Here we are again, almost a year later and another cookie has been selected as the $1 Million Grand Prize-winning recipe. I am the first to say congratulation to Sue Compton, Delanco, New Jersey. The cookie looks sweet and delicious and I am sure there will be lots of bakers rushing to make these little jewels over the coming months.

I am still waiting however for Pillsbury to step up to the plate and have a good old fashioned Pillsbury Bake-Off that requires good old fashioned baking skills; no pre-packaged dough or mix, just flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt, chocolate morsels, you know really good chocolate and the like. Is that too much to ask? I’m a baby-boomer and I remember a time when we did not “dumb” down the skills of the American baker. I guess this is about all we can expect since removing home economics/cooking from the middle schools.

What will it take to get back to the basics? Maybe a better questions is do we want to get back there or just continue the path we’re on and make cooking and baking as simple as popping a can? A Pillsbury can that is…