__nancy Hindenach Food

TRADITIONAL BANNOCK AND BERRIES RECIPE

Steps:

• Preheat vegetable oil in a deep frying pan to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. (It's also possible to bake or cook the bannock over an open flame).
• Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a medium-sized bowl.
• Add water and mix until dough becomes thick and sticky. Do not over mix or the dough will become tough.
• Roll the dough into a large ball and slice into 12 equal pieces.
• Flatten each ball of dough with your hands.
• Drop dough into the oil and fry until it is golden brown on both sides and soft, but cooked inside.
• For the raspberry compote cook the berries in a saucepan over medium heat until soft.
• Add sugar, lemon juice, rind, and salt.
• Continue cooking until the sugar is dissolved.
• Serve bannock drizzled with compote.

__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.

__ELLEN BURR

Steps:

• So much of American cooking has international roots, but a sense of what the cooking of indigenous Americans was like can be gleaned from Cape Cod resident Ellen Burr's harvest. "I love to gather wild edibles: bolete mushrooms, dandelion greens, sassafras leaves (to dry for file powder for gumbo). I pick lots of berries--blueberries, strawberries, shad berries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, cranberries, elderberries, rosehips, rum cherries, and English blueberries--for desserts, for freezing, for preserves, and for jellies. I also dig clams, gather oysters and mussels, go crabbing and fish for trout and perch." Although Ellen has devoted so much of her keen attention to native foods, she also turns to foods with an international heritage for inspiration, and comes up with hits like her Dotted Swiss and Spinach Quiche.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.

__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.