Remember the red and white gingham plaid cookbook you received as a wedding gift?
Better Homes and Gardens published a basic volume that tutored novice cooks through beginning meal preparation techniques.Menus were simple, results guaranteed - unless you qualified as a "total disaster" cook like Carol Bartholomew.
Bartholomew's initial experience in the kitchen occurred when she set up housekeeping in a California apartment.
"I made it through school, was teaching and on my own before I really had to cook. I tried and tried again. It was the worst."
Anyone who knows the Holladay mother of six boys today would scarcely recognize her previous cookbook intimidation.
Bartholomew cooks of obvious necessity, but also with creative enthusiasm.
Enthusiasm coupled with persistence spilled over into the cooking contest business.
After three previous attempts in the state contest, Bartholomew was selected as Utah's representative to the National Beef Cook-off Sept. 20-23 in Seattle.
The beef titlist takes with her a recipe for Beef Cheddar Pie, an old-fashioned pot pie layered with ground beef and cheese and baked in a cheddar pastry.
Bartholomew has no shortage of testers for her contest entries.
Her son, Tim, 8, is the elbow-rubbing assistant in the kitchen.
"He loves to be where the action is. Whatever the job, stir, slice, cut or chop, he has an avid interest in cooking," Carol says.
Oldest son, Daniel, 13, speaks his mind about his mom's kitchen experiments: "It's exciting to discover what Mom is cooking next. When she did this pie for the beef contest, I had a few suggestions. I thought the filling was a bit dry; I suggested mom should add some cheese. She put mozzarella in and it was a lot better. My brother suggested a garnish of sour cream, but he puts sour cream on everything. We all liked it on the pie though."
The Bartholomew household testing panel agreed with the beef judging panel - Beef Cheddar Pie grabbed the top honors.
No stranger to honors in cooking competitions, Bartholomew contracted the contest bug with a neighborhood picnic outing.
After a host of negative comments on potato salad, neighbors decided to find a palatable potato salad for a block party. And Bartholomew walked away with her first prize, for the best salad within blocks.
"It was a little taste of winning, but it was fun," Bartholomew said. "That homemade ribbon started me on the contest circuit and I've worked at it since."
The inventive cook subscribes to the contest newsletter, mails out recipes and waits to collect prizes.
"Many times I don't hear anything back. Sometimes I'll get a coupon or an appliance or a cookbook. I won a trip to the national chicken cooking contest a couple of years ago and now I get to represent the beef people," she said.
With careful planning, the innovative cook doubled the storage space in her kitchen with a remodeling job.
"I cook a lot and the old kitchen drove me crazy. Maybe I cooked more so I could justify the remodeling, but now I have space to work more comfortably."
That work includes teaching friends and neighbors how to cook.
And continuing the contest circuit.
Bartholomew is baking another pie - cherry this time, however, for the Great American Pie contest at the Utah State Fair.