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December 2007 Cook's Profile
Red bowls and yeast rolls
Catherine makes memories cooking ‘good food’ for others
 Orange County REMC member Catherine Curry got an early Christmas surprise when she was chosen to be this month’s profiled cook. Her daughter Mary Elliott nominated her for the honor unbeknownst to her.
“She is a very modest, unselfish person that would never toot her own horn, but she is very much deserving of the honor,” Mary wrote in her nomination letter. Accompanying the letter was a cookbook/memory book Mary put together, filled with Catherine’s most requested recipes, family pictures, and reminiscings and tributes from friends and family members.
Mary’s daughter, Elaine, came up with the book’s title, “Red Bowls and Yeast Rolls.” Those familiar with Catherine’s cooking instantly realize the “red bowls” are the eight plastic cereal bowls that Mary and her two siblings used while growing up. The beloved bowls are the traditional containers for individual servings of Catherine’s famous popcorn, popped the old-fashioned way on the stove in her secret ingredient — lard! (One of the bowls, which somehow ended up too close to something hot in the kitchen, melted into a lip-shape. Its uniqueness now makes it the sought-after popcorn bowl.)
The yeast rolls refer to Catherine’s Cloverleaf Roll recipe, the basis for her Yeast Bread and cinnamon rolls. Catherine, who still lives in the old farm house on the Orange-Washington County line in which she was raised, bakes bread once a week for Sunday family dinner. The recipe she uses, adapted from an old 4-H cookbook, is a favorite of most everyone, especially at the holidays.
Her niece Lisa Strange Yee remembers a church Christmas play she was in that called for a loaf of bread as a prop. “To the audience, I’m sure, it didn’t matter if this bread was fresh or even real, but it did matter to Aunt Catherine,” Lisa wrote in the cookbook/memory book. “For dress rehearsal and again for the show, she brought us a basket of her own homemade bread, still warm from the oven. To this day, I couldn’t tell you the name of that play or what my part was, but I can still taste that bread … mmm.”
That story typifies who Catherine is. “I enjoy cooking,” she said, “and I enjoy seeing people eat it.”
Catherine has been blessed to see many people enjoy her down home country cooking through the years. Her husband, Maze, who passed away in 1978, was one of her biggest fans and liked whatever she prepared.
Her experience in the kitchen dates back to her childhood, when her mother taught her how to cook on wood-burning and kerosene stoves.
She taught her three kids — Rhonda, Roger and Mary — how to cook when they were young. For many years, as a 4-H leader, she shared her baking tips with young girls in the area. “We all learned, but none can cook as well as she can,” Mary said.
Many of the family’s traditions revolve around food. For instance, the beverage of choice for the Currys is iced tea — which is traditionally sweetened. No church gathering would be complete without two gallons of Catherine’s tea, which she brews the old-fashioned way and strains twice to remove tea sediments. Whenever there’s a pitch-in, Catherine always lugs in a Contact Paper-covered turkey box filled to the brim with food. Guests gravitate toward whatever she brings because they know it will be good.
Among the holiday specialties she’ll serve this year to 20-some family members are turkey, ham, green beans, dressing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, potatoes, divinity, fruit cake and date cookies. Favorite foods apt to make it to the table at other times of the year are wilted lettuce, beans and cornbread, macaroni and cheese and fried potatoes.
If someone has a favorite food, Catherine will be sure to prepare it. Overnight guests can expect a made-to-order breakfast — whatever they want.
But come dinnertime, an air of mystery surrounds the kitchen. If someone asks what’s for dinner, Catherine will reply mischievously, “Food.”
“What kind of food?” curious diners will press.
Her answer, spoken with a twinkle in her eye, is succinct and so true: “Good food.” — Emily Schilling, editor, Electric Consumer
Catherine’s tips
• One of Catherine’s favorite kitchen gadgets is a “granny fork” given to her by a friend from church. The three-tined tool can spear pickles in the jar, prick boiled potatoes to test for doneness and hold a roast steady while it is being sliced.
• The secret to Catherine’s famous popcorn? Popping the kernels in lard!
• Dark baking pans work better than shiny ones.
• When making macaroni and cheese, add a few drops of yellow food coloring to give the food an appealing color.
• Catherine hangs her plastic measuring cups inside the cupboard above the stove, arranged according to size. That way she can easily grab the size needed while she cooks.
• Substitute English walnuts for pecans when making pecan pie. Catherine said both pies will taste the same.
 Catherine’s recipes
Cloverleaf Rolls (or Yeast Bread)
1⁄2 stick butter
1⁄2 cup sugar
1 t. salt
1⁄2 cup milk, scalded
1⁄2 cup warm water
2 pkgs. yeast (or 11⁄2 T. yeast from jar)
2 eggs, beaten
4-41⁄2 cups flour
Melted butter
Add butter, sugar and salt to scalded milk. Let cool. Dissolve yeast in warm water. To yeast, add milk mixture. Add eggs and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Add additional flour. Work dough in smooth ball or knead until light. Place in greased bowl. Cover for 2 hours or 2-3 days in refrigerator. Punch down and turn out on lightly floured board.
To make 24 rolls, shape into walnut-sized balls, dip in melted butter and place three balls each in greased muffin tins. Cover. Let rise 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Bake 400 F for 7-12 minutes. (Recipe could be used to make 2 loaves of bread or 1 loaf of bread and 12 rolls.
To make bread, place dough in greased loaf pan, cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Bake at 375 F for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden. (If the loaf is browning too quickly, cover it with foil.)
To make cinnamon rolls with this recipe, roll out the dough and spread it with butter, then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon (to taste) on top. Roll it up and slice into 1-inch pieces. Place on greased baking sheet and bake for about 7 minutes at 375 F. If desired you can bake the rolls jelly roll style and slice after baking.
Divinity
21⁄2 cups sugar
1⁄2 cup corn syrup
1⁄2 cup water
2 egg whites, beaten stiff
Pecan halves
Mix together sugar, corn syrup and water. Cook until it will spin a thread and slowly pour half into beaten egg whites. Cook the other half until it will harden in cold water and pour into other mixture. Beat quickly until creamy. Drop by spoonfuls on a buttered plate or waxed paper. Place 1⁄2 pecan on each piece.
Coconut Cream Pie
3⁄4 cup sugar
2⁄3 cup flour
1⁄2 t. salt
3 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)
21⁄2 cups milk
1⁄4 cup flaked coconut
1 t. vanilla
Baked pie shell
Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix sugar, flour and salt together well in a saucepan. Add egg yolks and milk. Stir well. Cook over low heat until thick. When thick, add 1⁄4 cup coconut and vanilla. Pour into baked pie shell.
Meringue for Coconut Cream Pie
3 egg whites
4 T. sugar
3 T. flaked coconut
Beat egg whites until stiff. Add sugar, mix well. Spread on pie, making sure meringue gets to edges. Sprinkle with coconut and bake at 350 F until meringue is lightly golden (approximately 7 minutes). Watch oven closely to ensure you do not overbake the pie.
Marshmallow Creme Fudge (Chocolate or Peanut Butter Fudge)
3 sticks oleo
6 cups sugar
11/3 cups evaporated milk
Not quite 1 pkg. (12 oz.) chocolate chips
11/2 T. peanut butter (or to taste)
1 jar (13 oz.) marshmallow creme
2 cups chopped nuts
2 t. vanilla
Grease two 9x13-inch pans. Mix oleo, sugar and evaporated milk in heavy pan. Bring to full rolling boil on medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
To make a batch of peanut butter and a batch of chocolate fudge with this recipe divide oleo/sugar/milk mixture in half.
To one batch, add chocolate chips and stir until chips are melted. Add 1/2 jar marshmallow creme, 1 cup nuts and 1 t. vanilla to that batch. Mix ingredients until well blended.
To the other batch, add peanut butter, 1/2 jar marshmallow creme, 1 cup nuts and 1 t. vanilla. Mix ingredients until well blended.
Pour the two batches of fudge into the two prepared pans. Cool at room temperature and cut into squares.
(If you’d like to make just chocolate fudge or just peanut butter fudge with this recipe, double either the chocolate chips or peanut butter and omit the other ingredient.)
Pecan Pie
3 T. oleo (softened)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 t. salt
11/2 T. flour
3 eggs, beaten
1 t. vanilla
12/3 cups white corn syrup
13/4 cups pecans (or English walnuts), chopped
Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream oleo, sugar, salt and flour in a large bowl. Add eggs. Add vanilla, syrup and pecans (or English walnuts). Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake for 10 minutes. Then turn oven down to 325 to prevent overbrowning of crust. Bake until pie isn’t runny (about 45 minutes). Pie will set up some after baking.
Written By: eceditor
Date Posted: 11/29/2007
Number of Views: 293
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