My favorite recipes

 


Greta Stueckle was born in Colfax and has spent her entire life living in Colfax and the surrounding Whitman County farms, never straying too far from the land where she has worked to support herself and her family.

When Greta married Dick, they worked many farms in Whitman County until they purchased a ranch in Dusty 50 years ago.

Dick died in August after a long battle with cancer.

Greta now spends many days busily sorting through decades of collected items on the ranch and has found Craigslist as a wonderful tool in cleaning out. She said it’s amazing the amount of “stuff” collected in that amount of time.

“I am amazed at what people buy,” Greta said. “I will go out to the ranch and work all day cleaning up stuff, taking pictures and putting items on Craigslist. I am always surprised people want to buy my old stuff.”

Greta and Dick raised three children on the family farm. Their daughter, Jody, now lives in Bremerton. Kirt resides in Yakima, and Shane lives in Yucca Valley, Calif.

Greta said raising their children on the farm taught them all how to work hard. One year, Greta recalled, they had 400 pounds of cherries. She said they worked all day pitting and canning the cherries. There was cherry juice everywhere, including the ceiling. When evening came, they stopped to load up the children to go to a Little League baseball game then returned home to finish preserving the cherries.

Greta said she has not missed the hours spent preparing meals and now eats most meals out and could recommend several restaurants in town.

“I like to eat lunch at the hospital cafeteria; they have some delicious dishes,” Greta said with a smile.

Although she does not cook anymore, her recipes bring back many fond memories. Greta said sometimes she felt “chained to the stove” with six people wanting something to eat three times a day. She said those were the “good old days!” She commented it was a different time when she could pull rhubarb out of the backyard, milk the cow, skim the cream, and make five rhubarb custard pies.

“I could actually eat one piece of pie before lunch, one after lunch, one for an afternoon pick-me-up, and one before retiring for the night,” Greta recalled. “I can’t remember if the guys liked them or not.”

Greta remembers when Dick joined the bread machine craze that permeated the Dusty Café conversation. She said he wanted to buy her a bread machine. She compared a bread machine to the garden rotor-tiller, lawnmower, hoes, shovels and wheelbarrow he had already purchased for her to improve her working conditions on the farm. Items Greta said she did not think would be time savers, but gratefully looks back at Dick’s gifts.

“I said, ‘No!’ I told him it was too expensive,” said Greta. “I also told him I would never use it, and I didn’t have room for it although, one of my favorite recipes is for bread made in my bread machine.”

Greta compared cooking to feeding the bulls constrained in the barn. She said she endeavored to get out of the kitchen as much as the bulls wanted out of the barn. Greta began every morning feeding the bulls. She said one day, the recipe she used to feed the bulls (three buckets of barley, two buckets of oats, and a pinch of wheat, frosted with a bit of “liquid gold”) gave them enough strength to not only break down the stalls but also the whole side of the barn. Greta said they were then free to camp under the evergreens in the backyard all winter, and never forgot to leave daily reminders of their presence.

“In the spring, I was so thankful for the pitchfork and wheelbarrow that Dick had previously purchased for me as I scooped up the evidence of their company, keeping my bloodshot, watery eyes on that patch of rhubarb,” Greta said.

Boysenberry pie also helped Greta to escape the kitchen. She remembers the time she and another farm wife spent all morning cooking at the Palouse Empire Fairground for those attending the bull auction. She said she filled three large coolers of food and pies, then drove to the neighbors and loaded another three coolers of food. Afterward, they reloaded the empty coolers and returned home.

“Only one piece was eaten from that Boysenberry Pie. The information about the absent sugar quickly circulated among the workers, which caused them to pucker up just thinking about it,” Greta said with a laugh. “I was okay. I thought they wanted to kiss the cook.”

Recipes:

BREAD MACHINE WHEAT BREAD

1/2 cup milk (70 to 80 degrees)

1/2 cup water (70 to 80 degrees)

1 egg

3 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons butter (oil)

1 1/2 salt

2 cups bread flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

3 teaspoons active yeast

In bread machine pan, place all ingredients in order as suggested by manufacture. Select basic bread setting.

RHUBARB CUSTARD PIE

Filling:

4 cups rhubarb

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

Topping:

3 eggs

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons sugar

In bowl, combine rhubarb (cut into 1/4-inch slices), sugar, flour and salt. Toss and turn into pie shell. Bake in hot oven (400 degrees) for 20 minutes.

Beat eggs slightly in bowl; stir in cream, butter and nutmeg to blend. Pour over hot rhubarb in pie shell. Bake 10 minutes. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake 10 minutes more, or until pie’s top is browned.

BOYSENBERRY PIE

1 cup sugar

5 tablespoons Gold Medal Flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

4 cups boysenberries

Mix ingredients together. Cover with top crust. Bake until crust is nicely browned and juice begins to bubble through slits in the crust. Serve slightly warm.

 

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