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__Nina Reyes |
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Chicken Picadillo Pie ..........Click the Edit tab and select this entry to open the recipe.
When Nina Reyes came to the United States from Cuba to attend school in Pennsylvania, she knew right away that she had found her true homeland. When she returned to Cuba to marry, Nina decided, "I will never give up until I return to the United States and this time it will be for good. Because this is the country of my heart."
Nina and her husband did return to the United States and raised their family in Miami. She entered numerous recipes in cooking contests. "Every time I entered, my son would say 'Mom, don't you ever give up?' and I said 'I'll keep on trying, and we shall see who laughs last.' Many times I lay awake at night, mixing up things in my dreams. If I can't go to sleep, l cook in my mind. Sometimes I get up and write the idea down, so I don't forget."
One night Nina's dreams turned to what has been called Cuba's national dish, Picadillo. Picadillo is a special dish, almost like barbecue, or chili, in that every cook prides herself on her own version, with many variations. Some cooks use beef, eggs, wine, peppers, raisins or almonds; others wrap their picadillo with a yeast bread instead of a pastry crust.
"I used to use so many people for guinea pigs," recalls Nina about testing her Bake-Off® Contest recipes, "and everybody feels differently. This time I thought, 'I'm not going to ask anyone how they like it. I'm just going to make it and send it in." Nina says she quit making her picadillo for years "because my crusts were nothing to brag about," but when she discovered refrigerated pie crusts she started making it again. Now Nina's Chicken Picadillo Pie is on its way to becoming an American classic. "That makes me so happy," says Nina.
From "Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off® Cookbook." Copyright 2004 General Mills. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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* Introduction - Bake-Off® Contest __Marilou Robinson __Nancy Hindenach __Reta Smith _ Don't Mind Her. She's a Cook __Wayne Hu __Karen Durrett __Marilyn Belschner _ Changing the Tools of the Trade __Del Tinsley __Gilda Lester _ Celebrities __Linda Wood __Ellen Burr __Nina Reyes __Gilbert (Gil) Soucy __Roberta Mintz Levine _ Hardware: It's Not Just for Carpenters Anymore __David Schmitt __Teresa Hannan Smith _ More Celebrity Notes __Norma Eckhoff _ Former First Lady and Prominent First Bake-Off® Celebrity __Barbara Benton __Margaret Hatheway __Karen Casillas __Ellen Nishimura __Alda Menoni __Annette Erbeck __Birdie Casement __Gladys Randall __Karen Kwan __Julia Hauber __Kevin Koors __Lisa Keys __Susan Cox __Leona Schnuelle _ Original Autographs _ Recipe Swapping __Lois Ann Groves __Susan Porubcan _ More Delivering-the-News Stories __Ted Viveiros __Linda Rahman _ Delivering the News __Janis Chudleigh __Edna (Holmgren) Walker __Margaret Kramer __Beatrice Harlib __Betty Chromzack __Elizabeth Zemelko __Ella Schulz __Kathryn Blackburn __Kathy (Gardner) Herdman __Kitty Cahill _ The Technical Side of Judging _ The Personal Side of Judging __Mary Anne Tyndall __Christie Henson __Christine Vidra __Dale Grant __Debbie Russell __Ella Rita Helfrich _ Fate __Janice Weinrick __Lily Wuebel _ Tricks of Memory _ Baking Power __Kristina Vanni __Kurt Wait __Dorothy Wagoner __Harriet Warkentin __Mary McClain __Phelles Friedenauer __Vesta Frizzel _ Mishaps with the Press __Leonard (Len) Thompson __Marion L. Maire __Bobbie Sonefeld __Dorothy DeVault _ Current Events __Rosemary Sport __Denise Joanne Yennie __Stella Riley Bender _ Cheesecake __Gina DeRoma __Maria Baldwin __Pat Harmon __Paula Blevllis-Russell __Sandy Bradley
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