TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO ENTER DESSERT RECIPE CONTEST

The clock is ticking.

Less than a week remains to enter the Southeast Missourian's first-ever Devilish Desserts contest. The contest deadline is Monday.

It's easy.

Send your favorite chocolate dessert recipe to: Devilish Desserts, Southeast Missourian, Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699. Please include your name, address and phone number.

Desserts can be in the form of cakes, cookies, candy or other sumptuous treats. The only requirement is that chocolate must be prominent in the list of ingredients.

All those who submit a recipe will receive a certificate of appreciation, and all recipes will be published on the Feb. 12 Home Page of the Southeast Missourian -- just in time for Valentine's Day.

Two specialists with the University of Missouri Extension Service will narrow down the recipes to the top five.

The five semi-finalists will be asked to bake up their desserts and bring them to the Southeast Missourian on the afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 8 for a taste test by a community panel of chocolate and cooking experts.

The winner will receive a year's subscription to the Southeast Missourian a $137.50 value. The four runners-up will win their choice of a Southeast Missourian comic-strip umbrella or the "Images of the Past in the City of Roses" hard-bound pictorial history book.

All finalists will be photographed and interviewed about their devilish desserts.

For more information, contact Joni Adams or Peggy Scott at 335-6611.