The world's No. 1 cooking magazine presents the biggest recipe contest in its history

Greendale, WI -- America, start your ovens -- and stoves and grills and food processors .... For 15 years, Taste of Home, the world's largest cooking magazine, has celebrated the joy and comfort home cooks receive from cooking, caring, and sharing, making it America's Recipe Box. Now, one of those recipes could strike gold in the magazine's biggest contest ever: America's Best Loved Recipe Contest. The contest has four categories to enter, with the winners in each category competing for the $25,000 grand prize. Honoring Taste of Home's dedication to home cooks, readers and visitors to the Taste of Home Web site, www.tasteofhome.com, will choose the ultimate Best Loved recipe next spring.

Taste of Home's reader-submitted recipes capture the neighborly spirit of our pass-it-over-the-fence tradition. Its readers demonstrate their love of cooking more than in the magazine's contests, which have become its most popular feature. Whether it is lasagna (4,580 entries), cake (9,000 entries), or rhubarb (4,500 entries), the quality and quantity of the submissions are astonishing. With no special ingredient or technique required -- just an original recipe you think can be the best -- America's Best Loved Recipe Contest is sure to be a reflection of how America really cooks.

America's Best Loved Recipe Contest has four categories for submissions reflecting different lifestyles with winners in each category competing for the grand prize:

* Classic: Tried and true family favorites

* Light: Recipes that are lower in fat and calories

* Time-Saver: Taste great but require less time or effort to cook

* Serves 2: Recipes that make the perfect amount for two

"Taste of Home has nourished America for 15 years. Our readers take great pride in their cooking and love to share their favorite recipes," says Catherine Cassidy, editor-in-chief of Taste of Home. "We expect a huge response and think this contest will capture the very essence of home cooking in America."

For America's Best Loved Recipe Contest, Taste of Home will select the winners in each category, each of whom will win a selection of prizes, including an all-expenses paid trip for two to the Taste of Home headquarters. But for the first time in Taste of Home history, America will serve as the grand prize judges. The winning recipe receiving the most votes will be deemed America's Best Loved Recipe.

Wondering if that casserole everyone asks for over and over is really that good? Think grandma's secret recipe needs to be shared? Get cooking and enter. You could win $25,000 and the title of America's Best Loved Recipe.

To enter America's Best Loved Recipe Contest:

Log on to www.tasteofhome.com/bestloved or send your recipe and category choice to Taste of Home: America's Best Loved Recipe Contest, 5400 S. 60th St., Greendale, WI 53129. Entries must be received by midnight CST on March 1, 2009. For complete rules visit www.tasteofhome.com.