State Fair Cook-Off Queen Shares Winning Recipes and Ted Bundy Tales

Carol Bartholomew is a Utah State Fair cook-off queen, having won dozens of cooking contests since she first began entering in 1987.

Every year, she routinely takes home a few hundred dollars in fair prize money. She won the Governor’s Favorite Pie Contest in 2005, 2009, 2014, 2016 and 2021. (The Fair didn’t host a Governor’s pie contest in 2022, or she might have won then, too!)

She’s been a finalist in both the National Beef Cook-Off and the National Chicken Cooking Contest. At the State Fair, her Beef Asparagus Lo Mein won the “Beef— Anywhere, Anytime” cook-off in 2011, the same year that her Utah’s Honey Buns also took first place in the Fleischmann’s Yeast “Bake For The Cure” whole grain category. In 2009, she took first place in the Governor’s Pie Contest, second place in the Beef contest, and third place in the Fleischman’s Yeast contest.  And those are just a few of her many winning cook-off recipes. 

“Contests are a little intimidating, because you’re having someone taste and judge your personal creation,” Bartholomew said. “I’ve walked away empty-handed many times, I’ve learned not to take it personally. You have to just enter as a learning experience.”

A former schoolteacher, she made a tradition to give each of her students $5 of her cook-off prize money to spend on a personal service project. The kids wrote essays about how they spent the money, which has included feeding homeless pets, making cookies for a neighbor, making a quilt for a homeless shelter and raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

It was a great learning experience on how each person can make a difference.

  “It was very successful with the students,” she said.

Having personally judged some of the Utah State Fair cook-offs over the years, I can vouch for Carol’s abilities.

But ironically, one of Carol’s recipes that sticks most in my mind is the banana nut bread she never made. When an acquaintance, Ted Bundy, was arrested for murder, Carol was so sure he was innocent that she wanted to bake some banana nut bread and bring it to him in jail. Seriously.

It was 1975, when Carol Hall was a single grad student at the U. She was cleaning up after a friend’s birthday party, when a handsome law student she barely knew offered to help with the dishes.

He seemed so polite and personable, and Carol thought he might ask her out. Another law school student and friend, Wynn Bartholomew, snapped a photo of Carol and Ted washing dishes together. Years later, Carol thinks that photo may have saved her life, by keeping Ted from targeting her.

“If any harm had come to me after that night, there would have been photo evidence connecting Ted to me,” she said.

 It might have been why Ted never did ask her out.

She and Wynn Bartholomew dated and married later that year. When they heard that Bundy had been arrested for kidnapping, raping and murdering multiple women, they thought it was a mistake. Carol’s first thought was to bake and bring him some banana nut bread; but it impossible since he was in maximum security.

  As the grisly details of his crimes came out, Carol and Wynn were shocked to realize how they had been deceived by Bundy’s phony persona. As a chilling reminder, the photo of Carol and Ted doing dishes ran on the Deseret News front page the day of Bundy’s execution in Florida.

But, I digress! On a more positive note, here are some of Carol’s prize-winning recipes:

TRIPLE BERRIES ON A CLOUD PIE

(Winner, Governor’s Favorite Pie Contest, 2021)

Pie crust:        

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. sugar

2/3 cup butter-flavored Crisco shortening

Mixture of: 1 beaten egg, 1 Tbsp. vinegar, 1/3 cup ice water

Cream cheese filling and garnish:

1 cup whipping cream

1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Berry topping:

1 pkg. (4 ½ oz.) raspberry Danish Dessert

1 cup water

2 cups frozen, sweetened triple berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries)

½ cup granulated sugar (or more to taste)

Extra berries and cream cheese filling for garnish

Pie crust:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt, and sugar.
2. Using a pastry blender, cut in Crisco to create particles the size of small peas.
3. One tablespoon at a time, sprinkle liquid mixture over flour mixture and toss with a fork.  Do this until the dough holds together, creating a large ball.
4. On a floured surface, roll our pastry to a large circle, 1” larger than an inverted 10” pie pan.  Gently place pastry in pan; trim if necessary.  Fold under edges and crimp.  Pierce with fork entire inside of pie.  Bake at 450 degrees for 11-14 minutes or until golden.  Remove and cool.

Cream cheese filling and garnish:

1. In a medium bowl using electric beaters, beat whipping cream until fluffy. Separately, whip together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Beat cream cheese mixture into whipped cream.
2. Spread the cream cheese mixture on the bottom of the baked and cooled pie crust.  Reserve approximately ¾ cup of this mixture for garnish. Chill both in refrigerator.

Berry topping:

1. In a medium saucepan, add Danish Dessert and 1 cup water; cook over medium heat, stirring, until thickened. Add frozen berries and sugar.  Add more sugar to taste, if desired.
2. When berry mixture has completely cooled, pour over cream cheese layer in pie.  Chill well.

Finishing touches:

1. Using a pastry tube, make swirls of reserved cream cheese mixture around edges of pie.
2. Top each swirl with a berry.
3. Makes one 10” pie.

UTAH’S HONEY BUNS

1/2 cup warm water

2 packets Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast

2 teaspoons sugar

2 cups milk, scalded

2 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup honey

5 cups whole wheat flour, divided

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup wheat gluten

1 tablespoon dough enhancer

1/2 cup flax seed

2 cups all-purpose flour

Place warm water in measuring cup; sprinkle with Fleischmann’s Yeast and sugar; allow to sit until foamy. In bread mixer, place scalded milk, salt, butter, brown sugar, and honey; mix well. Beat in 2 cups of the wheat flour; then beat in eggs; then add softened yeast, gluten, dough enhancer, and flax seed. Gradually add rest of wheat flour and all-purpose flour. Knead until dough is smooth. Turn dough into greased bowl and let rise until double; punch down and let rise again. Punch down and form into 6 portions to from rolls. Roll each portion into a 6-by-10-inch rectangle; cut with pizza cutter into 8 strips; form rosette shape and place each on pan with parchment paper. Let rise until double. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden. Brush with Honey Glaze. Makes 48 Honey Buns.

Honey Glaze:

1 cup melted butter

3/4 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon orange zest

Mix ingredients in small bowl and brush rolls with glaze.

— Carol Bartholomew of Salt Lake City, 1st Place Whole Grain Bread. (2011)

Fleischmann’s Yeast “Bake for the Cure” Contest

BEEF ASPARAGUS LO MEIN

1 pound beef top sirloin steak, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil

2 3-ounce packages beef-flavored ramen noodles

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut to 2-inch pieces

2 1/4 cups water, divided

1/2 cup hoisin sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger root

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Garnish: Chopped green onion (optional)

In a large skillet or wok, stir-fry beef in oil for about 5 minutes, or until meat is no longer pink. While beef is cooking, cook ramen noodles in saucepan with 2 cups boiling water and 1 of the seasoning packets added, for 3 minutes; when done, cover and let stand.

Add garlic and asparagus to beef; stir-fry to 2 minutes or until asparagus is crisp-tender.

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup water and 1/2 teaspoon of the other ramen seasoning packet; stir in rest of ingredients and pour over beef/asparagus mixture. Stir-fry for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Drain noodles and place on platter; spoon beef mixture over noodles. If desired, garnish with chopped green onion. Serves 4.

Options: If asparagus is not available Chinese pea pods (snow peas) can be substituted.

— Carol Bartholomew of Salt Lake City

1st place, Beef—Anywhere, Anytime Cook-Off (2011)