__bobbie Sonefeld Recipes

BEST BOBOTIE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onions in the hot oil until soft. Break the ground beef into the skillet and cook until brown.
• Place the milk in a shallow dish. Soak the bread in the milk. Squeeze the excess milk from the bread. Set the milk aside. Add the bread to the beef mixture. Stir in the raisins, apricot jam, chutney, curry powder, salt, and black pepper. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.
• Bake in the preheated oven 1 hour.
• While the bobotie bakes, whisk together the reserved milk, egg, and a pinch of salt. Pour over top of the dish. Lay the bay leaf onto the top of the milk mixture.
• Return the bobotie to the oven until the top is golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove bay leaf before serving.

MISSISSIPPI SLUGBURGER

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 175 degrees F (80 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Cut the crusts off the bread slices. Place slices on the prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in the center of the preheated oven until dry and toasted, about 45 minutes.
• Transfer toasted bread to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until you reach coarse crumbs.
• Place ground chuck, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder into a bowl. Add bread crumbs. Combine with your fingers, breaking apart the meat.
• Dampen your fingers with water and form mixture into hamburger patties.
• Heat ¼ to ½ inch vegetable oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place a patty into the pan and turn heat down to medium. Cook until well browned and crusty, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining patties, adding more oil if needed.
• Remove from the pan and serve on hamburger buns with mustard and pickles; sprinkle tops of patties with chili powder and/or cayenne if you like prior to serving.

__BIRDIE CASEMENT

Steps:

• If anyone ever asks you what it was like to live richly through the twentieth century, direct them to the story of Birdie Casement. "I married Russ," Birdie says, "then World War II changed our lives. We found ourselves wrestling with gas rationing, sugar stamps, tire shortages, among other shortages, and two wee tots....The following years were a merry-go-round of PTA, fund-raising, cake bakes, Brownies, Cub Scouts, car pooling, measles, trips to the zoo, picnics and all the fun, tears, brawls and challenges that go hand in hand with parenthood. Time flies, and soon no one was hurrying home for that noontime sandwich." Birdie became a kindergarten teacher and was nominated for Colorado teacher of the year. At the Bake-Off® Contest, she wowed everybody with her ebullience, her wisdom and, of course, her salad.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

BANOFFEE

Steps:

• Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, melted butter or margarine, and ginger until well blended . Press mixture into a 9 inch pie plate. Cool in refrigerator.
• In a sauce pan, boil an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for 3 hours. Monitor the water closely, to make sure there is always water in the pan. Remove can from heat and let cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Open can and pour toffee into pie crust. Allow to cool.
• Slice bananas over toffee.
• Whip 2 cups of cream and spoon it on top of bananas. Refrigerate before serving.

__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.

_ 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.

SABAYON

Steps:

• Pour a few inches of water into a pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low to keep water at a simmer. Combine egg yolks, water, Marsala, and sugar in a large heat-proof bowl and set above the simmering water. Cook, whisking constantly with a balloon whisk, until sugar is dissolved and mixture starts to thicken, about 2 minutes.
• Continue cooking and whisking until sabayon is the texture of mousse and holds its shape, 15 to 20 minutes. Lift bowl occasionally to let steam escape and keep eggs from overcooking. Serve immediately.

__LEONA SCHNUELLE

Steps:

• When Leona Schnuelle captured the Grand Prize in the twelfth Bake-Off® Contest, she suddenly found herself a celebrity in her small town of Crab Orchard, Nebraska. "Everyone seems happier when I arrive, even at the square dances. They say 'Hi, Mrs. Pillsbury!' Even though I miss a do-si-do now and then-they think I can bake a dilly of a bread! And all the fan mail I receive! It's exciting to hear from all the different people with all their different ways of life, yet they all seem so interested in a bread recipe." Especially with a loaf like Dilly Casserole Bread to pique their interest.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

__BOBBIE SONEFELD

Steps:

• Most people hear about Roberta (Bobbie) Sonefeld's Bake-Off® 2000 Contest win and immediately zero in on the $1 million Grand Prize she was awarded for her decadently rich Cream Cheese Brownie Pie. But Bobbie says the richest part of the experience was the Bake-Off® weekend itself, a dazzling trip she and her husband, Steve, have christened their "second honeymoon."The 2000 Bake-Off® Contest took place in the San Francisco Marriott, an opulent hotel in downtown San Francisco. "Neither of us had ever been to the West Coast," recalled Bobbie. "The way Pillsbury treated us was just great: Three gourmet meals a day plus all kinds of tours and sightseeing." An added benefit, said Bobbie, was that "all the activity had a calming effect." When the day of the cooking contest rolled around, "I was used to the idea." Didn't she get nervous? "Well, yes," she admits, "But I didn't get the butterflies bad until the night before. The next morning--once I was done baking and there wasn't anything I could do about it--I was fine. Then I thought, 'Wow, I already feel like a winner, it doesn't matter what happens next.'"What happened next is part of history: Bobbie's Cream Cheese Brownie Pie, entered in the Fast & Fabulous Desserts & Treats category, won the Grand Prize. The Sonefelds' second honeymoon became even more extravagant, as they jetted to New York City for a whirlwind round of television and radio appearances. They also went to Philadelphia to appear on QVC. Bobbie remembers New York as another great restaurant town where she had meals she never even dreamed of two weeks before.After an amazing week traveling the country together, Bobbie and Steve returned home to Hopkins, South Carolina, their full-time jobs and their family. And that's when the trip stopped being a honeymoon, and turned into a homecoming, as Bobbie and Steve returned to the loving arms of their very excited sons.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.