Posted by The Daily Home, AL on November 08, 2008 at 10:29:11:
17 years of prize-winning recipes
By Laura Nation-Atchison
11-07-2008
Cooking With Winners will arrive Nov. 19 at The Daily Home. The cookbook is a collection of 15 years of the newspaper’s Holiday Cookbook. The books will be available for $10. Copies may be reserved in advance.
It’s coming, and this is certainly something you won’t want to miss.
The first ever combined edition of The Daily Home’s 17 years of Holiday Cookbooks will arrive Nov. 19 with close to 100 pages of recipes from your friends and neighbors.
The cookbook is being published in a glossy magazine format and will be available at Daily Home offices for $10 each. They may be ordered by mailing requests to The Daily Home, PO Box 977, Talladega, AL, 35161 with checks made to The Daily Home. There is a $3 shipping fee per book.
The cookbook, “Cooking With Winners,” is being printed in a limited edition number and copies may be reserved at the newspaper offices or by mail, using the coupon bring printed in the newspaper.
In addition to having the convenience of hundreds of recipes all in one place, there’s something else about the book that’s important.
The proceeds will benefit The Daily Home’s Newspaper in Education program, said Daily Home Editor and Publisher Carol Pappas.
“We hope our readers will enjoy 17 years of winning recipes from our Holiday Cookbook contest all in one place, and we urge support for this fundraiser to help provide newspapers as a teaching tool in the classroom,” she said.
“Pioneering the Daily Home’s Holiday Cookbook has been one of the highlights of my newspaper profession,” said June Winters, who brought the project to fruition along with Advertising Manager Pam Adamson and Pappas. “I am deeply grateful for having the opportunity.
“I remember so well that summer day 17 years ago, when Pam Adamson called me in her office and said, ‘We’re going to put out a Holiday Cookbook this year, and I want you to put it together.’”
“I had never done anything like that before, but the very thought of the challenge was exciting. She told me we would invite readers to send their favorite recipes in through ads in the paper.
“We talked about the categories we would have, and decided on how the recipes would be judged.
I worked out a system that would be as fair as possible, presented it to Pam and she approved it,” Winters said.
“I would take all of the recipes that came in and at the close of the contest, put them in categories,” she said. “After they were put into the computer, the name, address and telephone number on each recipe would be recorded in a notebook, and beside the information, a code number would be placed. Then I would take the name, address and phone number off of the recipe and place the code number in their place before presenting them to be judged.”
First round judges were asked to judge recipes by appeal, availability of ingredients in our area and clarity of instructions, Winters said.
“Over the years we have received an average of 175-200 recipes each year, and from these, the first round of judges must choose the one they like best from each category, declaring the winner by the code number,” she said.
“These winners are called and asked to bring their recipes to the Daily Home’s Talladega office on a given day for the final round of judging,” Winters said.
“These judges have the privilege of seeing the dish and tasting it. They judge by appearance, taste, appeal and clarity of recipe. That’s when ‘the best of the best’ is chosen. One recipe is named number one for the year,” she said.
“I’ve met so many wonderful cooks from over the area during these 17 years,” Winters said. “It’s been a wonderful experience. Ladies like Evelyn Castleberry from Sylacauga, who won many times then told me she had won enough, and just not enter her recipes in the judging any more. ‘I just want to share some of my best recipes with others while I can,’ she said. Every penny of money Evelyn ever won was donated to the Sylacauga Boys Club.”
Myrt Pfannkuche of Pell City, who has won several times and takes her winnings straight to the front desk at the Daily Home and gives them to Shoes for Christmas, Winters said.
“The contest has never been about money,” she said. “It has always been about having fun and sharing recipes. It’s about sending a copy of the cookbook to the family at Christmas with one of your own recipes highlighted.
“It’s about pulling the cookbook out when you want a special dish for a certain occasion, and finding one belonging to a neighbor,” Winters said. “The Holiday Cookbook is really ’family.’
Through the years, there have been a number of requests for putting all the recipes together in one publication, said Barbara Wilson, business manager for the newspaper.
“We’ve been wanting to do this, and now, we finally have,” she said.
Wilson said readers had commented on it being hard to keep up with the yearly tabloid editions.
“I thinks this will be very convenient for people, and very used,” WIlson said.
“I’m so glad we have the opportunity this year to share ‘the best of the best,’ with you,” she said. “Every person in this book made a special effort to share a recipe for a dish that meant a lot to their family.
But that’s true of every person who has dropped an envelope of recipes in the mailbox for the cookbook over these last years.
“It’s never been our cookbook,” Winters said. “It has always been and always will be your cookbook, and I’m so proud to be a part of it.”
About Laura Atchison Laura Nation-Atchison is The Daily Home features editor.
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