Milk Contest Cookbook

The Best Milk Recipes in America Cookbook (1998, 33 pp.) features fifteen winning recipes from the (what else?) Best Milk Recipes in America contest.

This recipe booklet was available free in supermarkets with the purchase of a gallon of milk.

The contest was sponsored by the Milk Processor Education Program and the Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies Home Journal magazines.

Contestants were required to create recipes using fat-free or low-fat milk as an ingredient. Entries could be submitted for one of seven categories: snacks and appetizers, one-dish meals and casseroles, main dishes, side dishes, breads and baked goods, hot or cold beverages and desserts.

The Grand Prize was $5,500 and a special spot for the contestant in a Milk Mustache ad in the June 1998 issue of both magazines.

The Grand Prize winning recipe, submitted by Annette Erbeck of Mason, Ohio, was for Santa Fe Grande, a spicy Mexican version of polenta that could be served as a side dish. She is shown in the Milk Mustache ad inside the front cover of the booklet with a very appropriate caption: 'For Mrs. Erbeck, cooking with milk provided numerous benefits: Calcium, Potassium, and $5500.'

Other First Prize recipes and Honorable Mention recipes in the booklet are:

Curried Baked Pork Chops - Mary Ann Lee of Marco Island, FL
Southwest Peppered Cream Chicken - Mary Hawkes of Prescott, AZ
Peanut Butter Fudge Milkshake - Rhonda Flanagan of Edwardsburg, MI
Red Pepper Soup with Shrimp - Patricia Cassaro of Dallas, TX
Rocky Road Bread Pudding - Yvonne Hynes of Vestal, NY
Italian Parmesean Dinner Rolls - Linda Hallett of Hilliard, OH
Spicy Salmon Chowder - Ellen Burr of Truro, MA
Tomato Basil Strata - Judy Rockwell of Columbia, SC
Raspberry Delight - Betsy Tjapkes of Rothbury, MI
Orange Cappuccino Shake - Miriam Baroga of Fircrest, WA
Roasted Garlic and Cheese Spread - Barbara Lento of Aliquippa, PA
Pear Clafouti - Betty J. Nichols of Eugene, OR
Apple Bran Muffins - Tish Barlew of Signal Mountain, TN
Chocolate Coffee Coconut Pie - Jeanne Walker of Oxnard, CA

Fourteen additional recipes from the Better Homes and Gardens Test Kitchen round out the remainder of the booklet.

It's nicely illustrated with color photos and plenty of reminders that calcium and added nutrition play a vital role in a healthy diet.

The rear cover shows another Milk Mustache ad with celebrities Shirley Jones, Marion Ross and Florence Henderson.