Bustling Salesperson-Cook Manages to Sandwich In a Contest, and Wins It

Lauren L. Kelley, 34, of Dana Point has gained a measure of fame and fortune with her concoction called “The Wild Cranberry Gobble,” which took first prize in a recent Newport Beach sandwich stack-off.

But despite a flood of telephone calls of congratulations from friends, family and a beau in Holland, she remains the same woman who wind surfs, sells high fashions in Nieman-Marcus and cooks terrific homemade soup.

“I admit I got a little nervous, but I knew I was going to win,” said Kelley, who combined turkey, cranberry sauce and watercress on toasted cinnamon raisin bread to create the “Cranberry Gobble.” More than 100 others competed, also giving strange sounding names to their creations, such as the “Incredible Edible” and “The Islander.”

Kelley now concedes that it probably wasn’t an all-time great sandwich contest. “But I loved winning,” she said, and noted that the contest didn’t put any pressure on her. In fact, there wasn’t even an entry fee. “Actually, there really wasn’t even much motivation for me to enter. I just wanted to be in one.”

Kelley’s Gobble was declared “The Best Sandwich of 1987” and she was named “Earl of Sandwich,” an obvious oversight.

Besides the $100 first prize and a trophy, “I got a chance to meet (restaurant critic) Elmer Dills,” said Kelley, who would be hard pressed to eat in most restaurants he reviews since she’s a basic vegetarian and health food advocate. “He even gave me a kiss,” she said, which she admitted had pleased her even though Dills is anything but a vegetarian.

Part of the contest rules called for her to shop for the sandwich ingredients at the sponsoring Irvine Ranch Market in Fashion Island in Newport Beach, or Kelley said she would have made most of the ingredients from scratch.

“I usually cook my own bread and make my own cranberry sauce,” she said, while preparing two of her Gobble sandwiches for a photo.

The “Wild Cranberry Gobble” sells for $3.95 as sandwich of the month at the Fashion Island market, but for do-it-yourselfers, here’s the recipe:

6 oz. fresh turkey sliced inch thick

2 slices cinnamon raisin bread (sprouted 7-grain bread)

3 oz. cranberry sauce

1 oz. safflower mayonnaise

1 bunch of watercress

Lightly toast bread, brush with mayonnaise and load on the above. Garnish with red apple slices.

For 49 years, Deeforrest (Dee) Fee, 72, of Anaheim had toiled for Anaheim to maintain the city parks and especially the baseball field

at La Palma Park. It seems right the city will name it Dee Fee Field on March 18.

Fee retired last year as a parks supervisor, and held the record as

city employee with the longest service. “But he still keeps coming

around to keep an eye on the field,” said Parks Supt. Jack Kudron.

Fee said he thinks “it’s kind of nice what they’re doing and I’ll probably stop by and see some ball games some of these days.”

When you’re talking pep squad dynasty, you’re talking Mater Dei of Santa Ana. Two weeks ago, the school songleader squad won first place in the National Dance Team Championship in Florida and last week the Mater Dei 16-member varsity cheerleader squad took first place in the National Cheerleader Championship. “They were flawless,” said Pep Squad adviser John Marino.

Watch out next year--the junior varsity squad came in third.

Jacob Gelman got his first job in a television commercial just a few weeks ago and reportedly stands to make about $50,000 from the deal--and that’s just one of five commercials he’s making.

That’s not bad for a 5-year-old boy from Buena Park who enjoys his work.

“If he didn’t like doing commercials,” said Marlene Peroutka, 41, of Huntington Beach, who taught Gelman in her City of Fullerton-sponsored commercial acting class, “I’d find out in the first interview.”

She added that “when kids go into an interview room without their parents they’ll say, ‘My mother wants me to go into acting, but I really don’t want to.’ ”

When that happens, Peroutka says she has to be “sensitive” with the parent.

Acknowledgments--Hillview High School senior Kelly Leonardi of Tustin was named one of three top classical ballet dancers by the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts, which sponsored a nationwide recognition talent search.