Conrad crumbled granola bars (one of the sponsor products) into the filling with walnuts and chocolate chips.

"We didn't expect to win anything at all," said her husband, Mike. "Her pie tastes very good, but it was just this brown circle, compared with how all the other recipes looked. I read the bios on the judges, and a lot of them were involved with low-carb diets. I thought, they will take one look at this pie and put a crucifix up against it."

So when she won, "I was shell-shocked. We had to scramble to make sure our relatives could watch our children while we took off to New York," Suzanne said.

The instant media attention was overwhelming: unveiling a new pie crust on the "Today" show, two days of filming at her home for a Bravo! documentary, numerous radio and newspaper interviews and the cover of Woman's World magazine.

"It's pretty nerve-wracking when you're used to just wearing sweat pants to 'Gosh, I have to meet Oprah!' But it's all part of the fun of winning," she said.

In fact, Conrad said she can't think of a single downside.

"I don't think we let it go to our heads. The fact that it's almost like an annual salary makes a difference," said Conrad, who has a master's degree in library science. "When we moved here from Michigan, I left work to stay home with my children. It's a struggle to make it on one salary. Winning took the pressure off. It's like being paid to stay home."

Their big splurge is an annual vacation to Cape Cod.

"As a librarian, I never bought books, I checked them out. Now I can buy them," Conrad said. "And I send flowers to people more often. We've invested in our kids' college funds. My dad worked two jobs so that I could go to college. Now I can encourage my kids to shoot for the moon."

The Bake-Off was her first recipe contest. "Now I can't help but enter contests. It's almost like a compulsion," she said. "I can't do Pillsbury anymore, but I've tried every year with Southern Living (magazine's annual contest) and didn't get a nibble."

She did however, win $200 from Better Homes & Gardens.

She's become a bit of a local celebrity, judging an annual pie contest in town and making her pie for church auctions, the county fair and various community groups.

"Some of my librarian friends had me back to their libraries to talk about my experience," she said. "I never would have thought I'd want to get up in front of a crowd and talk, but if I encouraged even five people, that's great. I tell them, you've got to eat anyway. Just try something new. If it tastes good, write it down."

She volunteers at a children's art museum, and recently bought a laptop computer so she could pursue her desire to write books. "One project is a children's book that involves a pie."