John Morrell & Co. Award $10k to Recipe Winner
Sherrie Merkle is a busy Fort Thomas wife and mother with two young sons. Whenever she had to make a quick dinner, she turned to her jambalaya recipe, but never dreamed the meal would make her a national recipe contest winner.
"I ran into Kroger one day to buy the ingredients for my jambalaya and on the John Morrell package of ham there was a entry form to send in your best recipe," Merkle said. "I never enter contests and I'd been making the jambalaya for so many years that I didn't even have measurements for the recipe, it was just passed down through my family."
Merkle had to make the jambalaya three more times before figuring out the exact measurements and sent her recipe into John Morrell on the final day it was due.
Jennifer Doerger, director of public relations for Sunrise Advertising, the company that handles the John Morrell account, said the national recipe contest was an idea that came about after the meat company launched their new ham bites in resealable packaging this year.
"We received more than 1,000 recipes nationwide and then began to narrow them down by deciding how original they were and how easy they were to prepare," Doerger said.
"After the recipes were narrowed down, they were made and judged on taste and appearance."
Doerger said that while she wasn't the lucky one to taste Merkle's jambalaya, she spoke to other tasters who said it was, "awesome."
Kroger at Crossroads Boulevard in Cold Spring, where Merkle purchased her jambalaya ingredients, hosted a party and check presentation, Friday, Nov. 17.
John Morrell Category Manager Jay Farmer was also on hand and said he was, "very excited to have a local winner."
John Morrell is headquarted in Cincinnati.
It was Farmer who called Merkle to tell her she was the national winner.
"I was working at Johnson School's Hullabaloo Festival when Jay Farmer called to tell me I won," Merkle said. "It was so noisy, that I didn't understand him so I wasn't sure if I'd won a cutting board, or $10,000."
Merkle said when Farmer arrived at her home with paperwork for her to sign, she was shocked.
"I don't consider myself much of a cook at all, my husband and sons are so excited though," she said.
Merkle said she plans to use her prize money to remodel bathrooms and put the rest in her childrens' college fund.
"Plus, I'll be donating some of it to Uncle Sam," she laughed.
Merkle said from now on, whenever she makes her jambalaya she'll be grinning from ear to ear.
"I'll probably be entering a lot more contests now," she said. |
