I Won! I Won!

Gasp. I won. I won a scholarship to the America’s Test Kitchen cooking school!!

Oh, that’ so sweet of you to be so happy for me! And you should be. Because I’ve never won a dang thing in my entire life. Not even a cheap made-in-China stuffed animal from those ‘claw’ machines at disgusting pizza parlors owned by large gray mice named Chuckie. Nope, lucky is not my middle name.

But today it is. I was in Costco today when I received an email that made me so giddy I had to pull over at the disgusting cheesecake section. (Please don’t tell me you like Costco cheesecake. Do not.)

I saw this post last week and thought, what the hay, why not enter?

Maybe when they picked me they knew I had just on Wednesday made their recipe for Lemon Sugar Snack Cake. (Recipe found in their Family Baking Book or click here.) My friends loved it, my kids loved, and I ate three pieces, so obviously I loved it.  This is my new gotta-have-cake-right-now-to-shove-in-my-face cake to make. Stupid tight pants.

Or maybe they had a crystal ball and looked deep into the orb and saw that I own way too many of their cook books. And that for nearly ten years I’ve been making their Chicken Pot Recipe which has given me rock star status with friends and family.

Maybe they knew that all I’ve been doing lately is cooking from their Best of 2012 magazine because my daughter has been home-bound after her surgery. Go get this magazine now (I got mine at Costco and it should be displayed until March 26th, says the cover) and try the buttermilk baked chicken, garlic knots, creamy orzo, eggplant casserole, boston cream pie, 7-layer dip, and especially the chickpea cakes with the worlds greatest cucumber raita sauce I’ve ever had. I even asked Paul to make the buttered carrots and he has become a pro at them. He’s made them three times. Giddy-up. (Shhh…don’t tell my kids that sometimes I put my shoes on the couch. When they buy a couch, they can put their shoes on it.)

And maybe they just had a feeling that I’m super cool despite what my high school boyfriend said. Oh wait, I didn’t have a high school boyfriend. See, I never won anything!! Either way, stay tuned, I’ll get a guest post on their blog in May to talk about what I’ve learned.