AUBURN – Dottie Ramsdell is known for great cooking, especially at her workplace. Almost every week, she takes in one of her homemade dishes to her friends at the L.L. Bean retail store, where Ramsdell is a floor stocker in the active sports department. “I love to cook and share,” she says.
Her homemade kielbasa is a favorite with her co-workers. Ramsdell, who is half-Slovak, says she learned how to make it from her father. She makes the kielbasa about three times a year using the same equipment that her dad used. She says it takes her about two days to make 60 pounds. She gives some of it away and has also been able to sell it. It is not, however, a recipe that she wants to share, as it is a “private” family recipe.
Ramsdell started cooking in the eighth grade when she would come home from school and make fudge.
Perhaps her early love for cooking chocolate is why her most requested recipe is her chocolate peanut bars. The recipe calls for one cup of butter, and Ramsdell’s tip to other cooks is never to substitute margarine for butter when a recipe calls for butter. She also adds, “Read your recipe well before you start.”
Besides cooking, the Auburn woman enjoys flower gardening and traveling. She likes to share her flowers with the information desk at Bean’s retail store – readers might catch a glimpse of them during a trip to Freeport.
When traveling, Ramsdell enjoys buying cookbooks from different places that she visits. She especially likes cookbooks that are often sold as fund-raisers for different organizations, like one she picked up from a Lake Tahoe middle school on a recent trip to Nevada. These cookbooks usually contain favorite recipes, which she says provide a “taste of home.”
While Ramsdell knows a lot about cooking, she’d still like to learn more about making breads. “One of these days, I’m going to take a class,” she says.
Cheese w/green chili peppers
Ingredients:
2 8-ounce packages of shredded, sharp cheddar cheese
6 tablespoons milk
5 eggs, beaten
5 4-ounce cans of Old El Paso whole green chili peppers (these are not hot peppers)
Method:
Mix together the shredded cheese, milk and eggs. Drain the chili peppers and cut one side open to line the bottom of a greased 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Cover the peppers with the egg, milk and cheese mixture. Cover the dish with foil and bake 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Let set 10 minutes before cutting into squares to fit crackers of your choice.
Dottie’s note:
I prefer to use Wheat Thins. This is also tasty with Kraft Mexican Four Cheese, instead of the sharp cheese.
Chocolate peanut bars
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
1½ cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature, separate the whites and yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 6-ounce package semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup Spanish peanuts
Method:
Beat butter, granulated sugar and ½ cup of the brown sugar together until creamy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture, beat well. Pat out dough into a greased 10-by-15-inch baking pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips, pressing in gently. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, then beat in remaining 1 cup brown sugar to make a meringue mixture. Continue beating until stiff. Spread the meringue mixture over chocolate chips. Sprinkle with the Spanish peanuts. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool, then cut into bars.
Dottie’s note:
Everyone loves the sweet and salty taste!
Italian pasta salad
Ingredients:
1 package medium pasta shells
1 package cherry tomatoes, cut into halves
8 hard-boiled eggs, cut into halves or quarters
1 green pepper, large, diced
1 onion, thinly sliced
Black olives and green olives, in the amount that you like
½ pound sliced provolone cheese, cut into quarters
Sliced pepperoni, sautéed to crisp
1 16-ounce bottle Ken’s Caesar Dressing
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Cook pasta shells according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water to cool. Place in a large bowl and add ingredients in amounts that you like. Toss with dressing, and salt and pepper to taste. Place in refrigerator to chill. Leave some of the dressing to add before serving, as the pasta will absorb it.
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