If there's anything I've learned in my years of writing about food, it is that you can make this rocket science, or you can make it easy.

I mean, opening a box, dumping the ingredients into a bowl, adding water -- how tough is that?

The same is true for many cooking or food-related contests, about which I get dozens of e-mails every month. You don't even have to cook for some. Just post Auntie Em's favorite wooden-spoon-stirred recipe online, and you might win a trip to Disney World.

Some people have to get all beat up in the Super Bowl to do that.

Here's a sampling:

• J.M. Smucker Co. seeks original family recipes that use at least 1/4 cup of Smucker's jams, jellies, preserves or fruit butter and the story behind how the recipe makes family holidays special for its Spreading Smucker's Traditions contest. Grand prize winner wins a five-day, four-night trip for eight to Walt Disney World Resort. A winner will be selected by online vote from among five finalists. Deadline: Oct. 12; smuckers.com for details, entry forms and recipes from last year's finalists.

• Coincidentally, maybe, Jif's Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich contest continues through Nov. 13 (Smucker's owns Jif.) This one is for children ages 6 to 12. Grand prize: $25,000 college scholarship; four $2,500 scholarships for runners-up. You must use at least two tablespoons of Jif peanut butter in your recipe. Last year's winner: Po' Boy Peanut Butter Chicken Cheese Steak Sandwich (yeah, baby! as some chef says), submitted by Jordyn (no last name given), 10, of Lebanon, Pa. Finalists will be chosen by judges and posted for online voting in January. Check out jif.com for details.

• Also owned by Smucker's: Hungry Jack. For its Use Up the Box Recipe and Essay Contest, featuring Adam Gertler of Food Network, entrants must submit a photo and essay (by Nov. 9) using Hungry Jack products, such as syrup or pancake mix. Three grand prize winners get a year's worth of groceries paid as a $6,000 check; six runners-up get $100 Hungry Jack gift baskets. Details: useupthebox.com, where there's a recipe using Hungry Jack Mashed Potatoes in Macaroon Sugar Cookies. Really?

• Through Nov. 7, entries are being taken at folgers.com for the coffee company's Home for the Holidays contest. Tell what you think is "the best part of wakin' up at home during the holidays" (the dog at the foot of the bed?) and win a seven-day, six-night trip to your hometown, in the contiguous U.S. (if you're from Hawaii, it seems, sorry.) Five winners will be announced on or about Nov. 7.

• Here's my favorite, for the name alone: The Man-o-Manischewitz Cook-off sponsored by -- ta da -- The Manischewitz Co. You'll be crowned the "King or Queen of Kosher" and take home a $25,000 prize package of GE Profile kitchen appliances and cash. Five finalists win a trip to New York City on March 18 to compete at the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan, overseen by Chef Jacques Pepin. You do not have to be Jewish to enter, but your entree recipe must be kosher and include a new Manischewitz Broth product. Details: manischewitz.com.

• The Ripened Recipe Contest, sponsored by Dei Fratelli, runs today through Nov. 30. Use any variety of Dei Fratelli products in an original recipe and you can win a year's worth of the company's products. Details: DeiFratelli.com.

• Star Olive Oil's Flavors of the Mediterranean contest continues through Dec. 20. Grand prize: An all-expenses-paid trip to Catalonia, Spain, where you will have daily cooking classes, visit wineries and food markets and have a private olive-oil tasting and lunch at Star's Tarrega facilities. First 500 entrants receive free olive oil/vinegar cruets. Runners-up get Sur La Table gift cards. Details: starfinefoods.com.

• This one's funny and so Pittsburgh: Hungry-Man's Hungriest Firehouse in America contest. Turn in a list of what your firehouse eats in a week and a picture of the firefighters eating in the firehouse. Deadline: Dec. 15. Grand prize: $1,000 cash and one-year supply of Hungry-Man frozen entrees. Not a firefighter? Enter the I Am The Hungry-Man competition. Take a pix of yourself eating a Hungry-Man meal and tell why you are the Hungry-Man. Also, $1,000 cash prize but you get to be the "Dude Food Consultant" for a year and be on the product's Web site in a video. Ten runners-up get $50. All entrants get Hungry-Man coupons; hungry-man.com for details of both contests.

• Also apropos for the 'Burgh: Boboli's Most Valuable Fan contest. Submit your favorite Boboli pizza recipe and "enthusiastic expression of football spirit in as creative a way as possible" (video, poem, photo, painting, cheer are suggested) and you can win $5,000. Oh, come now: You do this every day in Steelers Nation! Get on it! Five finalists will face online voters. Deadline: Nov. 23. Entries will be featured on the Boboli MVF Map beginning Oct. 6; bobolifootball.com.

• For Hershey's Share the Bliss contest, submit a 150-word or less story about why you'd like to experience the 16.5-carat diamond Hershey's Bliss diamond necklace. (I sure can't think why.) Five women will be "blissed" with the necklace for two weeks, receiving it on a bed of Bliss chocolate and with a copy of "The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment That Transformed Their Lives" by Cheryl Jarvis (Ballantine, $15). It's the true life stories of women who collectively buy a diamond necklace. Deadline: This one has rolling entry deadlines, with the last deadline Dec. 4. Go to hersheysbliss.com for details.

Tonight's the night for "Off the Record IX: High School Confidential," benefiting the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank. This year's satire targets high school. Emcee: Ken Rice of KDKA-TV and featured humorists are Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt. Time: 8 p.m., Byham Theater, Downtown. Tickets: $20, $40 and $60. Reception and cash bar at 6:30 in the lobby. It's not too late to get tickets. Call 456-6666; offtherecordpgh.com. The event, put on by the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh AFTRA, is always a hilarious good time. It has raised $160,000 for the food bank since its inception.

Smithfield United Church of Christ's Apple Festival is tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Strawberry Way at Smithfield Street, Downtown. If it rains, the fest moves indoors. The menu: apple pie, dumplings, crisp and cider; cabbage and noodles, stuffed cabbages, pierogies, crafts, music. 412-281-1811.

Franklin's big Applefest is this weekend, too: franklinapplefest.com.

Barbara Knezovich of McKeesport offers cooking classes at her home. Her fall schedule: "Fearless Seafood" Oct. 28, "Stress-free Turkey" Nov. 11 and "Holiday Sweet Dreams" Dec. 9. All classes are $45 and begin at 7 p.m. 412-896-4442. . . . HEARTH, the nonprofit that empowers homeless women, will hold its Art of Wine & Food Event from 6 to 9 p.m. next Thursday at the Children's Museum, North Side. Music, silent auction, massages and a wine-tasting demonstration. Tickets: $60, VIP, $85 for early admission and valet parking. Call 412-939-2302; hearth-bp.org. . . . St. Vladimir Fall Ukranian Food Festival will be held from 11 a.m to 3 p.m. Oct. 10-11, 73 S. 18th St., South Side. Borscht to pirogies; raffle, ticket auction. Call 412-431-0687.

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