Special to The News-Herald

AHOSKIE – Messy cooking has brought recognition to aspiring Ahoskie epicureans and cousins, Eliza and McKenzie Quattlebuam.

Their grandmother saw the entry form on a bottle of ‘all’ laundry detergent while she was doing the wash and encouraged both to devise a recipe and enter. Each started with their favorite ingredients, Eliza combined chocolate and peanut butter to create her Supriza Pizza and McKenzie mixed cherries and fudge sauce for her Black Forest Brownie Pizza.

&uot;It was great creating a recipe with our favorite ingredients,&uot; said McKenzie and Eliza.

After some messy fun, the duo submitted their recipes and found out a few weeks later that they were semifinalists. As semifinalists, Eliza and McKenzie’s recipes are online at www.all-laundry.com where area residents can go online and vote for them before Oct. 15, 2004. The top five recipes with the most votes will move on to the finals where they will receive an expense-paid trip to a cook-off competition on Nov. 3, 2004 at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City.

At the cook-off competition, Food Network chef Rachel Ray and a panel of judges will select one of the finalists as the grand prizewinner, based on their recipe’s creativity, imagination, palate appeal and degree of sloppy fun.

The grand prizewinner will receive a $25,000 scholarship and will prepare their winning creation with Ray on The Tony Danza Show, airing Nov. 9, 2004. The remaining four finalists will each receive $5,000 scholarships.

‘all’ laundry detergent developed the contest based on findings in a survey they commissioned coined, &uot;Messes to Masterpieces.&uot; The survey found an overwhelming percentage of moms (82 percent) said they would cook more with their kids if they didn’t have to worry about the mess.

And with more than 70 percent of children admitting to usually getting their clothes messy while cooking, it was a great fit for the detergent formulated to get out the top 99 most common stains.

Recipes are below:

Eliza’s Surpriza Pie

1 unbaked pie shell

2 eggs

1/2 cup of flour

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of white sugar

1 1/2 sticks of soft butter

1/2 cup of chocolate chips

1/2 cup of peanut butter

Chocolate whipped cream

1 bag of Reese’s Pieces(r)

Chocolate syrup

Crack the eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat them with a mixer until they are foamy.

Add all of the flour and sugar and mix vigorously.

Add butter and mix in.

Stir in chocolate and peanut butter chips until well blended.

Pour into a pie shell and bake at 325 degrees for one hour.

Top with whipped cream, Reese’s Pieces(r) and chocolate syrup to taste.

Can be served warm or cold.

McKenzie’s Black Forest Brownie Pizza

1 package of brownie mix

1 can of cherry pie filling

1 can of whipped cream

1 jar of cherries

1 squeeze bottle of fudge sauce

Follow brownie mix instructions and spread over a pizza pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let the brownie cool.

Pour cherry pie filling over the brownie and top with whipped cream and fudge sauce to taste.