The Real Women of Philly Finals!

One of my foolproof secrets to making cooking for the family easy is never being without my basic staples. They are my go-to items at mealtime that give me tons of options, even when I seemingly don't have much to work with. If you open my refrigerator door on any given day you will ALWAYS find
Philadelphia Cream Cheese in there. I use it to make everything from sandwiches to breakfast casseroles and whenever the kids are hungry and I'm hopelessly staring into the fridge waiting for inspiration to strike, chances are good I'll go for the Philly.

As some of you might remember, a few months ago Good Bite asked me to do a video for Philadelphia Cream Cheese featuring my favorite appetizer recipe for Benedictine. Now, one of my favorite chefs, Paula Deen, has teamed up with Philadelphia Cream Cheese to bring you the “Real Women of Philadelphia,” a journey to find four fantastic female home cooks who will each win $25,000 and work to create a cookbook featuring viewers favorite recipes made with a little Philly.

I think it's a cool contest. Over 5,000 home cooks submitted videos of recipes they created using Philly Cream Cheese, and now they're down to 16 finalists. Four will be crowned the new hosts of the Real Women of Philadelphia, and on Wednesday, June 30th at 8pm EST, the Cook-Off event between the finalists will be airing live on the RWOP website and also here on weelicious.

If you check out the RWOP website, you can view any of the videos that have been submitted (the 16 finalists videos are highlighted). Paula Deen herself does a little blogging there as well. Plus, there is a community forum on the site too where you can join in the discussion about Philly recipes and your own cooking experiences. Obviously I'm all about fabulous women in the kitchen everywhere, and the ones on this site are friendly, talented and worth checking out and connecting with.