Your best original recipe might just get you out of the kitchen for a couple days.

The 29th annual Times News Cookbook and Recipe Contest is underway, and this year's grand prize is a two-night stay at the Stone Lake Inn in Saylorsburg. The prize is valued at $400.Prizes for category winners thus far include grocery store gift cards and kitchen items. Everyone who enters will receive a Times News kitchen scraper.Categories this year include:• Appetizers: Hot or cold, dips, spreads, finger foods and salsas.• Salads, Sides, Vegetables: Fruit salads, Jell-O salads, meat salads, pasta or rice salads, salad dressings, vegetable salads or potato salad.• Main Dish: Beef, poultry, pork, fish, seafood, meatless meals, sandwiches, pasta, eggs and cheese.• Cooking with Kids: Kid friendly recipes, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, lunch box meals.• Health Conscious: Low-carb, low-fat, low-sugar, gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian.• Desserts: Cakes; pies; bars; brownies; cobblers; frostings, icings and toppings; cheesecakes; puddings; mousse; frozen desserts.One winner will be chosen in each category.Those six winners will be required to bring a sampling of their winning dish to the Times News office in Mahoning Township for a final judging, where our panel of judges will determine the grand prize winner.The final judging will take place the week of Oct. 10. The exact date is yet to be determined.Each category winner will be featured in the annual cookbook with a photo and short biography, as well as a photo of their winning dish.This year's cookbook will be published on Nov. 3.The deadline to submit your original recipe is 11:59 p.m. Oct. 2. All winners will be notified by Oct. 6.Mail recipes to: Times News, P.O. Box 239, Lehighton, PA 18235; Attention Donna Hall; or email her at

dhall@tnonline.com.Contest rules1. Written entries will be judged for completeness, clarity of recipe and originality. In case of duplicate recipe entries, the one with the earliest postmark will be entered.2. The same recipe may not be entered in more than one category. Categories must be clearly marked on each entry.3. Recipes must be created or modified by the contestant or a member of the contestant's family. Recipes previously published in a copyright publication are not eligible.4. Only one entry per category will qualify as a winner and only one winner per household.5. Professional food preparers and/or purveyors are not eligible to enter. Pencor and Times News employees and family members are not eligible to win prizes. Advertisers who submit recipes in the name of their business are not eligible for prizes.6. All recipes become the property of the Times News, which reserves the right to publish the entry along with the entrant's identity for prizes.7. Winners will be notified by phone and all prizes are final. No exchanges or refunds will be made.8. No purchase is necessary.9. To enter, each recipe should be neatly printed or typed on an 8½-by-11-inch sheet of paper, and must include (on the same paper) the contestant's name, mailing address and telephone number, as well as the name of the recipe and the category. Recipes should include the ingredients, listed in order of use, and the instructions should be clear and written in complete sentence form.10. Every entrant will receive a Times News gift.