Elizabeth Caldwell of Zebulon won 7 blue ribbons in this year's N.C. State Fair cooking competitions, along with 2 red ribbons and 1 white. (See list of entries below). She was kind enough to share two of her blue ribbon recipes with us here.

The first is a pound cake recipe handed down from her mother. This year is the first time she entered the recipe. The second is a "Baby Ruth" candy recipe she entered this year for the third time. "Baby Ruth" won nothing the first year, 3rd place the second year, and 1st place this year.

Click below for recipes.

We have the recipes for the winners in Friday's "Live Well with Lean Beef" contest at the N.C. State Fair. All entries had to include eat least 3 oz of beef. The contest was sponsored by the N.C. Cattlemen's Beef Council.

The winning recipes were Healthy Skirt Steak over Farro Salad; Vegetable Stuffed Beef Rolls; and Cajun Stuffed Beef with Kale, Potatoes, and Apricot Sauce.

Below are the winning recipes from the Pecan Recipe at the N.C. State Fair. The contest took place on Thursday. Winning recipes were Cheesy Pecan Cranberry Crisps; Pecan, Sausage and Squash Crumble Pie; Pecan Pimento Cheese Puff Pastry Pinwheels, and Pecan Cranberry Casserole.

The competition was sponsored by the N.C. Pecan Association

Here are the winners in the Tar Heel Pork Challenge at the N.C. State Fair. The winning recipes were Roast Pork with Bacon Jam Glaze, a Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp and Grits Appetizer, a Fall Pork Casserole, Sizzlin’ Sicilian Stuffed Pork. The contest was sponsored by the N.C. Pork Council.

If you can't win a State Fair Apple Recipe Contest with something called "Caramel Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Rolls," you might need to hang it up. No problem for Mary Boury of Knightdale. She scored bigtime with the judges on that one and brought home the first place prize. Check out her recipe and other winners below.

Here are the winning recipes from The Incredible Edible Egg Quiche Recipe Contest, which was held yesterdray at the State Fair.

Here are the winning recipes from Sunday's Pillsbury Pie Contest. I can personally promise you that the Japanese Fruit Pie is delicious.

Great story by Andy Curliss in today's News & Observer about yesterday's Pillsbury Pie Contest. Andy talked to some of the winners and some longtime pie judges.

I was lucky enough to be a first-time judge this year, and I'll post more about that experience later today.

In the meantime, read Andy's story and be sure to check out the photo gallery link on the right side of the page.

Here are the winning recipes from the "Anything but Ordinary!" Sweet Potato Recipe Contest, which took place Saturday at the State Fair. As you can tell from the title of the contest, there are some unusual entries here!