__paula Blevllis Russell Recipes

__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.

__PAULA BLEVLLIS-RUSSELL

Steps:

• When it came to fine-tuning her recipe for Stuffed Poblano Chile Peppers, Paula Blevins-Russell let her oven do the work. "Our family loves Mexican, and I love poblanos. Many recipes call for roasting poblano peppers first. To save time, I left out that step, and they taste great anyway. When they are in the oven, they 'roast' on their own." Paula said she came up with the recipe simply by "pulling things out of the cupboard." She advises, "Cooking is easy. Just be creative and think about what would taste good together."From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

__DEBBIE RUSSELL

Steps:

• Setting out after new recipes takes a certain amount of bravery and self-confidence--the confidence that your ideas are good ones, and the bravery to accept failures without too much embarrassment. Both Bake-Off® finalist Debbie Russell and her husband certainly don't lack bravery. "I met him in a canoe, we became engaged in a hot air balloon and we spent our honeymoon sailing and scuba diving," Debbie recalls. "My husband and I are both adventurous, daring and eat anything. I enjoy experimenting with foods on him." When these experiments result in Almond Mocha Cake, it's a good guess that Debbie's husband enjoys her experiments.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

__GLADYS RANDALL

Steps:

• Cooking is very much a chicken-and-egg sort of endeavor. If you've never had a good meat loaf, how can you know if yours is any good? Gladys Randall figured out this principle when she was a young child, the hard way. "I would see a baked pie on top of the stove. I tried to bake a lemon pie by putting it on top of the burner. I thought that was the way it's done." Gladys kept trying, her adventurous spirit intact. "It took me two years to learn how to make a traditional Italian stuffing. One day a guest at Christmas, who was ninety-two years old, said 'Very good-but too loose. You make it together, like a meatball.' Then I knew what I was doing wrong!" Gladys listened, learned and today is master of her kitchen.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

_ DON'T MIND HER. SHE'S A COOK

Steps:

• * One Hawaiian contestant danced the hula for photographers as her cake baked.* A mother brought her newborn infant to the Bake-Off® Contest and set the baby basket right next to her range while she cooked.* A finalist from Washington State was extremely suspicious about the quality of eggs in New York City--so she brought her own, on the train, across the entire country.* One year a woman sat beside her stove, quietly reading, as flashbulbs popped, TV crews roamed, reporters questioned, and all the hubbub of the Bake-Off® Contest roiled around her. Asked how she could be so tranquil in all the tumult, she smiled and replied that this was nothing compared to cooking with her five small children around her ankles.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

__ELLA SCHULZ

Steps:

• Pillsbury staffers love to notify finalists, for the happiness that accompanies the news is often profound. "There I was," Ella Schulz says, "ill, feeling lonely, my famous sense of humor pretty frayed at the edges. I made up a recipe, just one, scribbled it on a piece of paper...and forgot about it. I really was too miserable to remember anything but my troubles. Then one Sunday, I came home from church and the phone rang! Of course, the BakeOff® Contest was like a dream. . . Now whenever I have a setback, I always remember my happiness at the Bake-Off®."From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.