ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — Like many Americans in this tough economy, Margaret Jane Bracher was looking for a way to work from home.

And like many Americans, she was searching for a way to earn extra income through the Internet.

“There’s a lot of scams out there and I wanted to avoid that,” she said. “I think I ended up Googlin, “Ways to make money that aren’t scams,” or something like that.”

What she found was a way to combine her lifelong love of cooking with a way to earn a little extra income by submitting recipes for cooking contests.

“I’ve always had a love of cooking,” she said. “I can’t remember when I wasn’t cooking. I come from a long line of outstanding cooks.”

From an early age, she said, she helping her mother and her grandparents in the kitchen. And when she was looking for a way to make some extra income, one in particular caught her eye.

“There’s a website you can go to that provides a list of various cooking contests you can enter,” she said. Over the last year, she has entered several contests and her perserverance is beginning to pay off.

She has won seven contests so far, and with the latest, she is garnering National attention, not to mention a $2,000 grand prize and six-month supply of pork.

Bracher, a native of Panama City, Fla., and a resident of the Elsanor community for the past six years, recently beat out more than 200 recipe entrants to become one of four winners in the National Pork Board’s “America’s Next Pork Crock-Stars” contest.

Earlier this fall, the National Pork Board lauched the search for “America’s Next Pork Crock-Stars,” seeking the tastiest original pork slow cooker recipes.

America selected the category finalists in four categories voting online at PorkBeInspired.com with one ultimately being crowned a 2011 “Pork Crock-Star” by Good Housekeeping Food Director Susan Westmoreland and the 2010 “Pork Crock-Star” Linda Cifuentes.

Bracher won in the Pulled and Barbecue Pork category with her Pullled Pork a la Maggie.

“I really try to follow food trends and keep up with what’s current,” she said. “I really think what won for me in this category was the fact that I used a pomegranate molasses for a sweetener which is really popular right now.”

Bracher said she also entered in the Chili, Soups and Stews category.

“I really thought I was going to win in that category,” she said. “I thought that was a much better recipe.”

Camilla Saulsbury won in that category for her pork sweet potato black bean stew. Mary Marlowe Leverette won in the Inspired Dishes category for Chinese barbecue pork and Diane Halferty won in the Pork Roast category for slow cooked Thai pork with peanut sauce.

Bracher and her husband Ron Utley met in Panama City and moved to Elsanor six years ago when he got a job in Pensacola. Between them they have five grown children.

“My children are my inspiration for cooking,” said Bracher, who submits all original recipes for her contests. “One of my boys is a chef at a restaurant in LaCrosse (Wisconsin), but they all inspire me to come up with recipes.

For a complete recipes from the contest, along with other pork-inspired recipes, visit porkbeinspired.com.