Some people spend snow days sledding, catching up on sleep, or vegging out in front of the TV.

When bad weather closed Iowa schools on Monday, Diane Sparrow’s son, a teacher, headed over to his mom’s house to test her Pillsbury Bake-Off entries.

Sparrow, of Osage, Iowa, has qualified or placed in dozens of cook-offs, from the prestigious Bake-Off with its million-dollar prize to the more obscure Great Garlic Cookoff, which awards bragging rights, $1,000, and a crown made of garlic bulbs to its winner.

She averages about three or four entries a week and her persistence has paid off. She has won a GE Advantium oven, a Whirlpool refrigerator, four food processors, five Kitchen Aid mixers, Calphalon pans, Le Creuset cookware, three sets of professional knives, three smokers and a barbecue grill – not to mention wads of cash.

If you think Sparrow is a food fanatic with too much time on her hands, think again. She works two part-time jobs. She has four grown sons and a husband who jokingly complains that he has never eaten the same meal twice. And she’s not alone.

Sparrow is one of a handful of hard-core “contesters” whom Portland writer Amy Sutherland profiles in her book “Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America.”

“It’s a food book, but I always thought of it more as a culture book, a people book, a slice of Americana,” Sutherland, 44, said in the kitchen of her Munjoy Hill home. “It has this extensive world behind it.”

In 2000, Sutherland was work-

ing as a food and arts writer for the Portland Press Herald when a monstrous media kit from Pillsbury showed up in the mail. For the first time in ages, a Maine woman qualified for the extremely competitive Bake-Off, which is like the Super Bowl of cooking contests. As Sutherland flipped through page after page of recipes and bios, she thought, “This could be an interesting book idea.”

By the time she got back from the San Francisco contest, she knew it would be, and left the paper to start her research.

She expected to see middle-American housewives at the Bake-Off. And she did. But she also saw a hip video producer, a 73-year-old woman who had entered 35 times and – gasp – a handful of men. Among the group of 100, she also met a few contesters, amateur cooks who devote considerable time, creativity and mental energy to devising recipes, deciphering rules, decoding judges and delivering entries that usually make the first round of cuts.

“They’re still average people,” Sutherland said. “They’re just serious hobbyists.”

That’s where Sparrow comes in. Sutherland contacted Sparrow, who is known on the competitive cooking circuit as the queen of presentation, after the 2000 Bakeoff. They met at the National Chicken Cooking Contest, where Sparrow’s outfit matched the blue-speckled plates on which she served her Maple Mustard Chicken Drumsticks. She served her Sticky Sauce of Dijon Mustard and Maple Syrup alongside the plates in a pitcher she had custom made to complement the ensemble.

This exacting attention to detail may seem a bit obsessive, but it can make the difference between first and second place. And for Sparrow, it’s everyday stuff. So when Sutherland asked to interview her for the book, Sparrow raised an eyebrow.

“It was really hard to understand what angle she would take with it,” Sparrow said by phone from Osage. “Right up to the end, I couldn’t imagine how it would have any broad interest.”

When it comes to cooking, Sparrow’s instincts are right on, but she missed the mark when it came to “Cookoff.” Since its release in November, this insightful, often witty, look into the intense world of competitive cooking has garnered attention from foodies and voracious readers alike. It made Entertainment Weekly’s “Must List,” nabbed a sound bite on National Public Radio’s “Marketplace” and was included in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s fall books gift guide.

“I think she did a really good job of representing all sides, from the competitiveness to the warm, fuzzy moments,” Sparrow said.

In a style that evokes author and journalist Susan Orlean, who is best known for her book “The Orchid Thief,” Sutherland captures the people – some naughty, some nice – of the cookoff world. Her subjects range from the party-hearty chiliheads at the Terlingua, Texas, chili competitions to the diminutive, elderly woman who concocted the Tunnel of Fudge cake in the 1966 Bakeoff, which was the genesis for the immensely popular Bundt cake.

“That’s what I think is so cool about these contests is that they give the average American a chance to make a huge impact on American cooking,” Sutherland said.

Though the Bake-Off, with its focus on quick and easy cooking, caters to the average, time-starved American, many of the competitions award innovative, upscale recipes that require more effort. When Sutherland went to Sutter Home’s Build a Better Burger Contest, the winning entry was Soy-Glazed Salmon Burgers with Ginger-Lime Aioli. Sparrow’s Asian Chicken Stacks with Wasabi Cream came in second at the Great Garlic Cookoff.

“They introduce ingredients to a broad number of cooks – you now see pine nuts, Feta, and cilantro regularly in these contests,” Sutherland said. “Ten years ago you couldn’t find these things in the grocery store. I think the contests have had a lot to do with that.”

People may not cook up a salmon burger or spend an hour assembling a garlicky tower of chicken and gyoza wrappers, but they may start incorporating new ingredients into their old standbys. These award-winning recipes may even cause people to conjure up their own creative recipes.

That’s what happened to Sutherland while she was wrapping up “Cookoff.”

Her first stab at competitive cooking started out well enough. Inspired by her visit to the National Cornbread Cookoff, she gave the Southern favorite a New England twist with Cranberry Pumpkin Cornbread Coffeecake with Pecan Streusel. After a less-than-exciting first try, she tweaked the recipe and tested it out on a group of friends visiting from Vermont. It was the day of the Southern Living Cook Off’s entry deadline. The friends loved their brunch, and Sutherland thought she had a winner, so she ran inside and frantically typed in her ingredients online.

The next day, she realized she had made a disqualifying mistake. In her ingredients list, she left out the pumpkin.

At first, she considered never entering another contest again, but she was in too deep. She said she often misses the deadlines. Hopping from coast to coast for her current project, a book that focuses on the exotic-animal training program at Moorpark College outside Los Angeles, leaves her with little time to experiment. But on a recent visit, the rules for Florida’s Natural juices cooking contest were stuck to her fridge with a magnet.

Her last entry in the contest, Oven Poached Halibut with Grapefruit Juice, was tasty, but not a finalist. She figured that an entr?e made with grapefruit juice would stand out in a sea of orange juice desserts.

Most of the winners were orange juice desserts.

Her Asian-style cheeseburger didn’t make the cut at Sutter Home, but it has become the standard at the Sutherland home. Her husband, MaineBiz editor Scott Sutherland, loved it.

And recently, a new vision has been dancing in her head: Barbecue Brisket Benedict, on Texas toast, with a bit of barbecue sauce stirred into the Hollandaise and a slice of brisket in place of Canadian bacon. Blame it on the book – she has recipe fever.

“It’s given me an ego and a confidence far more than I ever expected,” Sutherland said. “Now I can’t quit thinking of new recipes.”

“Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America” is available at select Maine bookstores and on Amazon.com.

Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8287 and kandresen@bangordailynews.net.

Cranberry Pumpkin Cornbread Coffeecake with Pecan Streusel

10 to 12 servings

Streusel topping:

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Batter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs

1 can prepared pumpkin

1 1/2 cups cornmeal

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-inch cast iron pan with Pam.

To make the topping: Toss together the flour, pecans, brown sugar and nutmeg. Pour in the melted butter and stir until the mixture is moistened and crumbly. Set aside.

To make the batter: In a bowl, beat the sugar, brown sugar, and melted butter to blend. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and continue beating until light and fluffy. Mix in the pumpkin. In a separate bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients gradually, stirring until completely incorporated. Mix in the cranberries.

Pour the batter into the cast iron pan and spread evenly. Crumble the streusel topping over the top. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a rack. Serve at room temperature.