My favorite recipes - Dec. 17, 2009

Meet Amy Warwick, Oakesdale

When Amy Warwick became pregnant with her youngest son, her husband, Waverly, suggested she quit commuting to Liberty Lake for work and stay home. Amy asked what would she do if she stayed home and Waverly said take care of five children, work on the farm and write a book. Although Amy had been writing since she was a young child, she had never made it a priority. When she quit her job it gave her that opportunity, and now she has one book published and is nearing completion of her second.

Amy Gumm Warwick grew up in Tekoa. She met Waverly when they were nine. Her uncle and his step-dad were in a band together and the children were like groupies.

She remembers when she was about four years old watching her mother type and thought it was the coolest thing. From then on through college she dabbled in writing. “I’ve always wanted to be a writer,” she said.

Amy attended Eastern Washington University were she earned a degree in journalism. She confessed that she had no desire to be a reporter, she just wanted to write. Amy also earned a degree in pharmaceuticals and after college made the decision to keep working in a pharmacy.

She was working in pharmaceuticals when she and Waverly met again about seven years ago. They had both been married and divorced at that point. Together they had four children, Brett, 12; Dustin, 11; Maxx, 9, and Summer, 9. They added one more, Jack, now 4.

Although Amy works from home, she treats her writing as if it were a job. The children get on the bus at 7:10 a.m. and she cleans house until 9 a.m. when she clocks into work until 12:30 p.m. when Jack returns home.

She believes treating it like a job helps her focus.

Waverly and the kids are very supportive about letting her work. Amy credited her husband with being a driving force in treating it as a job. As a farmer he has learned how to be self-disciplined with work as well. The children also respect her working time, leaving her alone.

“My kids are awesome when I write,” Amy said.

All those hours working have paid off. Amy’s first book, Summer Snow, was published in April. She wrote the original story while she was in college. After Jack was born, she went through her stories and picked it as the one to work on. It took an additional two years to remake and complete and get it on the market.

Amy worked on Summer Snow with an editor from Spokane. After it was completed, she attended a writers’ conference with her father-in-law Dick Warwick at Whidbey Island. As part of the conference, she met with three different agents and had dinner with a published author. She also met a marketer who liked Amy and her book. While nothing came from the agents she met, the marketer pushed the book to an editor in Portland who took it from there. The editor had the book published and left the marketing to Amy.

“Mainly it’s just taken off by word of mouth,” Amy said.

The book is women’s fiction set in a small town. Amy noted that the fictional characters are the same types of people you find in any small town. People all over have asked if she wrote it about their small town, whether it be Oakesdale or in Ohio. Amy pointed out she wasn’t even living in Oakesdale at the time she wrote the first version.

The book she is now writing is set in St. Maries and the surrounding area.

“It will be really fun for people around here,” she said since, although the characters are fictional, the setting is real.

After 12:30, Amy clocks out of work and her family becomes her priority. That’s not always easy, she admitted, since sometimes the story is still in her head.

Amy’s family loves to fish and camp.

“We fish all year round,” she said. They camp as rough and as much as possible, hiking into back country to make a good catch.

“Anything we can do to get as deep into the mountains…as close to a fishing hole as possible, we do that,” she said.

While the kids stay out of the office when she’s working, there is one room they are encouraged to be in.

“I never kick a kid out of the kitchen,” she said.

Amy pointed out that Brett began cooking when he was two years old and is now a main cook in the family. When the other kids need cookies for school, they ask Brett to make them. Summer started to learn to can when she was four and the other children have learned to also enjoy cooking.

Grandma Blanc’s Rolls

2 cups Milk

1 Tbs. yeast

1 tsp. salt

2 Eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup Butter (or shortening)

6 cup Flour (3/4 white to 1/4 wheat ratio is best)

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Heat milk until quite warm on stove. Mix in yeast and remove from heat. In a large mixing bowl mix sugar, salt, eggs, butter, and nutmeg. Mix in milk and yeast. Add three cups of flour. Raise in warm oven or next to wood stove until doubled in size. (Apx. 1 hour) Stir down and add the remaining flour. Kneed until no longer sticky. Raise again for an hour. Shape into rolls and cook at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Amy’s Corn Chowder

2 pkg.’s frozen white kernel corn or 2 cans of corn, drained.

4-5 cubed potatoes

1/2-1 cup finely chopped onion

2 cans chicken broth

3 cup Milk

1 cup 1/2 and 1/2

1/2 cube real butter

1 Tbs. flour

Pepper

Bacon

Boil corn, potato, onion in chicken broth until potatoes are almost tender. Apx 10 minutes, Add milk and 1/2 and 1/2, and butter. Bring to a boil and let simmer apx 20 minutes. In the meantime, cook 4-5 pieces of bacon until crisp. Cool on paper towel and crumble into bite-sized pieces. Heat up 1/2 cup of milk and mix in flour in a glass measuring cup. Add to chowder and return to a boil. Add a good amount of pepper and simmer until thick and bubbly. Stir in bacon. Serve with warm sourdough rolls topped with butter.

Erika’s Chicken Enchiladas

8 6-inch tortillas

1/2 C chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbs. coriander

Pepper

3 Tbs. butter

3 Tbs. flour

8-ounces of sour cream

1 can chicken broth

7-ounces diced green chili peppers

2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

2 cup diced cooked chicken or turkey

sliced olives

sliced tomatoes

Wrap tortillas in foil and warm in oven at 350 for 10 minutes. In saucepan cook onion, garlic, coriander, pepper, and butter until onions are tender. Stir flour into sour cream; add to onion mixture. Remove from stove. Stir in broth and chili peppers. Mix well and boil lightly until thick and bubbly. Add 1C cheese. Remove 1 cup of sauce. Add chicken to the remaining sauce on the stove. Mix well. Place apx 1/2 cup of chicken sauce in tortillas, roll up and place in greased square baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over the top. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Remove and top with remaining cheese, diced olives and tomatoes.