect his baking back then--the intervening years were dominated by the adventures of raising four children and navigating a successful career. But he always met the demands of making special time for family. "On weekends, usually on Sunday morning, it would be my pancake breakfast day, eggs, bacon, everything... the whole family uses my pancake recipe now."Since I retired I've gotten back into baking," Len says. The challenges had waited for him. For Thanksgiving he started a pecan pie, "but I made one little mistake, using a pan with holes in the bottom. Everything turned out fine-except there was a black cloud of smoke pouring out of the oven. Half the filling leaked out. And we were supposed to go to Thanksgiving dinner that day! My wife suggested I put chocolate pudding in there, so I did, topped it off with a little whipped cream, and named it 'Disaster Pie.' People really liked it, so I improved it ... My wife suggested that I enter it in the Bake-Off® Contest. I only sent in one entry, and lo and behold..." Chocolate Silk Pecan Pie was on its way to becoming a Pillsbury classic.Len considers his journey to the Bake-Off® Contest to have been as rewarding as the outcome. "Getting to the Bake-Off® Contest is a challenge, and if you like challenges, it's a tremendous one, and I do like challenges."From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.