Guy Cuts Finger, Still Wins Food Network Show

A Massachusetts teacher is one tough cookie—he cut his finger on the Food Network's "Christmas Cookie Challenge" show and still won the competition, reports the AP. Doug Alley lives in Rhode Island but teaches culinary arts at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School in Bourne, Mass., and took the $10,000 top prize. Alley says he and his fellow contestants have been texting each other since the episodes began being aired in the run-up to Christmas.

"By the time we got to the studio, we all really liked each other. After the taping we all went out and celebrated me winning," Alley tells the Cape Cod Times. The challenge was taped in New Orleans in August. Alley won for his sugar cookies and a lemon rosemary cookie. Alley says he, his wife, and their 17-year-old daughter are using part of his winnings for a vacation at Disney World. He's also planning to release a new cookbook soon.

(More Food Network stories.)