Food For Thought

It's already that time again. Get out your thinking caps and start cooking! The Pillsbury Bakeoff Contest is looking for that special recipe that they think is worth a million bucks (and based on the last two winners, it doesn't take much....). You've got until April to submit your recipes, and they'll notify the 100 finalists in the fall. The actual bakeoff will be held next spring.

A couple of tips that I learned from my Bakeoff experience:

1. Write your recipe in the same style that they use for their other recipes on their webpage. Lots of recipes get chucked purely over readability issues. Be very specific about all of the utensils and cookware needed.
2. Don't forget garnishes and other special touches.
3. Think like them - they're looking for a recipe they can put on the back of a package, so simple things are better. Looking at the category descriptions for this year, that's especially the case.
4. Make sure that you specify when to use all of the ingredients you list. Forgetting something as simple as listing when to add the salt and pepper and getting your recipe tossed would be a big bummer!
5. Look through your existing favorite recipes and see if there's something you can modify to include Pillsbury products. That's what I did.

Good luck!