NORWAY – Barbara Townsend’s earliest memory of cooking is with her grandmother. “We made peanut brittle together for holidays,” she recalled, noting she gathered more cooking tips when her grandmother stayed with her family every other winter. She also learned through trial and error. “My mother worked full time, so my brothers and I had to help out by making dinner. I always felt I had a knack for mixing up spices.”
These days, Townsend enjoys creating new recipes so much that it sometimes upsets her family. “While I love to experiment a lot in the kitchen, sometimes my family is disappointed because they almost never get the same recipe twice.”
Family is very important to Townsend, who taught all three of her children how to cook. Recently, she purchased a children’s cookbook by Rachel Ray for the oldest of her three grandchildren. “I told him we would start making some of the recipes together,” she said. She is also working on putting together cookbooks of her favorite recipes to give to her children.
While her favorite foods are comfort foods, Townsend tends to stay away from desserts. She has no particular favorite style of cooking, but has taken classes in various types of cooking, such as Italian. “My favorite cookbook is the ‘Rebecca’s Cookbook,’ but it is difficult to find a copy.”
Townsend works as a social-services assistant at Market Square Nursing Home. When she’s not working or cooking, she enjoys gardening, bird-watching and camping. She also enjoys activities with the Haywood Club, a neighborhood group started in 1903. “My mother joined the group in the ’40s. I joined in my teens, and my daughter has also joined. There are actually five generations of our family in the club,” she said.
Jim’s favorite spicy barbecue sauce
Ingredients:
½ cup butter
4 onions, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce
4 lemons, juiced and peelings grated
2 teaspoons chili powder
4 cups apple cider vinegar
32 ounces ketchup
2 pounds brown sugar
1 5-ounce bottle Worcestershire sauce
Method:
Melt butter in saucepan. Saute onions and garlic until light brown. Add Tabasco sauce, lemon juice and peelings, chili powder, vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Cook over low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Yield: About 8 cups sauce
Stuffed cabbage rolls
Ingredients:
1 large head of cabbage
1 box Rice a Roni Spanish-style, prepared as directed on box
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
½ diced green pepper
½ teaspoon caraway seed (optional)
1 16-ounce can chopped tomatoes (or whole tomatoes broken up)
Cheese to taste
Method:
Remove outer leaves of cabbage. Cut the core out of the center and throw away. Put cabbage in a large pan with about 2 inches of water in the bottom. Steam until the leaves can be peeled off the head. Or, remove leaves from uncooked cabbage and steam until just tender. Drain and cool. Brown ground beef with onion, green pepper and caraway seed. Drain any excess liquid and cool. Once cooled, mix with the prepared Rice a Roni. Pour can of tomatoes to coat bottom of a baking pan, reserving excess. Take each leaf of cabbage and fill it about half-full with the beef and rice mixture. Roll up and place seam side down in baking pan. When all leaves are filled, pour the rest of the tomatoes over the top and cover with foil. Bake about 45 minutes in a 350-degree oven. Take out and sprinkle with your favorite shredded cheese and return to oven for 10 minutes to melt cheese. Remove from oven and serve.
Betsy’s meatballs
Ingredients:
Meatballs:
1 pound ground beef
¾ cups bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 tablespoon ketchup
Dash of Tabasco
½ teaspoon horseradish
2 beaten eggs
½ teaspoon salt (optional)
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
Sauce:
½ cup ketchup
¼ cup chili sauce
¼ cup cider vinegar
½ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon pepper
Method:
Combine beef, bread crumbs, onions, ketchup, Tabasco, horseradish, eggs, salt, pepper and cheese. Make into meatballs and bake in a pan lined with tinfoil sprayed with cooking spray. After baking, cool. While cooling, make the sauce. Put all sauce ingredients together in pan on stove top and simmer on low for 20 minutes. Add the meatballs and heat thoroughly.
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