Grandma Hopp’s Gingerbread Cookies
When Grandpa Hopp, my mother’s father, bought Grandma a new gas kitchen range, she was excited and happy to think of how much better it would be than the old wood stove it replaced. In the summer...
View ArticleMennonite Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
When I was a kid, nearly every garden in northern Wisconsin featured two perennial vegetables. Both yield better when they have a chance to rest during a nice cold winter, which helps explain why they...
View ArticleCarrot Cake Supreme
Last summer when I asked my wife what she would like for her birthday, I assumed that she would suggest something simple, like finding her an autographed copy of the latest Joyce Carol Oates novel or...
View ArticleAngel Food Birthday Cake
My birthday cake came out of a box! Sounds like the title of a horror film, and worst of all, it’s true. The first birthday cakes I remember were ordinary yellow or white cakes with white frosting...
View ArticleMadge Prewitt’s Apple Cake
Madge Prewitt died at the age of 90 on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 in Corbin, KY. Her obituary tells us that she was a member of the First Baptist Church and had been a hostess at the Holiday Inn...
View ArticleJerri’s Cranberry Crumb Coffee Cake
Jerri found this recipe many years ago when we were living in Kentucky. It has just the right amount of sweetness to balance the tartness of the cranberries. It’s great for breakfast or dessert and...
View ArticleMrs. Lanier’s Buttermilk Sheet Cake
On a yellowed scrap of paper torn from a sheet of the thin and inexpensive stationery you could buy in pads at the five and dime when I was a boy is a recipe written down for Jerri by Mrs. Lanier of...
View ArticleMa’s Salad Dressing Cake
Jerri sometimes thinks that my family is weird. When I object, she reminds me of the time in August when my family planned a picnic at a park near Minong, Wisconsin. It was a nice park along a flowage...
View ArticleMom’s Crumb-Topped Coffee Cake
I had stopped in early one morning to say hello to my mother on the way to the cabin. As we drank coffee and ate warm chocolate chip cookies, I asked her how it happened that she always had something...
View ArticleMother Krehbiel’s Apple Cookies
If meeting a Krehbiel in Kansas were not almost as easy as running into a Johnson in Wisconsin, you could assume that “Mother Krehbiel” must refer to Jerri’s grandmother. However, when I called Jerri’s...
View ArticleEdith’s Four in One Fruitcake
Many years ago, the Missions Commission of the New Richmond United Methodist Church used to sell pecans and fruitcakes from Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia. Koinonia was founded in 1942 by two...
View ArticleJerri’s Holiday Cookies
Christmas was cookie time when I was growing up. Actually, there were always cookies in the Rang household, but Mom made extra batches of cookies for the holidays, so I think of that season as cookie...
View ArticleGreat Auntie Ann’s Kolatchkes
A couple of years after we moved to the country from the thriving metropolis of Hayward, Wisconsin, John and Rose Hanus brought their family from Chicago, Illinois, to a house along the Namekagon river...
View ArticleCarol’s Lemon Bread
Jerri started teaching piano when she was in high school and still has three adult students. One of the advantages of being a piano teacher is that you get some wonderful gifts from your students. Our...
View ArticleAunt Bev’s Oatmeal Cookies
When I was twelve years old, I gave my mother a recipe box for Christmas. I know this because she scratched “FROM CHARLES XMAS 1955” on the back of the box. Some of the paint has worn off, but the...
View ArticleMrs. Elwick’s Oatmeal Cake
“How do they come up with these names?” I asked myself as I was going through one of my mother’s recipe boxes. On a yellowed sheet of six by eight-inch letter paper, the kind you used to get in pads...
View ArticleBert’s Jumbo Raisin Cookies
Dad and Leroy grew up a half mile apart along the Namekagon River. He and his wife Bert were good friends of my parents. Our families went to the same little Lutheran church in the country, we kids...
View ArticleJean’s Rhubarb Bars
Every farm I remember from my childhood had at least a couple of big rhubarb plants in the backyard. Rhubarb used to be called “pie plant” because it makes delicious pies, but it also makes other great...
View ArticleNellie’s Rhubarb Cake
When I asked if they had any rhubarb this year, my brother-in-law Patrick reported that it was doing great. He added that his eleven-year old granddaughter had helped him make his favorite rhubarb cake...
View ArticleBetty Stucky’s Raisin Bars
One year Jerri’s mother gave her a cookbook compiled by the Farm Bureau Women of Butler County, Kansas. Jerri grew up in Butler County, which is the largest county in Kansas and larger than the state...
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