__leonard Len Thompson Recipes

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• Earlier this century the traditional woman's work really was never done. Each week required a full day of baking, of washing and of ironing. Few would return to those days, but it did leave space for quiet family interaction that many feel is unfortunately missing from modern life. "My grandmother had a hearth oven, which she used to bake bread for the week," Gilda Lester recalls. "I helped her, and she always saved a small piece of dough for a pizza for me. I wouldn't give up those days with my grandmother for anything. I helped start the fire, then when the embers had smoldered for just the right amount of time, we cleared the oven for the loaves of bread. Most of my recipes are in my head. They are things that my grandmother, and then my mother, passed on 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.

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• Academy Award-winning Best Actresses Greer Garson (1942, Mrs. Miniver) and Helen Hayes (1932, The Sin of Madelon Claudet) smiled as other women received what some have called the Oscars of the kitchen in 1958 and 1959. Movie stars Irene Dunne, of the classic My Favorite Wife (with Cary Grant), and Jeanette MacDonald, best known for her musical films with Nelson Eddy (Love Me Tonight), floated through the crowds in the 1950s too, delighted to pose with the finalists who were the stars of their own kitchens. Television hosts have always paid an important role in the Bake-Off® Contest. Art Linkletter's antics provided thousands of wonderful Bake-Off® moments. Later, Bob Barker hosted eleven ceremonies. Recent years have seen television personalities Gary Collins, Willard Scott and Alex Trebek leading the festivities. Celebrities and diamond-clad stars aside, the joy of the Bake-Off® contestants always shines the brightest.From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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• Challenges are as certain in life as love and taxes. "1 like challenges," says Leonard Thompson. Len remembers childhood baking, using a temperamental gasoline stove. "You would have to tiptoe across the floor so the cake wouldn't fall." Len didn't get a chance to perfect his baking back then--the intervening years were dominated by the adventures of raising four children and navigating a successful career. But he always met the demands of making special time for family. "On weekends, usually on Sunday morning, it would be my pancake breakfast day, eggs, bacon, everything... the whole family uses my pancake recipe now."Since I retired I've gotten back into baking," Len says. The challenges had waited for him. For Thanksgiving he started a pecan pie, "but I made one little mistake, using a pan with holes in the bottom. Everything turned out fine-except there was a black cloud of smoke pouring out of the oven. Half the filling leaked out. And we were supposed to go to Thanksgiving dinner that day! My wife suggested I put chocolate pudding in there, so I did, topped it off with a little whipped cream, and named it 'Disaster Pie.' People really liked it, so I improved it ... My wife suggested that I enter it in the Bake-Off® Contest. I only sent in one entry, and lo and behold..." Chocolate Silk Pecan Pie was on its way to becoming a Pillsbury classic.Len considers his journey to the Bake-Off® Contest to have been as rewarding as the outcome. "Getting to the Bake-Off® Contest is a challenge, and if you like challenges, it's a tremendous one, and I do like challenges."From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.