__gilbert Gil Soucy Recipes

SUNNY'S SPICY GREEN GODDESS BURGER

Steps:

• For the patty. In a large bowl, add the beef and gently break it up so it isn't in one big lump. High over the top, sprinkle the salt, cumin and a few nice grinds of black pepper. With your less dominant hand, make a claw or pitchfork and fold the beef over itself while turning the bowl with your other hand. The goal is to blend but not over-mix the beef. Divide into 4 equal parts and make into balls. Cover and let them rest at room temperature for 2 hours.
• For the glaze. In a medium bowl, add the jelly, cilantro, dill, mint, parsley, scallions and jalapeno. Stir to combine.
• To grill and glaze. Heat the grill to 400 degrees F.
• Press or form each ball of beef into a patty slightly larger than the circumference of the buns. Place over the direct heat of the grill and cook until they release, about 4 minutes. Flip the burgers, move to the indirect heat of the grill and immediately top each with a nice spoonful of the glaze. Continue to cook until desired doneness.
• For serving: To build the burgers, start on the bottom buns and build up. Place the cheese, grilled and glazed patty, a spritz of lime and a handful of chips on each. Smear equal amounts of avocado on the inside of each top bun. Top the burgers and serve.

__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.

__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.

__LILY WUEBEL

Steps:

• Part of Pillsbury's reason for starting the Bake-Off® Contest was to celebrate the many unsung heroes of America's kitchens, who hadn't received public credit for the trays of cookies, the platters of cakes and the baskets of bread that issued from their kitchens.Of course, for every Bake-Off® winner, there is still an unpublicized kitchen hero for whom the appreciation of her family is reward enough. Lily Wuebel was lucky enough to have both. When asked what he thought of his wife's $25,000 cake, Peter Wuebel said he'd always loved the cake, and "it's worth a million to me."From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

__GILBERT (GIL) SOUCY

Steps:

• A good number of the men who come to the Bake-Off® Contest do so from the army, or from a similar situation in which they've been cooking for their coworkers. Firefighter Gil Soucy works "saving lives, saving homes, saving and helping my brother firefighters." But when times are quiet, Gil doesn't let them stay that way, spicing things up by cooking for the firemen at his station and trying new dishes on them. "It makes for great fun. One time I made some venison, telling them it was steak. It came out good, and I never told them what it was." His fellow firefighters may not always appreciate Gil's mischief, but they always come running when a lively dish like Bean Picadillo Tortillas is served.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.