Sure, April 13-15 is a long way off, but Stephanie Hollowell's already got the dates booked: She's the lone Dallas resident competing in The 43rd Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest, which takes place at the Fairmont Hotel. And, yeah, it's a big deal: The grand-prize winner will walk away with a million bucks, not bad.

Pillsbury released the list of the 100 finalists this morning -- 100 out of the tens of thousands who entered their recipes -- and Hollowell's joined by competitors from Arlington, Lancaster and Flower Mound. But of the four, she's the only one offering a cookie -- Fudgy Chocolate-Peanut Butter Thumbprints, to be precise, which was also the name of my first band. --Robert Wilonsky

• Food News