Home cooks around Putnam County are gearing up for another year of the cooking challenge competitions.
The competition week kicked off with something that a lot of people like to eat first, the dessert. The Putnam County Dairy Services Unit and the Dairy Farmers of America challenged cooks to come up with their best dessert using the ingredient cream cheese. 21 entries made it to the judging table Monday evening. While an overall winner will be selected among them, the local dairy farmers are glad to see their hard work lead to somebody's sweet success.
"Dairy farmers work very hard. So if they can make more products, good products taste good. That's great," said Art Schmersal, Putnam County Dairy Farmer.
Besides cream cheese desserts, cooks will be entering their best meatball, bread, bacon potato soup, and turkey tetrazzini recipes the rest of the week. The top three finishers each night of the cooking challenge competitions will get a medal and a cash prize for their winning dishes.
