You came, you cooked and four of you conquered!

Our latest Ready, Set, Cook! Recipe Contest was nothing short of incredible. Exactly 317 home cooks went head-to-head, submitting original recipes that featured Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, dip mix or seasoning mix, along with at least four basic ingredients from our contest list.

The stakes? The chance to win one of four mega cash prizes and have your dish judged by Food Network host Sunny Anderson in the Food Network Kitchens!

Last week, after all the entries were in, Sunny joined the Food.com team for a fun tasting of our top 10 semi-finalist recipes. Before we kicked off the taste-test, the mission was clear for Sunny: “I want the ranch to be like, ‘Bam! In yo face!’”

So whose ranched-up dish took the top spot? Drum-roll please…

GRAND PRIZE WINNER ($5,000): Sirbarney takes the top prize with the hearty (and cutely named) Chicken Ranchiladas!

What Sunny had to say: “This is good,” she said. Then, after another bite, she stopped and her face lit up. “Wow! Just—WOW!” Not only was the dish delicious to eat, but Sunny loved its pleasant after-taste.

FIRST RUNNER-UP PRIZE WINNER ($2,250): turbotrixie’s creative Ranch Dusted Shrimp on Crisped Cheese Shells!

What Sunny had to say:  The taco shells—made out of a microwaved slice of provolone cheese—floored the judge’s table with its clever technique. “I love tacos, and this is a creative one,” she said. Sunny also loved that the dish used three different Hidden Valley products.

SECOND RUNNER-UP PRIZE WINNER ($2,250): laurielufkin’s supremely-satisfying Peppered Buffalo Ranch Shrimp Pizza!

What Sunny had to say:  “I am dumbfounded. Seriously!,” she said after her first bite—which wasn’t her last. “Oh no, I took another bite. And another,” she joked while munching away. “There are no words!”

PEOPLE’S CHOICE WINNER ($500): jaylinhawkins’ popular Spinach & Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breast, which received 77 glowing reviews!

What the home cooks had to say: Reviewers loved that this chicken dish was easy, tasty and elegant-looking. Plus, as billyocean1517 pointed out: “This dish is great for getting your kids to eat some veggies!”

A big thank you goes out to all of you who took up our challenge and showed off your creative cooking chops!

To see all 300+ entries into the contest, head over to our main contest page HERE »

And stay tuned for more great recipe contests coming soon. If you can’t wait, drop by our Games & Events forum for other fun cooking events lead by our awesome community and forum hosts.

Cheers,
The Food.com team

You also shared your cookie photos with friends, and everyone voted for their favorites to come up with our top cookies. And the winners are…

$300 First Place Prize: Tonya’s “Snow Penguins!”

$200 Second Place Prize: Danielle Cirillo’s “My precious Thanksgiving cookies”

$100 Third Place Prize: Crent2012′s Christmas Santa

There were so many really stellar looking holiday cookies shared that if it were up to us, you’d all be winners! We at Food.com had a few more favorites we saw in the mix that we just wanted to give a shout-out to — these folks really know how to make a cookie look almost too good to eat!

Don’t miss these other great cookies:

Simply Fresh Cooking’s Peanut Butter Cookies
Barry C. Parson’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
Jubes’ Spritz Cookie Flowers
superyumgirl’s Pecan Crisps
Marg (CaymanDesigns)’s Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprints

See all the cookie photos here »

Thanks to everyone who entered and voted! Happy holidays!

-The Food.com Team

breezermom with her son, Will

To cap off the year, we chose breezermom as December’s member of the month because of her tireless dedication to Food.com. As a “tag-a-holic” and host in our Photo Tag game, it is not surprising that she is one of our top contributors with 2490 photos and 2710 reviews.

Southern gal breezermom finds cooking relaxing and has no qualms firing up the grill anytime or preparing a two hour dinner after a long day at work. Read on to find out how she tested and tasted her way to a winning recipe in last month’s Ready, Set, Cook! recipe contest.

Tell us about yourself and why you like to cook. Living on the Gulf of Mexico, I grill quite a bit of fish (red snapper, grouper, amberjack), plus I adore scallops! It’s a tropical paradise, a white sand beach is only eight minutes away! I have two children. My daughter got married last September and my son is a student at the University of Central Florida. I was married for 25 years and loved to cook for my family. One of the fun things about being on my own is I can cook what I want when I want. I can come home at 7 pm, still make a very involved dinner and dine at 9 pm and there’s no one to complain about eating so late! Although nothing makes me happier than when my kids come home and ask for their favorites. It’s the best of both worlds.

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

You grew up in the South. Any down-home Southern dishes that you miss or that you make now? Memories of growing up in the South involve lots of okra picking and shelling of peas. Fried okra and crowder peas or creamer peas are still a favorite. Turnip greens (cooked with the turnip roots) with a slice of cornbread is often a meal on its own. Seafood Gumbo! Smoked Pork Butt is a favorite that I make, but it is an all-day affair. Another Southern favorite is Chicken Pot Pie.

Congratulations on coming in second place in our latest round of Ready, Set, Cook! recipe contest. Tell us how you came up with your prize-winning recipe – Mexican Stack Up. I love Mexican food, so I gravitated towards the corn, black beans and Monterrey Jack cheese on the ingredient list. From there I went to making burritos, enchiladas and finally ended up with the recipe. It was trial and error, I wanted something that would appeal to people that wanted a main dish or an appetizer.

What’s your most epic cooking flop? Did you cry? Save it? Or you just get take out? I didn’t know how to cook anything when I got married except toast and grilled cheese. My flop was making dried beans. Simple, yes, but I didn’t know you were supposed to wash and get rid of the grit and rocks. My new husband came home and got a mouthful of dirt and rocks. And yes, he ate it. And yes, I cried. After that flop, I decided to learn how to cook.

What drew you to Food.com? The recipes, other home cooks, something else? When I first joined, I was looking for recipes for my son. I headed back to college and went straight from work to school 3 days a week. I needed something he could pop in the microwave or oven and eat while I was in class because most of the time I did not get home until after 9 pm. Now I like the recipes AND the community.

What’s your favorite Food.com recipe? With all my reviews, you want me to pick one? Here’s a few favorites:

#1 Spinach with Raisins and Pine Nuts by TexasGriffLovers
I just love the flavor of the spinach with the sweetness of the raisins and the crunch of the toasted pine nuts. Plus: It is so quick and easy to make!

#2 Filet Mignon with Dijon Sauce by KellyMac6
A gourmet dinner ready in under an hour. And you feel like you’ve been treated instead of cheated!!

#3 Spring Mix with Walnuts, Cranberries and Goat Cheese by alligirl
I sub pecans for the walnuts and alternate goat cheese with feta, depending on what I have on hand. My son will eat helping after helping of this salad and that makes this a favorite.

#4 Mustard and Mayonnaise Glazed Asparagus by JanuaryBride
Another favorite of my son’s, this is so good cooked on the grill next to your favorite meat. I’ll heat the grill up just for this!

Know a good cook that should be our next Member of the Month? Or do you yourself want to be featured? Contact us!

Check out our past members of the month

• mickeydownunder
• lazyme
• Pot Scrubber
• GiddyUpGo
• La Dilettante
• Zurie
• 2Bleu
• Andi of Longmeadow Farm

Food.com is teaming up with our friends at FoodNetwork.com, CookingChannelTV.com and a few of our other favorite food sites to celebrate Thanksgiving. Since we can’t gather in person, we’re pulling up a chair to create a virtual Communal Table. Our contribution: A festive dessert without the fuss!

When it comes to Thanksgiving, I don’t get like to get fancy. Especially with dessert. Keep it simple, keep it classic—and make sure some type of pumpkin goodness is on the table.

This year, instead of—ahem—in addition to pumpkin pie, I’m serving up these beloved Maple-Frosted Pumpkin Bars from home cook jan007. Why? Because the only thing better than a pumpkin dessert is when it’s lavished with sweet, sticky maple-flavored frosting. Plus, with a prep time of only 20 minutes, these cakey bars are ready in just under an hour, making them a perfect holiday pinch-hitter when time is of the essence.

Another reason to love this recipe: All the helpful reviews! Based on what I read, I decided to bump up the pumpkin pie-y flavor by adding an additional 1/2-teaspoon each of ginger, ground cloves and nutmeg. I also knew imitation syrup wouldn’t cut it for the big holiday. So I pulled out the big guns: Grade-A Vermont maple syrup. Lastly, instead of the requested jellyroll pan (which I don’t own), I opted for a 9×11 Pyrex casserole dish. It took more time, but meant thicker bars—and who wouldn’t want that?

The result: Well, let’s just say you shouldn’t make these too far in advance of Thanksgiving day. If you’re anything like me, you’ll come up short for company!

—Mandy Major, Online Editor at Food.com

GET THE RECIPE: Maple-Frosted Pumpkin Bars

What five-star Food.com recipe is a must for your Thanksgiving table? Tell us by commenting below! Plus, see what our friends are contributing by checking out the links below or using the hashtag #pullupachair on Twitter.

Cocktails, Appetizers, Salads and Breads:
Devour: Maple Pecan Baked Brie
Liquor.com: Spiced Thanksgiving Cocktails

Mains:
FN Dish: Black Pepper-Pomegranate Molasses Glazed Turkey

Sides:
YumSugar: South-Meets-West Squash Casserole
Food Republic: Caramelized Onion and Prosciutto Macaroni and Cheese
Healthy Eats: Kid-Friendly Gluten-Free Honey-Cherry Stuffing
Fox News: Sweet Potato Grits

Desserts:
Food52: Meta Given’s Pumpkin Pie
BlogHer: Pumpkin Spice Caramels

Thanksgiving Leftovers:
EatingWell: Turkey and Leek Shepherd’s Pie
The Daily Meal: Ultimate Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwich
Eatocracy: Stuffpuppies

There are three important things you need to know about this month’s Member of the Month, mickeydownunder. One: She lives in Australia. Two: She is a huge fan of Mickey Mouse. And three: She is one of the (if not the most) positive people we’ve ever met!

A member since October 2002, Mickey is famous for her eternal optimism — just read any of her 679 recipe reviews where she always uses ALL CAPS to express her excitement and enthusiasm. Even a recipe that set off the smoke detector recently yields her signature phrase, “WHOO HOO!” (a nod to another of her loves, old steam trains).

Tell us about moving to Australia from New York – was it a tough adjustment? Moving to Adelaide, Australia from Long Island, New York in 1997 has been THE BEST decision of my life! Initially I had difficulty with the Australian Strine (slang and pronunciation), bold Aussie humor and I had to accept some of my favorite foods and ingredients were not available here. In time, I have mastered all that and most US foods and ingredients have become available now.

What’s the biggest difference between American and Southern Australian food? Off the top of my head, we have smaller food portions here, DEFINITELY! Due to our Mediterranean climate, we have year round fruits and vegetables. And Aussies love nothing more than to cook our meat (beef, lamb, chicken, pork) on the barbeque.

How cool that you went to a Beef Butchery class recently! Do you dream about becoming a butcher? Oh my goodness no! If the class taught me anything, it was to appreciate my local butcher more, but I did learn some good tips:

Tip #1: Always make sure your knife is sharp
Tip #2: Always REMEMBER your knife is sharp
Tip #3: Let your knife do the work when cutting and don’t apply too much pressure.
Tip #4: Cutting against the grain results “in the best cuts of meat.”

What’s your favorite Food.com recipe? I have found that participating in various contests and events in the community forums has allowed me to find undiscovered or overlooked recipes. Without playing favorites, here are some of my picks (not in any order):

• Moorish Saffron Meat Skewers by French Tart
• Beef Satay by JustJanS
• Kerala Scallop by me via BBC

Her Mum’s Special Spice Cake

Do you have any family or heirloom recipes that have been passed down to you?
Seeing that we are coming onto the Thanksgiving holiday, My Mum’s Special Spice Cake is a recipe that will ALWAYS be treasured by me. Mum used to bake many cakes between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The longer they stayed fully wrapped and in a cool place, the better they were. One year I found mum’s secret hiding place — her walk-in wardrobe. Mum would be smiling from the heavens above knowing I have shared this recipe that has been in the family for four generations!

What’s your most epic cooking flop? Did you cry? Save it? Or just get takeout? My most epic flop would have to be when I tried to make a lemon meringue pie when I had a concussion. The recipe called for “peeling the rind” which I had NO IDEA what that was so I YELLED out to my mum for the answer. She said, “Peel IT and put IT in!” So I peeled the lemon and put the fruit in and left the rind on the counter! When it came to the meringue, instead of adding an 1/8 of a teaspoon, I added 8 teaspoons of the cream of tartar! Oh, how my pie had the most WONDERFUL peaks that set like concrete on top! The end result was a very tart filling with a tough exoskeleton.

Know a good cook that should be our next Member of the Month? Or do you yourself want to be featured? Contact us!

Check out our past members of the month »

• Lazyme
• Pot Scrubber
• GiddyUpGo
• La Dilettante
• Zurie
• 2Bleu
• Andi of Longmeadow Farm

Drum roll, please….

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Congrats to food blogger and defending champion, May I Have That Recipe! This sister duo’s Zucchini & Tilapia Cups With Honey Sriracha Drizzle appetizer was our sponsor judge’s top pick for our Grand Prize of $1,500! This is the second Ready, Set, Cooks! win for May I Have That Recipe! Our guest judge loved this recipe’s creative use of aluminum foil and ingredients, and the Tilapia Cups edged out the rest thanks to great presentation. With two wins now, we are thinking there’s a cookbook deal in May I Have That Recipe’s future.


RUNNER-UP PRIZE WINNER: A huge congrats to a long-time Food.com member Breezermom, who won our Runner-Up Prize of $1000 for her Mexican Stack-Up! She was a favorite to win People’s Choice — her dish got a whopping 214 glowing reviews from its fans during our rating period, but the judge bumped her up to second place because her recipe was so great!

PEOPLE’S CHOICE WINNER: BOBUSHKA scored our People’s Choice Prize of $500 for her Bacon Lattice Tomato Muffins! BOBUSHKA’s dish, the second-highest rated recipe in the contest, only trailed Breezermom’s Mexican Stack-Ups by a few reviews, but thanks to Breezermom’s good fortune with winning second place, BOBUSHKA’s recipe grabbed the People’s Choice! Shows you it’s not over till it’s over!

See the official contest page & all recipe submissions HERE »

About the Contest:

The back story:  Our competitors accepted a basic recipe challenge:
Create an original recipe that featured Reynolds Wrap Foil® and at least four other official contest ingredients. (You can see the full rules and list of contest ingredients here.)

Competitors then shared the recipes with others to make and review, and see what ratings they received. The recipe our community members rated highest would ultimately land a $500 People’s Choice prize, and our sponsor’s special guest judge, blogger Jenny Brule of Finding Tasty, picked our big $1,500 Grand Prize and $1,000 Runner-Up Prize winners!

More Contests Soon? You Betcha!
Look for announcements for another special edition of Ready, Set, Cook! early next year. In the meantime, join fellow members in our forums for the Pick a Chef game, where long-time members review recipes from our newest members, and other fun community-run events – get details in our Contests & Games Forum here.

Thanks so much for creating so many great recipes and tasting and rating your favorites. We hope you had as much fun making and trying them as we did seeing the entries roll in! In the end, the contest recipes got more than 800 reviews!

Happy cooking!
Jasmine, Kristine, Liza & the rest of the Food.com team

For October we chatted with Seahawks fan and Cooking Games With Friends co-host lazyme. Self-described as a hopeless game addict, she help planned this year’s Zaar World Tour and Pick A Chef community events. When she’s not searching for recipes, she’s making friends with fellow home cooks. In fact, she has made some great friendships through Food.com and has met around 35 of those online friends in person since joining in March 2006!

Tell us about yourself: Life in WA? I love living in the Pacific Northwest – it’s so beautiful. My husband (Don) of 30 years passed away three years ago so my life has changed a lot. I recently moved from the city to a little rural island on the sound. I wake up every morning with a beautiful view of the water and Mt. Rainier if it’s a clear day.

View of Mt. Rainier

You’re a big Seahawks fan! What dishes do you love for tailgating? I LOVE the Hawks! I’ve had season tickets for 35 years — since the very first year they played! I love making and eating all types of football/tailgating foods and have tried many from the site. Probably two that have gone over very well with guests are Bacon Nachos and Santa Rosalia Style Hot Dogs. Yum.

Tell us about the cooking contests you run with your friends. Sounds like fun! It’s so much fun! And all skill levels and ages can participate. The little ones (and non-cooks) are great at stirring. In a nutshell – I pick a theme (Mexican, Italian, Asian, etc.) and buy all of the ingredients. Then we randomly divide guests into two teams and they try to create a great meal without recipes. I don’t join a team, but provide themed appys, drinks, music and snap photos. We’ve had some really terrific meals. And a couple of really awful dishes! But that’s the fun of it. We vote for the best and worst dishes by secret ballot — and extra points are given out for the best table setting. Everyone goes home with a prize and memories of a really fun time.

Mashed Potatoes With Caramelized Onions

What’s your favorite Food.com recipe? I’ve always loved simple comfort foods. I don’t eat them often but sure crave them during stressful times. My top four favorites (which were really hard to narrow down):

• Loaded “Baked” Potato Soup
• Crispy Oven-Fried Chicken With Gravy
• Blackened Chicken Pasta With Alfredo Sauce
• Mashed Potatoes With Caramelized Onions

Tell us about your food photography. I have never been that good at photography but I figure that if you can identify what’s on the plate in my photos, then it’s good enough!

What’s your favorite and least favorite ingredient? Pasta of any kind is probably my favorite. I have a very small list of things that I won’t eat. Beets and brussels sprouts top that list.

Grandkids making (and eating) a trifle – some actually made it into the bowl!

Tell us about spoiling the grandkids. Have they started to cook? We’ve had great fun in the kitchen together – including a couple of whipped cream fights. Sometimes it might take a few days to get my kitchen clean again – but it’s so worth it!

What’s your most epic cooking flop? Did you cry? Save it? Or just get takeout? Oh gosh. One memory popped into my mind immediately. Many years ago when Don and I first got married, I had never met my MIL (mother-in-law) before. So we were having her over for dinner after a Seahawks game. We had just bought our first microwave and I was so excited to give it a try. I bought a huge prime rib and set it up in the microwave on a slow-simmer option while we were at the game.

When we got home my pricey prime rib had shriveled up into a small dry chunk of what looked like a piece of charcoal. Obviously, I read the instructions wrong. My stepson hit the kitchen and asked why I had made jerky for dinner. We made a quick run to Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner that night. Although I was in total panic mode, I just laughed.

Know a good cook that should be our next MOTM? Or do you yourself want to be featured? Contact us here!

Check out our past members of the month »
• Pot Scrubber
• GiddyUpGo
• La Dilettante
• Zurie
• 2Bleu
• Andi of Longmeadow Farm

Since becoming parents thirteen years ago, our family has put well over 100,000 miles on the family truckster taking trips to visit family and criss-crossing the good ‘ole U.S. of A. My husband and I firmly believe that road trips are one of the best things a family can do together. When you’re a foodie, where you eat is just as important as where you go. We’ve stumbled upon some of our best meals (and created our best memories) while on the road with the kids. Here are some of our tips for planning your own frugal foodie road trip and creating memories to last a lifetime.

Chain Restaurants are Strictly Prohibited
For our family, it’s mom-and-pop eateries all the way. No matter how much they beg, we don’t allow our kids any stops at the Golden Arches, nor do we pick up any buckets of chicken. The foodie road trip is all about new experiences, and the best way to do that is to avoid anything you’re used to doing. Not only are mom-and-pop restaurants typically more frugal than the chain restaurants, they’re usually a lot tastier. They don’t rely on commercial hype to stay in business, but rather good food and reasonable prices.

Let Your Smartphone Lead the Way…to Restaurant Bargains
Apps like Yelp and TripAdvisor are great for taking the risk out of choosing a new restaurant. Filtering the reviews by cost is a great way to find inexpensive restaurant gems in out-of-the-way places. Without Yelp, we never would have landed upon Dee’s Hangout in Panama City Beach or Tom’s BBQ in Memphis. Keep in mind that the number or ratings a restaurant has, the more reliable the review. While you’ve got your phone out, don’t forget to “check in” on Foursquare, where restaurant discounts abound. We’ve received perks like a free glass of wine, a kids’ dessert, and free appetizers just by checking in.

Eat Like the Locals
Sampling regional foods is a must on a foodie road trip, no matter how strange or unappetizing the dish sounds (bribing our 8-year-old son with a $1 bill to eat his first raw oyster on our last road trip was hilarious, and we’ve got the video to prove it!). Crossing a few things off your culinary bucket list is a must, but does get challenging the older you get. After all, there isn’t a whole lot my 44-year-old husband hasn’t tried. On our last trip, both he and I were able to sample turnip greens and speckled butter beans at Bruce Cafe in Florida, surrounded by mounted deer heads and redneck kitsch. Good times.

No Repeats
One of our road trip rules is to not to eat the same thing twice. It gets us to sample new things and try foods we normally wouldn’t order. This can be especially hard for kids, when most children’s menus have the standard five choices. For the little ones, you can adapt this rule by saying no eating the same thing two days in a row.

Don’t Forget the Foodie Souvenirs!
Foodie souvenirs help keep the memories of your road trip alive long after you’ve unpacked the suitcases and settled back into your familiar routine. My husband collects t-shirts from some of the best dive restaurants we’ve visited. They’re a great conversation starter, and serve a practical purpose. Other great frugal foodie souvenirs include mugs, magnets, and cookbooks from the places you visit. Want to go the free route? Start a collection of matchbooks, coasters, napkins or takeout menus from the places you visit.

About the Author: Kimberly Danger is the creator of Mommysavers.com and author of Instant Bargains: 600+ Ways to Shrink Your Grocery Bill and Eat Well for Less. Her food blog, Frugal Bites, chronicles her foodie adventures and features her favorite recipes. She lives with her husband and two kids in Mankato, Minnesota.

Know anyone or would you like to be one of our guest bloggers? Contact us at Help@Food.com with “Guest Blogger” in the subject line.

Time for Ready, Set, Cook!

The gist of the contest is simple: Create an original recipe that features at least four of our official contest ingredients. But there’s an extra twist! Your dish must be prepared using aluminum foil. Are you a foil packet griller? Do you turn to foil to make baking easier? What other clever ways do you cook with foil? Show us!

You can submit up to three original recipes to the contest (heads up: that’s THREE chances to win!) and your dishes can be mains, appetizers, side dishes or more. Your recipe just needs to feature at least four of our official contest ingredients, serve four people and, of course, feature aluminum foil.

MORE DETAILS:
To enter, dream up an original dish that features at least four of the ingredients below, plus aluminum foil. The official ingredients need to be integral parts of your recipe — that is, not just garnish! Then, head over to our official contest page and submit your recipe. You can submit up to three recipes, so get brainstorming!

Three Great Prizes to Score!

Once you submit a recipe (or three), you’re in the running to win our grand prize of $1,500 or our runner-up prize of $1,000. Our judges will be weighing all entries based on their creative use of aluminum foil, how the contest ingredients were used and overall quality and uniqueness of the recipe. Photos of your dishes aren’t necessary but certainly are welcome!

There’s also a People’s Choice award of $500! This $500 prize goes to the recipe that gets the highest amount of positive reviews from everyone. So be sure to make your dish for friends to try and ask them to come over to Food.com and a leave review on your recipe. Or share your dish around for others to make and rate. The more reviews, the better your odds for scoring that $500!

We can tell you’ve got a great idea already, so head over to our official Ready, Set, Cook! contest page, check out the rules and more details and submit your recipe(s) for a chance to win!

Be sure to enter your recipe by September 28!
Your friends have until October 12 to make, rate and review your dish — don’t forget that $500 People’s Choice prize!

Ready…set…cook! »

This month we chatted with home cook Pot Scrubber about cooking meals for one and his cheap bachelor-friendly recipes. You may recognize him by his alter-ego Dame Edna or one of his 300+ fun reviews. A regular fixture on Food.com since 2004, Potsie hosts the community’s Asia and Pets forums.

Tell us about yourself. I’m a simple man who lives a simple life. I’ve lived a bachelor’s life for the past 12 years in Dallas with my four rescue dogs: Farrah, Moose, Demon, and !Hercules!.

How would you describe your cooking style? How did you learn to cook? My cooking style is simple comfort food like what I was raised on. Men didn’t cook often in my family so I was a bit of a rebel. When I heard the stove calling, I was about 15 and taught myself to cook.

A real deal Cajun cookbook

How have cookbooks played a role in your culinary tastes? The Prudhomme Family Cookbook is the best cookbook ever written in history. I’ve made almost every recipe dozens of times. The introduction to each recipe gives an insight of the origin and why it is special to the Prudhomme family.

Do you have a favorite member here at Food.com? Are there anyone’s recipes you always make? If I had to choose someone’s house I would crash and never leave it would be Leggy Peggy.

What’s your fave weeknight meal when you’re in a hurry with no time to cook? I always keep a loaf of French bread, a jar of store-bought spaghetti sauce, a package of pepperoni, and some mozzarella cheese in the fridge. Then I just add whatever sad vegetables are left in the fridge and make a French bread pizza.

What’s your favorite Food.com recipe? Why do you love it? I reckon the dish I have made the most over the years is cipherbabe’s Swiss Turkey Burger. Served on a grilled onion bun with cheese and all the fixins, it’s a tasty food party in your mouth!

Pot Scrubber is mastering how to poach an egg.

What’s the one dish or technique that intimidates you? Poaching an egg. I’ve avoided trying it for years. I saw the movie Julie and Julia last week and decided to give it a go. I had disappointing results but I am convinced I can master the technique given a few more tries and ten dozen more eggs.

Confession time: What’s your guilty pleasure dish…you know, the thing you eat when no one is looking? A cheap can of Mary Kitchen Roast Beef Hash fried hard until crispy with some onions and cream gravy. It is 75% fat but I don’t care. I’ve also used fried pork rinds instead of breadcrumbs to top a casserole. Someone pray for me!

Cooking for one? Get these bachelor-friendly recipes »

Past Members of the Month:
• GiddyUpGo
• La Dilettante
• Zurie
• 2Bleu
• Andi of Longmeadow Farm