Peach Delight Salad

Peach Delight Salad
Dorcas Annette Walker

The thought of fresh peaches instantly conjures up visions of summer days. I’m hoping that the last freezing spell we had didn’t kill this year’s peaches in my orchard. It is during these tantalizing warm sunny days that promise summer is ahead that I like to make up a Peach Delight Salad. I got the recipe for the Peach Delight Salad from my daughter, Dawn. On one of our get-to-gethers a couple of years ago, Dawn made up this salad and I was instantly charmed by the cool summery taste of peaches. Not only does the salad taste delightful but it is healthy too.

I blame my Swiss, German, and Dutch ancestry for my fondness for many kinds of cheese. In past generations women became experts at cheese making often telling by the touch of their experienced finger how much to scald the milk and when the curd had aged sufficiently to bring out the desired flavor. The worn limb outside a kitchen window bore testimony of cheese makings where the bag of scalded curds hung to drain. Today many folk are becoming disenchanted with our fast paced society. Organic grown food and livestock is becoming quite popular as people become educated about the dangers pesticides have on our land and food. Many are turning back to learning basic traditional skills enjoying a slower life style of living. Cheese is one of the first man-made foods. Well preserved cheeses were discovered in the tombs of the pharaohs and in 1948 a 2,000-year-old cheese was found in Siberia reportedly still edible. Different regions of the world have developed their own recipes and methods for handling milk. In Eastern Europe and the Middle East yogurt is popular while Calabash is an African specialty. More than a thousand varieties of cheese have been developed over the centuries in Europe and America. With a plentiful supply of raw milk you can convert skimmed milk into yogurt or cottage cheese. My Mennonite cookbook gives a simple recipe for home-made cottage cheese. Heat one-and-one-half gallons of sour milk until it is too hot to hold your finger in. Drain thoroughly in a cloth bag or strainer. Let stand in bag overnight to drain. When dry, crumble cheese curds until fine and add one teaspoon of salt. Mix in one half cup of sweet cream. Chill until ready to serve. This makes approximately three-and-one-half cups of cottage cheese.

I confess I am part of the younger generation that simply picks up a container of cottage cheese at the store when a recipe calls for it. Each shopping trip finds me stopping at the cheese section amazed at the many varieties of cheese to choose from and enjoy. Canned peaches take on new life in the Peach Delight Salad when mixed with cottage cheese and the other ingredients. This Peach Delight Salad recipe is quick to make (taking around five minutes to mix up) and makes a large batch serving approximately twenty. It can be made ahead of time and is excellent for church or family dinners.

Peach Delight Salad

Mix together thoroughly and chill:
2 small cans (or one large can) sliced peaches diced and drained
1 can chunked pineapple drained
16 oz container of cottage cheese
2 pkg peach jello
16 oz container of cool whip
You may garnish single servings with a sliced peach!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by email at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain Cookin recipes.

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Sour Cream Pound Cake
Dorcas Annette Walker

My first introduction into making a home-made pound cake came from an old southern cook in North Carolina, where my husband and I pastored a small rural church in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Mamie Miller loved to cook and often invited us to her home for Sunday dinner. One such Sunday Mamie served her home-made pound cake for dessert. I instantly fell in love with the firm, silky texture of her home-made pound cake and asked for her recipe. For years I’ve baked a Five-Flavored Pound Cake. Recently, on another Sunday at the Newport Nazarene church, where we were having a pitch-in dinner I tried one of many desserts. The light spongy cake intrigued me and I couldn’t believe when Sherry Strange told me that it was a Sour Cream Pound Cake. I had to get the recipe and try it for myself.

The pound cake is a British creation that dates back to the early 1700’s. Pound cakes became famous and were so named because the ingredients contained one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. No leaveners were used except for the air whipped into the batter to help make it rise as the cake slowly baked. These dense cakes became popular because it was easy to remember and made it simple for those who couldn’t read. By the mid 1800’s pound cake recipes began to deviate slightly form the original recipe to make a lighter cake. In the 1900’s baking powder and soda was added. Today pound cakes use many different proportions of the same ingredients as the original formula to produce lighter cakes. Pound cakes are very versatile and are often used as the base of making trifles, bread pudding, and French toast. Some lightly toast pound cake slices and serve warm with ice cream. The pound cake can be frozen for up to a year to use for last minute desserts. I discovered over fifty recipes for pound cakes ranging from a Million Dollar Pound Cake, a Twenty-Five Flavored Pound Cake, to a Sweet Potato Pound Cake. One Dump Pound Cake recipe called for mixing the batter for twenty minutes before baking. All you need is one basic pound cake recipe and with various additives and flavors you can create any kind of pound cake.

My Five-Flavor Pound Cake recipe calls for two sticks of butter (or half shortening & butter), two cups of sugar, four eggs, one cup of milk, one teaspoon of: lemon juice, vanilla, cocoanut, orange, and almond flavoring, which is beaten together until creamed. Slowly add two cups of plain flour and one cup of self-rising flour beating thoroughly with each addition until the batter is fluffy. Pour into a bunt pan and bake at 350º for one-and-one-half hour until done. Dust with powdered sugar.

The Sour Cream Pound Cake is a lot simpler, quicker, and easier to make and has a softer texture with a distinctive buttery flavoring that melts in your mouth. The one difference is that this pound cake needs to be refrigerated after a day whereas the old-fashioned version doesn’t. This Sour Cream Pound Cake recipe takes about five minutes to prepare (not counting the baking time) and makes one large cake that serves around sixteen.

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Mix together on high speed for three minutes:
1 butter cake mix
16 oz container of sour cream
4 eggs
½ c oil
¼ c water
Pour into a greased tube pan and bake at 350º for one hour. May garnish with powdered sugar!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by email at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain Cookin recipes.

Creamy Ham & Potato Casserole

Creamy Ham & Potato Casserole
Dorcas Annette Walker

Easter Sunday this year was sunny and cold. The normally nice spring weekend quickly turned into what felt like winter with snow flurries driven by freezing winds. Not only were my blooming flowers killed off due to the plunging temperatures, but also the newly-formed tree leaves were nipped. Inside my woodstove kept our house warm and cozy as we celebrated Easter with our family. I baked the traditional ham for our Easter dinner. As usual I had plenty of leftovers. After sending food home with Granny my refrigerator was still packed. Ham, like turkey, often seems to multiply once the holiday is over and eating sandwiches with leftover meat soon becomes old. Thankfully a couple of years ago I discovered a recipe that uses leftover ham, which has become a favorite casserole at our house.

The meat that is traditionally associated with Easter is ham. In many cultures the pig is a symbol of prosperity. Today there are many sizes and brands of pre-cooked hams to choose from. In former years meat had to be raised, butchered, and then cured in smoke houses. My grandparents, who were Mennonites, farmed and raised livestock and garden produce to sell at the farmer’s market each week so they butchered year round. Country hams take more preparation to prepare than the pre-cooked hams of today. Some believe that ham became the traditional meat around Easter due to the anticipation of the arrival of spring with emerging plants and wildlife to provide fresh food. Folk would celebrate the occasion by using up the remaining cured meats –usually a ham- left in the smokehouse.

My Creamy Ham & Potato Casserole is good not only at Easter time, but year round. Whenever I have leftover ham I find myself making this filling casserole in the next couple of days. Ham leftovers can also be frozen to be used later in a casserole if one doesn’t want to eat ham again right away. The Creamy Ham & Potato Casserole is easy to make and can be done up ahead of time, stored in the refrigerator, and popped into the oven for supper. This Creamy Ham & Potato Casserole recipe takes about an hour to prepare (including baking time) and serves around eight.

Creamy Ham & Potato Casserole

Peel & dice 6 medium-sized potatoes.
Add 1 tsp salt.
Cook in water until soft.

In another saucepan mix together with a Wisk:
3 c milk
½ c flour
½ stick of butter
Stir continually until the white gravy is thickened.

Drain potatoes and pour into a buttered casserole dish.
Add:
½ lb leftover ham- cubed
1 tb chopped onion
1 c mozzarella shredded cheese
Mix together and pour the white gravy over the mixed ingredients. Sprinkle paprika on top. Bake at 350º for one half hour until the casserole is bubbly and browned on top. Serve hot with a vegetable or salad!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by email at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain Cookin recipes.

Chocolate-Covered Cocoanut/Peanut Butter Easter Eggs

Chocolate-Covered Cocoanut/Peanut Butter Easter Eggs
Dorcas Annette Walker

My daughter is the one in our family now who makes all kinds of holiday candy. A couple of years ago I gave her my candy molds for making chocolate Easter bunnies and decorative eggs. What fun we had experimenting in the kitchen as my kids grew up during Easter time making candy. Taste testing was the crowning result after a day spent creating home-made masterpieces.

Making and buying Easter candy is an old custom that many believe started with the traditional breakfast of eating Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday. During the early 1800’s chocolate was the rage in Europe. Chocolate companies sought to use the image of an egg to celebrate Easter and sell their products. Soon solid and hollow chocolate eggs grew in popularity and became the primary Easter candy throughout the world and here in America by the 20th century. European children went from house to house begging for Easter eggs like our Halloween trick-or-treaters. Long hard winters for the pioneers often meant little food and a fresh egg for Easter was quite a prize. The White House Easter Egg Roll is one of the oldest and most unique traditions in presidential history. On occasion the Easter Egg Roll has been cancelled due to inclement weather or in times of war. The longest hiatus of the Easter Egg Roll was for World War II followed by a White House renovation. Today Easter candy is now second in the top-selling candy holidays. Americans spend an average of 1.9 billion dollars on Easter candy each year.

Even though my daughter, Dawn, has my Easter candy molds I still can make Chocolate-Covered Cocoanut/Peanut Butter Easter Eggs each year. These large candy eggs are hand-made without using a mold, covered in rich chocolate, and decorated. All you need is a couple medium-sized bowls, wax paper, and some colored icing to get started. My home-made Chocolate-Covered Cocoanut/Peanut Butter Easter Eggs takes around a half an hour each to prepare (not counting the time to chill the eggs) and makes one pound or two half pound eggs.

Cocoanut Egg

1 lb powered sugar
½ c condensed milk
1 stick of melted margarine
1 c cocoanut
½ c chopped nuts (optional)

Mix ingredients thoroughly by hand in a medium-sized bowl and shape into one or two large eggs. Place on wax paper and chill for one hour. Then dip chilled egg in melted chocolate. Let sit until egg is room temperature and slice with a sharp knife to serve. May decorate Chocolate-Covered Cocoanut Egg with colored icing!

Peanut Butter Egg

1 lb powered sugar
1 c crunchy or creamy peanut butter
1 stick of melted margarine
1 tsp vanilla

Mix ingredients thoroughly by hand in a medium-sized bowl and shape into one or two large eggs. Place on wax paper and chill for one hour. Then dip chilled egg in melted chocolate. Let sit until egg is room temperature and slice with a sharp knife to serve. May decorate Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Egg with colored icing!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by email at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain recipes.

Rice Crispy Easter Eggs

Rice Crispy Easter Eggs
Dorcas Annette Walker

The Easter holidays bring back memories of when my children were small. Our family celebrations were quite a departure from my own childhood. I colored hard-boiled eggs with my kids using Easter egg color kits and then graduated to the colorful shrink-wrapped egg decorations that you attached by placing a hard boiled egg into a thin wrapping, immersed in boiling water, and instantly you had a decorated egg. Easter Sunday I’d hide plastic eggs around my yard with small pieces of candy or money inside. I had a large prize egg that I filled with something special. Easter was a fun time of celebrating together as a family in a simple manner. I’m amazed at how enormous the Easter holiday has exploded into. The commercialism is almost as bad as Christmas. I still enjoy making up Easter baskets for my two grandkids.

The first time I ever ate Rice Krispie cereal was at my grandmother’s house. At home we started out each day with a bowl of cooked oatmeal and applesauce. We were fascinated eating a cereal that came out of a box, popped and crackled, and had small prizes inside. The secret to the Kellogg Rice Krispies famous snapping and popping sound was rice grain that was cooked, dried, and toasted forming bubbles of thin walls that would collapse suddenly when exposed to milk. It wasn’t until I was grown and married that I heard of and began making Rice Krispie Treats. It was a quick, popular snack that I could whip up for overnight visits of my children’s friends and these treats were always a welcome addition to school bake sales.

Malitta Jensen and Mildred Day are known as the two that invented the Rice Krispie Treats as a way to raise money for the annual Campfire Girls troops. The residents of Battle Creek, Michigan were fiercely loyal to the local Kellogg Company that didn’t lay off a single employee during the 1940’s when other companies fell broke. Malitta and Mildred wanted to come up with something different than the usual chocolate chip cookies sold to raise money for their girl’s troop. They were familiar with an old recipe using Puffed Rice, molasses, and vinegar, but they decided to try using a box of Campfire marshmallows instead with the Kellogg’s Rice Krispie cereal. Cut into squares, wrapped in Saran Wrap, and tied with ribbons these treats were an instant hit. Recipes of the Rice Krispie Treats first appeared on Kellogg cereal boxes in 1941 and were homemade until January 15, 1995.

My Rice Crispy Easter Eggs evolved during an Easter holiday when I was making a Rice Crispy snack. My kids were teens and I missed the mess and excitement of coloring eggs. What could I do as a substitute? My imagination kicked in as I experimented with adding colorful candy sprinkles. I then shaped the Rice Crispy’s into egg shapes and sat them in pastel baking cups. Presto! I had a perfect Easter egg treat for my teens. These Rice Crispy Easter Eggs take only about fifteen minutes to prepare and one batch makes around twenty-five eggs.

Rice Crispy Easter Eggs

Microwave in large bowl 3-5 minutes until melted:
1stick of margarine
½ c chunky peanut butter
1 bag marshmallows

Stir in until coated:
6 c any brand of rice crispy
½ c candy sprinkles

Let sit for five minutes to cool and then form into ball-shaped eggs. Place the Rice Crispy Easter Eggs in pastel baking cups. Store in airtight container. May decorate with colored Easter grass!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by email at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain recipes.