It’s time to get out those cookbooks and send in your favoriterecipes for the Wooden Spoon Cookbook Contest and possibly win someextra spending money for the holidays.

The annual favorite has been moved to the fall this year, justin time for holiday cooking.

“We felt more people would be cooking in the fall,” said DAILYLEADER Lifestyles Editor Tammie Brewer. “It will also give cookssome new ideas and recipes to try for the upcoming holidays.”

The cookbook will be published in the newspaper on Nov. 14.

The contest is now in full swing and recipes have been coming indaily, said Brewer. The deadline to submit recipes is Monday, Oct.13.

“Cooks have just a little over a week to submit theirfavorites,” Brewer said.

Cooks can submit their favorite recipes in the six standardcategories of Appetizers; Soups, Salads, Fruits; Main Dish;Vegetables; Desserts and Sweets; and Bread and Rolls. A newcategory this year is Family Recipes, inspired by Brookhaven’s150th Anniversary.

“As part of the 150th Steering Committee, we thought this wouldbe a great way to get people involved in the celebration,” Brewerexplained. “We’re hoping lots of people will submit theirhand-me-down recipes.”

Brewer also reminded contestants to include a short paragraphabout where the recipe originated, which will be shared withreaders.

Each contestant may enter one recipe in each of the seven prizecategories. Recipes should be typed or legibly written on one sideof an 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper. Entrants should not put theirnames on the recipe sheet but should affix an official Wooden Spoonentry form or copy to the sheet. (See page 6C in the Lifestylessection for additional rules.)

Finalists will be asked to prepare their dishes on a specificday so judges can make a selection of winners based on the taste ofthe dish.

The grand prize winner of the Wooden Spoon Cookbook Contest willbe awarded $300. Each individual category winner will win $50.There are also prizes donated by local merchants, which will begiven away during the awards ceremony for finalists.

“This is a good way for some lucky cook to win a little spendingmoney for the holidays,” Brewer said.

Chad Ainsworth, of Wesson, walked away with the grand prize forhis “Stuffed Pork Loin With Crawfish Stuffing” submitted in theMain Dish Category.

Ainsworth was a first time winner in the contest.

Brewer also said last years’ hardbound “Wooden Spoon Cookbook,30 Years of Recipes” was so popular that a limited number of copieshave been reordered in time for this year’s holiday season.

“The hardbound cookbook was so popular last year,” Brewer said.”We’ve had a lot of people asking if we were going to do it again,so we did.”

The hardbound version includes the finalists and winners fromthe past 30 years, including the 2007 winners. The book retails for$25 and is available in the business office of The DAILYLEADER.

Brewer reminded everyone that the Wooden Spoon Cookbook Contestis open to anyone in The DAILY LEADER’s and the SouthwestMississippi Shopping Bag’s circulation area. Employees of thenewspaper and their immediate families are not eligible to enterthe main contest, but will have a separate category of theirown.