The winners in our back-of-the-box recipe contest prove that nostalgia and heart-warming memories are still the most appealing ingredients in any family classic. Just the smell of a dish cooking can bring back images -- good and bad -- that food manufacturers who developed the recipes to sell their products never anticipated.

Our readers sent us recipes for every dish imaginable. Their favorites ran the gamut from desserts like walnut squares and sea foam candy to main courses like beef fandango made with scalloped potatoes and ground beef to souperior meatloaf made with onion soup mix. But we wanted more than just the recipe from the back of the box. We wanted a little schmaltz, a story behind the recipe that would pull on our heart strings or tickle our funny bones. The winners did just that.

The five winning stories include tales of a young girl who was sure only Catholics were allowed to prepare the real recipe for tuna noodle casserole, teen-agers who baked a velvet crumb cake at a midnight rap session and a lasagna that took a whole family to prepare.

;+ First Prize: Karen Schott of Baltimore. Karen Schott says she hadn't thought of her mother's recipe for tuna noodle casserole for years until she saw our call for contest entries. Now, more than 40 years after she was forced to eat her mom's version of the '50s favorite, she recalls:

"Growing up in a Roman Catholic home meant that Fridays and holy days were meatless days," she wrote. "I came to believe at an early age that the road to heaven was paved with tuna noodle casserole. My sister and I figured out that one good serving was worth at least one full day less of purgatory.

"Like the parable of the loaves and the fishes, multitudes could be fed from a single endeavor. My non-Catholic friends thought it was great, so I invited them to share the abundance frequently, ** in order to lessen my burden of consumption. (It's documented in family records that my mother's casserole could have fed Ethiopia.)

"I have never seen the recipe written out, yet its ingredients are engraved on my memory like the old form of the Latin Mass, I

knew that it came directly from the Vatican to the hands of my mother and other Catholic homemakers. . . probably through some secret addendum to the rite of confession. Careless sharing of the recipe over back fences on laundry days enabled non-Catholics to find out about it. It's a tribute to nature that the tuna population wasn't completely wiped out during the '50s -- the height of the tuna-noodle craze."

Does she ever make this legendary recipe?

Never, she says. She had enough tuna noodle in her childhood to last a lifetime. Here is Karen Schott's mom's adaptation of Campbell's classic tuna noodle casserole:

Tuna noodle casserole

Makes four servings.

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's mushroom soup

1/2 cup milk

2 cups cooked elbow macaroni

1 cup frozen broccoli florets or 1 cup yellow corn

2 cans (about 7 ounces each) tuna, drained and flaked

1/2 cup crushed potato chips

In 1 1/2 quart casserole, combine soup and milk. Stir in macaroni, broccoli or corn and tuna. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until hot; stir. Top casserole with potato chips and bake another 5 minutes.

Second prize: Caroline Lenker, Rising Sun, Md.

When Caroline Lenker and her sister Laura think of the recipe 1/8 for velvet crumb cake, it brings back memories of the post-football game pig-outs during high school.

"After Dad picked us up from the game and drove us the eight miles home, he'd head on up to bed," she wrote. "Even though Laura and I were tired, too, and it was nearing midnight, we didn't stop to change out of our band uniforms just yet.

"Practically automatically, she'd measure out the Bisquick and I'd measure the water and get the egg. As the sweet scent filled the darkened house, we'd sit at the kitchen table quietly laughing and gossiping about who goofed up during the half-time show and who was out of tune.

"Although I haven't made a Bisquick cake since 1979, just seeing the recipe in print makes me smile to recall the innocence and exuberance of my high school years. It was really a wonderful time."

Velvet crumb cake

Makes 1 cake.

1 1/2 cups Bisquick baking mix

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk or water

2 tablespoon shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping, see below

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour square pan (8-by-8-by-2-inch) or round pan (9-by-1 1/2 -inch). Beat all ingredients except topping on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on medium speed for 4 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool slightly and spread with topping.

Topping: Mix 1/2 cup flaked coconut, 1/3 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup chopped nuts, 3 tablespoons butter or margarine softened and 2 tablespoons milk.

Third Place: Mary Jane Bruette of Reisterstown.

For Mary Jane Bruette, the lasagna recipe on the back of the San Giorgio box brings back memories of a family that cooked together when times were tough. She says the recipe became a favorite not only because it tasted wonderful, but because its many steps provided a job for her and each of her five brothers and sisters. At the time her parents were separated, and this was one of the activities that pulled the remaining family members together.

"I browned the meat and made the sauce from another recipe on the box," she wrote, noting that these days she grabs a jar of prepared sauce. "Rosanne grated the Parmesan cheese and squished it together with the eggs and other cheeses. Thomas counted out 12 whole noodles (the number required to fit three layers in our casserole). Charlene made the garlic bread. And Tim and Terrence ripped lettuce for the salad. My father had the most important job -- he washed all those dishes!"

Lasagna

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

1 pound ground beef

3 1/2 cups (32 ounces) spaghetti sauce

L 1 box (16 ounces) San Giorgio Rippled Edge Lasagna, uncooked

4 cups (2 pounds) ricotta cheese

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

4 eggs

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Brown meat in a 3-quart saucepan; drain fat. Add sauce and simmer 10 minutes. Cook lasagna according to package directions; drain water. Separate lasagna and lay out flat on wax paper or aluminum foil to keep the pieces from sticking together as they cool.

Combine cheeses, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper for filling. Pour about 1/2 cup meat sauce on bottom of 13-by-9-inch baking pan. Arrange 4 pieces of lasagna lengthwise over sauce, overlapping the edges. Spread 1/3 of the cheese filling over lasagna and cover with about 1 cup of the meat sauce.

Repeat layers of lasagna, cheese and meat twice. Top with a layer of lasagna, cheese and meat sauce; sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese, if desired. Cover with aluminum foil; bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove foil; bake about 10 minutes longer or until lightly browned. Allow to stand 10 minutes before cutting for easier handling.

2Honorable Mention: Marilyn Diugos, Ellicott City.

Plantation pralines from the Domino sugar box were the first thing that Marilyn Diugos learned to cook as a teen-ager and they are still a favorite in her household.

"It was the only thing I could cook when I got married," she wrote. "My husband assumed we would never have a weight problem with my cooking skills so limited. Thirty-one years later, 21 moves later and I'm a great cook, we are overweight and happy and this is still a favorite."

Plantation pralines Makes about 2 dozen.

3 cups firmly packed Domino light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups pecan halves

Combine brown sugar, cream of tartar, salt and milk in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Wipe crystals off the sides of the pan occasionally with cheesecloth. Cook until candy thermometer reads 236 to 238 degrees or until the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage. Cool to 220 degrees.

Add butter, vanilla and pecans. Beat until creamy. Drop from large spoon onto buttered surface or waxed paper and allow to cool. Or put the mixture into a pan and cut into squares when cool.

B2 Honorable mention: Kathy Krause of Perry Hall.

In the first years of their marriage, Kathy Krause's husband always requested that bake his favorite caramel squares. This recipe from the back of the Betty Crocker German Chocolate Cake Mix has brought fond memories ever since.

"With finances being so limited at first, we engaged in a variety of home entertaining, dining and wedding/baby showers between family and friends," she wrote. "The caramel squares were always my contribution as dessert. They were always consumed with enthusiastic enjoyment and numerous requests for the recipe.

"Over the years, I continue to bring these delicious squares to social pitch-ins and have given the recipe to more people than I can remember. Now when I make the 'Party Squares,' my 3-year-old son says, 'Mom, we go party.' Of course, I always make an extra batch for my two favorite men at home."

Chocolate-caramel layer squares Makes 12 servings.

1 bag (14 ounces) caramels

2/3 cup evaporated milk, divided in two

1 box German chocolate cake mix

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup chopped nuts, such as walnuts

1 package (6 ounces) chocolate chips

Combine caramels and 1/3 cup of evaporated milk in top of a double boiler and cook constantly until the caramels are melted. Remove from heat and keep warm.

Combine cake mix, remaining 1/3 cup milk and butter, mixing with an electric mixer until the dough holds together; stir in nuts. Press half of cake mixture into a greased 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 6 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the cake. Pour the melted caramel mixture over the chocolate chips, spreading evenly. Put the rest of cake mixture over the caramel mixture, return to oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes more. Cool to room temperature. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or until firm enough to cut into squares.