Local cooks still have one week to submit recipes for the Leader Holiday Recipe Contest.
Home cooks of any age who live in Jefferson County, Eureka and Wildwood are invited to send in their best recipes.
Recipes may be entered in five categories: appetizer, soup, salad, side dish and dessert. Readers are welcome to submit a recipe in any or all the categories, up to a maximum of five entries per reader.
The deadline for submitting recipes is 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1. Recipes may be submitted by email at news@myleaderpaper.com; by mail at P.O. Box 159, Festus, 63028; or in person at 503 N. Second St. in Festus.
To be eligible for the contest, entries must include the following information:
■ The submitter’s full name and address.
■ A daytime telephone number.
■ Complete instructions for the recipe.
■ The category in which the recipe is submitted.
■ Any information about where the recipe came from and why it’s special.
Recipes that are family favorites, that use ingredients in novel ways or that have a history or story attached are preferred. Recipes taken directly from websites or cooking shows will not score well.
Winners in each category will receive $50 cash and two tickets to the six-course Leader Holiday Dinner set for Friday, Dec. 13, at the Viking Room at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, where those five recipes will be prepared and served by culinary students at the college’s Area Technical School. Diners that evening will vote for their favorite of the five dishes, and that winner will receive an additional $250. As of Oct. 22, the dinner is sold out.
The winning recipes and as many as space permits will be published in a Holiday Recipe and Gift Guide special section in the Nov. 27 Leader paper.
Since its inception in 2014, the dinner, a collaboration between the college and Leader Publications, has raised about $26,000 for the Jefferson College Foundation. The money typically is used to send students to culinary competitions across the region.
At the dinner, students will put on food demonstrations and sell student-made vinegarettes. Some of the Jefferson College’s Area Technical School (ATS) classes have made and donated door prizes for the dinner.