Category: contest creations
Culinary Adventures of a State Fair Judge
October 14, 2019 | Posted by Wendy Perry under contest creations, Culinary Adventures, Mindless Mutterings from the Teacher's Lounge |

I always have such fun each year judging at the NC State Fair! Enjoy this tale…. “Culinary Adventures of a State Fair Judge”
Read… Culinary Adventures of a State Fair Judge Carolina Country Mag October 2017
I do declare! I had no idea until today I’d never shared this here on my blog. So here you go.
This week, the NC State Fair opens… and I love the fair! For a longggg time, I have had the fun opportunity to judge several of the daily cooking contests each year. How lucky am I?
Each day of the fair, there is a different cooking contest, most sponsored by one of our many awesome agricultural commodities here in North Carolina… and with pretty darn good prize money. I sometimes think I should give up judging and enter some of my recipes, but the annual “get-together” of old friends, colleagues in the world of us few home economists, local TV celebs and friends at the NC Department of Agriculture keeps me going back to my judges chair.
Since I’ve included all the goodies in my story, I’ll leave it at that. So do hop over to Carolina Country Magazine, where you can read my article I wrote for them a couple of years ago. I encourage you to enter next year. Just google “NC State Fair Daily Special Cooking Contests” about July or August. Get in your kitchen… fine tune your recipe(s) and enter! Just make sure to read the rules and criteria of each carefully… because if you don’t adhere to that, your dish will be put aside and disqualified!
This year, I’ll be judging NC Vegetables… Apples, Pork and Beef! Taste buds in training this week.
So… get your fair on this week! I hope to run into you there.
Sometimes you win… sometimes you lose! This time, I have a winner~ with Aunt Nellie’s!
January 27, 2019 | Posted by Wendy Perry under bacon & belly, contest creations, gluten free, honey, published, roasted goodness, sensational sides |

Aunt Nellie’s Bacon & Rosemary Roasted Pears n’Onions… kissed with Cinnamon Honey ~ Aunt Nellie’s 2018 State Fair Cooking Contest ~ 3rd Place Sides/Salads Winner
I love entering cooking contests. There’s rarely a win with so much great competition out there, but it’s fun coming up with ideas and getting in my kitchen to make what’s in my head come to life. But… every now and then, I end up with a winner, like my Aunt Nellie’s Bacon & Rosemary Roasted Pears n’Onions… kissed with Cinnamon Honey

Aunt Nellie’s 2018 State Fair Contest Winners
A few months back, friend Lisa Prince, who knows my passion for both entering and judging cooking contests, sent me a note about Aunt Nellie’s “State Fair” Cooking Contest. In case you don’t know, Aunt Nellie’s is a 90 year old company born in Wisconsin. Their products now include six varieties of glass-packed beets, onions, three bean salad, and red cabbage. Turns out, Aunt Nellie Jones (yep, there really was an Aunt Nellie) was a Home Economist like me… at the University of Wisconsin! And I didn’t realize until recently their first product was peas.
The contest had 5 categories, and I spent a ton of time (not to mention money) creating, testing, styling and photographing a recipe for each category. Of course, I surely was hoping for something more, (don’t we all?!?), but grateful for my 3rd place win in the “Sides and Salads” category. The prize was $25 and a box full of Aunt Nellie’s products. And I was very pleased with how this and all my recipes turned out. So maybe I will find other contests where I can tweak them and enter somewhere else since my entries are now the property of Aunt Nellie’s. That is the downside of most contests. Their fine print in rules usually states that entries become the property of the company where you entered… they can publish, use, and even change the name of it!
BUT… for those of you that don’t know but may be interested, recipes cannot be copyrighted. Processes to make a recipe can be, as are head notes/descriptives, but the recipe itself… nope. Anybody can take anybody else’s recipe and call it their own! But there is usually a way I can make revisions to a recipe to turn it into something else. And like others, I sometimes get inspiration for a new recipe from another I run across. My goal is to always create something that hasn’t yet been done 1 or 100 ways. That can be challenging, but most ideas in my crazy head are unique.
I don’t know I will do that (revamp) with my Aunt Nellie’s entries… but I did come up with a few mighty fine recipes and it would be a shame not to share some day!
The Aunt Nellie’s categories were…
Appetizers, Salads/Sides, Soups, Main Dishes and Desserts/Sweets.
So… one of these days, if I tweak my other entries, I’ll share those too. And since most contests prohibit entries that have been previously published, I’ll refrain from sharing them now in case I tweak to enter somewhere else. For now, I will enjoy this win as I’m sure there were hundreds, if not more, entries in the contest, and to be one of 15 is an accomplishment I’m tickled to enjoy! I “beet” out a many a fine cook for this honor and am excited to share with you… be sure not to miss my recipe down below.
I do hope you will pick up some Aunt Nellie’s Onions and make this really easy recipe and if you do, come over to my facebook community and tell me all about it!

- 8 sliced bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces
- 4 pears, unpeeled-cored and cut into 8 wedges
- 1 large red onion, peeled, quartered and sliced
- 1 15-ounce jar Aunt Nellie's Holland-Style Onions, drained
- 1 tablespoon dried rosemary, crumbled with fingers
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
- 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
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Preheat oven to 425. Scatter pieces of bacon on large roasting pan and place in oven while preheating.
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Prepare pears and red onion and place into large mixing bowl. Stir in drained onions and rosemary.
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Once oven has heated and bacon fat has started rendering, remove and pour bacon and drippings over pear mixture. Toss to coat well. Spread out onto hot pan and roast for about 30 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes, until onions and pears are caramelized and bacon is cooked.
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Combine honey and cinnamon.
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Once this roasted goodness is removed from the oven, drizzle with the cinnamon honey. Scatter with toasted pine nuts and blue cheese. Serve immediately.
Another Serving Suggestion:
For a rustic salad, while warm, toss the pear and onion mixture into a big bowl of fresh spinach to “wilt,” drizzle with the cinnamon honey and some great balsamic vinegar. Scatter with the pine nuts and blue cheese. Also great alongside roasted chicken, turkey, pork or grilled steaks!
OINKERS Biscuits Recipe… a little south in YOUR mouth Barbecue Sandwich Biscuit Bites with BBQ Gravy Dip
January 21, 2019 | Posted by Wendy Perry under appetizers, contest creations, cook & eat nekkid, cook'n with NC goodies, feastivals & festivals, here piggy piggy!, nekkid-throw cooking ~ what is THAT?, wendy's signature recipes |
Oinkers!! …“South In Your Mouth” skillet Barbecue Drop Biscuits
with BBQ Gravy Dip ©Wendy L. Perry, Inc.
(feel free to publish and share with credit please)
Recipe By: Wendy Perry
Yield: About 4 dozen snack-size biscuits.
For the whole Biscuit Day story… scroll on down below this post!
It’s tailgate time, and all across America, particularly around the south, that means it’s time to EAT…BARBECUE! Stadium parking lots are bustling with football fanatics who need tasty, yet quick and easy treats for themselves and guests. BBQ restaurants thrive and the long lines of “tailgate traffic” waiting for drive-through BBQ has already begun. BUT, if you swing by your local BBQ establishment the day or two before game day, you can toss these biscuits up faster than you can sit in that line on your way to the game… and grin as you zip on past those folks on your way to your pigskin party! Oinkers! are the perfect nibbler to pair with your favorite cold beverage and much easier to juggle than a sandwich, not to mention way more fun to eat. These are great warm or at room temp too… (just be sure to throw in your cooler during game time for safe post-game bites, IF you have any left.) Instead of messy BBQ sandwiches, surprise your tailgaters with these tasty alternatives… with bread, bbq, slaw and sauce IN the biscuit bite…with some BBQ Dip’n Gravy on the side! Great for skillet camping too! Happy Fall Y’all… and GO (insert fav Team here)!
OINKERS
Biscuit Ingredients
2 cups NC’s Midstate Mills Southern Biscuit® Formula L Biscuit Mix
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vinegar based BBQ Sauce (eastern NC Style-I use George’s)
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (or to taste)
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 pinch salt
few dashes black pepper
few shakes hot sauce (NC’s Texas Pete preferred)
1 1/4 cups firmly packed eastern NC barbecue, snipped with scissors if in big pieces
2/3 cups chopped slaw (yours or purchased)
BBQ Gravy Ingredients
1 bottle of your favorite vinegar based BBQ Sauce-I use 1/2 George’s original and 1/2 George’s Special sauces
1 Tablespoon brown sugar (if using a BBQ sauce that has no sweetener)
OR…use one of our many great “Western NC Style BBQ” sauces for a thicker dip!
To make BISCUITS:
Preheat oven to 425. Place cast iron skillet into oven to preheat.
In mixing bowl, combine all biscuit ingredients. Gently fold mixture until blended. Drop by heaping teaspoon size mounds onto hot greased cast-iron skillet. Mounds should be near, but not touching each other. Quickly place skillet back into oven. Bake about 9 minutes until tops are lightly browned.
To make GRAVY:
Pour 1 bottle of your favorite vinegar based BBQ sauce into heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce to rolling simmer and continue cooking until reduced into thick sauce. Or, use your own recipe and reduce as well. If you use a sauce with little to no sweetener in the ingredients, add about 1 tablespoon per bottle (or per 1-2 cups of sauce) of any one of the following:
- Honey
- Brown sugar
- Molasses
Serve biscuits, warm or at room temp, with BBQ Gravy in bowl for dip’n!
©Wendy L. Perry, Inc. (feel free to publish and share with credit please
For printable recipe, click here!
…gone to the dogs! Homemade “Frosty Pet nICE Cream” treats!
July 9, 2017 | Posted by Wendy Perry under contest creations, cook & eat nekkid, cook'n with NC goodies, doggie delights, feastivals & festivals, honey, ice cream & frozen treats, peanut butter, sweet potatoes, wendy's signature recipes |

My sweet Chamblee’s resting place….
Four years ago today, my sweet Speagle Chamblee crossed the rainbow bridge.
As I sat here looking at our pictures in this heat wave, and having seen a friend post pictures on facebook last night of commercially sold pet “ice cream,” I came to realize I’d never posted this pet recipe here on my blog!
On a last minute thought, I threw this together several years ago and entered it into the NC Sweet Potato Festival Contest “Miscellaneous” category where it won 2nd place! (It seems the last minute recipes I “throw together” are the ones that do best in contests.)

Frosty Pet “nICE Cream” Treats!
My sweet Chamblee was my guinea pig, and he did love my sweet potato “nIce Cream” treats. And guess what? They are people friendly too. So while making them for your fur babies, you can lick the bowl and spoon. This is a perfect recipe to get your kiddos involved in the kitchen. They will love these healthy snacks and feel so proud they made them for their furry best friends too.
Now being the North Carolina made foods evangelical that I am, y’all know I used NC made peanut butter (lots to choose from so use your favorite or quickly and easily make your own)…. and of course North Carolina Sweet Potatoes…. these grown just a few miles down the road!
So without further ado…. I will leave you with a little bit of my stroll down memory lane today of Chamblee…. who was by my side for 15 years.

My sweet Speagle Chamblee…. I miss him so.
And I think since I keep packets of baked sweet potato in my freezer (you DO do that don’t you?), in his memory, I will make my sweet little June Bug some today…. also a Speagle!

My sweet Speagle girl June Bug… I love her so!
Y’all have a “nICE” week… stay cool, and treat your babies to some “nICE Cream” treats too! A fun thing to do inside the air conditioning on a hotttt summer’s day.

- about 1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato
- about 1 cup nonfat yogurt SEE NOTES
- about 1/2 cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
- 1 squirt honey adult dogs only
- a few crumbled sweet potato chips, optional garnish
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Throw everything into a small bowl and stir together until well mixed. Portion out into small custard cups; cover and freeze. Remove from freezer a few minutes before serving to soften.
NOTE: Chamblee l.o.v.e.d. spicy hot potato chips (and so does June Bug), so if I have some on hand, I sometimes crush a couple of chips and/or sweet potato chips on top of his nICE Cream... making him his own little nICE Cream Sundae!
BE SURE THE YOGURT YOU -- -- USE IS FREE OF SWEETENERS, NATURAL OR ARTIFICIAL!
*** There are many people foods that are not safe for your pets. Before adding ingredients you might like in your nICE Cream to your pooch’s, be sure to look at safe pet food lists. The last thing you want to do is harm your baby with a treat.
OINKERS Biscuits Recipe… a little south in YOUR mouth Barbecue Sandwich Biscuit Bites with BBQ Gravy Dip (1)
February 21, 2013 | Posted by Wendy Perry under appetizers, contest creations, cook & eat nekkid, cook'n with NC goodies, feastivals & festivals, here piggy piggy!, nekkid-throw cooking ~ what is THAT?, wendy's signature recipes |
In honor of it being National Biscuits & Gravy Day, we are revisiting this post from a ways back. Now this isn’t your usual biscuits and gravy recipe… but I’m not your usual recipe developer, so keep reading. Back in summer of 2011, this recipe won 1st place in the first ever Midstate Mills Best Southern Biscuit Recipe Contest! Quite an accomplishment for this self-proclaimed NON-baker gal. From what I heard, there were some questionable looks on faces of the judges when they were handed this recipe on paper. (I understand.) However, once they saw and tasted the “Oinkers,” they wanted MORE.
As a Throw Cooker (Throw Cooking Nekkid Food!), this is perfect example of how I often cook and try to encourage others to cook. I just opened my fridge and had these ingredients, threw some together and “OINKERS” were born. You can use pre=made pork barbecue and slaw from your favorite place, or your own. Just yesterday, I threw a Boston Butt in the crock pot (<5 minutes prep) with some Eastern NC BBQ Sauce and let ‘er rip. I chopped up a little cabbage with some water in the blender (about 5 minutes to make) and drained… threw into bowl with a bit of salt, pepper and sugar… whirled in some mayo (only DUKE’s here) and chilled. So this weekend, when I’m tired of Barbecue Sandwiches, I will use these leftovers to make “Oinkers!” I hope you’ll make some and come back to let me know what you think.
“EnjOINK!”
(feel free to publish and share with credit please)
Recipe By: Wendy Perry
Yield: About 4 dozen snack-size biscuits.
For the whole Biscuit Day story…jump here and travel back to that day with me. I love a good festival and what’s not to love about BISCUITS?
What to throw together...
- 2 cups NC’s Midstate Mills Southern Biscuit® Formula L Biscuit Mix
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/4 cup vinegar based BBQ Sauce (eastern NC Style-I use George's original)
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (or to taste)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- few dashes black pepper
- few shakes hot sauce (NC’s Texas Pete preferred)
- 1 1/4 cups firmly packed eastern NC barbecue, snipped with scissors if in big pieces
- 2/3 cups chopped slaw (yours or purchased)
- 1 bottle of your favorite vinegar based BBQ Sauce (I use combination of George's Original and Special Sauces)
- 1 Tablespoon brown sugar (if using a BBQ sauce that has no sweetener) OR
- use one of our Western Style NC BBQ Sauces for your dip!
How to throw together...
- Preheat oven to 425. Place cast iron skillet into oven to preheat.
- In mixing bowl, combine all biscuit ingredients. Gently fold mixture until blended. Drop by heaping teaspoon size mounds onto hot greased cast-iron skillet. Mounds should be near, but not touching each other. Quickly place skillet back into oven. Bake about 9 minutes until tops are lightly browned.
- Pour 1 bottle of your favorite vinegar based BBQ sauce into heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce to rolling simmer and continue cooking until reduced into thick sauce. Or, use your own recipe and reduce as well. If you use a sauce with little to no sweetener in the ingredients, add about 1 tablespoon per bottle (or per 1-2 cups of sauce) of any one of the following:
- Honey
- Brown sugar
- Molasses
Notes
These are great for tailgate parties and picnics. You'll find these to be kid-friendly too and are a fun recipe to get them involved in making. Perfect for freezing (after cooked), keep on hand for a quick heat-up when friends drop by... a perfect pairing for cold beer on the patio as well.
©Wendy L. Perry, Inc. (feel free to publish and share with credit please
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