Church compiles favorite recipes

If you had walked into my kitchen last Thursday afternoon, you would have wondered what in the world was going on.

I was sitting in a wheelchair, with a blue plastic bowl in my lap, cutting up apples for a dessert I was making. I scooted up the wheelchair to do a few tasks and stood a few times on my good leg, but I let my daughter do the rest, including putting the heavy pan into the oven for the dessert to bake.

Although this broken ankle of mine has set me back quite a bit, I’ve also been determined to do most of the things I want to do, and that includes trying a recipe from Daniels Chapel Free Will Baptist Church’s new cookbook, "Favorite Recipes.”

If you read my food column often, you know I always enjoy a good church cookbook, and this one is no exception. The Crossroads Sunday school class at Daniels Chapel assembled favorite recipes from two previous cookbooks as well as new recipes from members, families and friends for this book.

The spiral bound cookbook is filled with many recipes local cooks will enjoy trying — some you might have seen before at covered dish dinners or at family reunions and others that are very new.

I’ve told my son I’d try Sherri Whitley Jernigan’s healthy zuppa Toscana soup; he loves that soup at Olive Garden, and this version sounds very good and easy to make. And I know my family would love the baked potato cubes recipe Kathy Hayes submitted. The recipe sounds simple enough and would be such a good side dish to a beef main course. And if I could drive right now, I would have already gone out and bought the ingredients for one of the main course casseroles of chicken pies in this book.

The bread section is always one of my favorites in a cookbook. In this one, I left a marker for Debbie Lewis’ blueberry muffins sweetened with sugar and honey. There are plenty more blueberry recipes in the dessert section for those lucky folks with blueberry bushes in the backyard!

There are plenty of cakes in this cookbook, including Lillian Jackson’s chocolate chip cake which I’d like to try and Carolyn Barnes’ 10 layer chocolate cake. My family loves those multi-layered cakes with delicious chocolate frosting. They both sound delicious! And there are plenty of pies to go around, too, made with pecans and lemons and chocolate and so many more yummy things.

The recipe I made last week was Inez Etheridge’s delicious apple crunch. The recipe is very simple, with apples and a cake mix as the main ingredient. We ate the dessert as a crisp, served hot with vanilla ice cream. It was very sweet and very good.

Help out Daniels Chapel and purchase this cookbook. Call the church at 243-2013 for more information. The cookbook is $15. Proceeds will go to the church renovation project.


Delicious Apple Crunch

• 4 large cooking apples, peeled and cubed
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 stick margarine

Place apples in 9x13-inch baking dish. Cover with water. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle dry cake mix over mixture. Melt margarine and pour over cake mix.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Delicious either warm or cold.

Inez Etheridge

*NOTE: I used brown sugar instead of granulated and cut it to 1/2 cup; I also used butter instead of margarine. This is very good served warm with vanilla ice cream.


Macaroni Beef Bake

• 4 ounces macaroni
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup green pepper, diced
• 2 tablespoon flour
• 1 pound can tomatoes, undrained
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cook macaroni following package directions. Rinse in cold water and drain.

Brown beef, onions and pepper in skillet. Stir in flour. Add tomatoes and cook until mixture thickens. Stir in cheese, seasonings and macaroni.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Louellen Galloway