My Favorite Recipes: Meet Queenie Leinweber, Colfax

Gene and Queenie Leinweber, still smiling after 68 years together.

Queenie Hulse was born in Tennessee, and her mother wanted to name her for Queen Elizabeth II, who was born about the same time. After thinking about a little girl learning how to write the long name Elizabeth, her mom decided to name her Queenie instead.

Her father had a sister in Colfax, and when his asthma became severe, she suggested moving from humid Tennessee and his tobacco farm to drier Colfax to find relief of his symptoms. The move was a great idea, and her father soon felt better and gained back much needed weight.

Queenie was 13 when they moved to Steptoe to an area that became known as Tennessee Valley because of all the new arrivals from that state. It turned out to be a good move for her, she said, since she eventually met and married Gene here.

Gene’s father Alec was one of 16 Leinweber children born near Endicott. Gene’s grandmother could neither read nor write English, but she remembered all of her grandchildren as she prayed for them daily by name.

A graduate of Steptoe High School, Queenie went to work in Colfax and met Gene, a Colfax High School graduate, while she was working serving banquets at the Colfax Hotel for the Kiwanis and other groups. They married and made their first home at the Bussey Apartments. They later moved out to the family farm on the edge of town. Within six months, the apartment house burned down. They built their own home on Highway 26 and lived there for 50 years.

When the children were in school, Queenie worked as cafeteria manager at Jennings Elementary School for 20 years, from 1958 to 1978. When she was making huge batches of cinnamon rolls and big baking dishes of lasagna, Gene would stop by early and help lift the mixing bowls and pans.

On special days, when Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, or chili and cinnamon rolls were being served, they had 500 children eating lunch. Usually 400 dined each day. She enjoyed the cooking and the students, quitting only when the grandchildren came along.

Gene worked at Jones Truck and Implement for 46 years, and he wishes he had kept track of how many combines and tractors he sold. He farmed on evenings and weekends for just as long, enjoying both. He didn’t take his children on farm equipment in those days as he didn’t think it was safe. Now the grandchildren and great-grandchildren ride all the time. Todd Strader, their granddaughter’s husband, often takes his children for rides now.

Gene commends the Jones family as great employers and wonderful people with whom to work. Their sons both worked there during the summers, as did their daughter Kathy. She now works as the office manager of Les Schwab Tires, and her husband Greg Mayer is shop foreman at Jones Truck and Implement. Greg and Kathy’s son, Nic Mayer, is parts manager. He and Sarah and children live in the home where Gene and Queenie lived years ago, near the home that the Leinweber’s built.

They have enjoyed traveling to Belgium, Germany, England, Switzerland, Italy and France. They never made it to Ireland, although their daughter-in-law Georgie is going. On a river cruise ship in Germany they saw a building with a large sign, “Leinweber Warehouse.”

On a trip to Nova Scotia, Queenie was excited to see the house about which the novel “Anne of Green Gables” was written. Gene was not impressed, as it looked like a little shack to him. They loved Prince Edward Island, which had rich, fertile, red soil. When it was under construction, they saw the nine-mile bridge that now connects Prince Edward Island and Halifax.

In the small world department, they visited with Irene Morton and Avelia Formeloza at the Halifax Hotel. In Palm Springs, they met friends of Bill and Dana Carroll and Bob and Della Hauser from Montana.

Gene and Queenie enjoy their new home at Wheatland Arms, and on summer evenings they enjoy sitting outside their condo chatting with people walking by who stop to visit. On Tuesday mornings, the ladies meet for coffee at 10 a.m. at Events on Main. Any number, from three to 10, gather for coffee and conversation. The men’s coffee group that meets at the same time has been known to tell “the girls” to quiet down.

Queenie and Gene re-did the condominium where his mother lived. They installed new countertops and shower and updated paint and carpeting. She is enjoying the smaller area to keep clean.

They have long owned a lake place on Lake Coeur d’Alene, which the whole family has enjoyed. Now Nic and Sarah have a place nearby.

Their son Terry lives next door and is so much help to them and often has dinner with them. He retired at 52 and now enjoys doing car stuff, trap shoots and enjoys his nieces and nephews. The loss of his brother Randy was their one great sorrow, but they count their blessings that their children and grandchildren live so near.

After Queenie had knee replacement surgery, their daughter Kathy came every day and started their dinner in the crock pot. Queenie has scheduled surgery on the other knee soon, and she knows that Kathy will take care of dinner, but Queenie thinks she does not need to help for three months this time.

Married 68 years, Queenie said, “We wonder where the years between 50 years married and now have gone, and all of the sudden, here we are!”

Recipes:

Oven Steak

3 pounds round steak

1 cup water

1 package onion soup mix

2 cans mushroom reduced-fat soup

2 onions

2 small cans mushrooms, or fresh

1 package brown gravy mix

Cut steak in serving-size pieces and place in roaster pan.

Sprinkle the onion soup mix over meat and add 1 cup water. Bake in oven for 1-1/2 hours at 350 degrees F (checking to see if meat is not too dry). Then turn over on other side to brown, about 45 minutes. Now add the soup, mushrooms and gravy mix. Slice onions and add to one end of roaster.

To garnish each piece of steak, add on onions slice on top. Bake until meat is tender, about 45 minutes.

This dish is great with mashed potatoes, green vegetable and salad, with punch bowl cake for dessert.

Baked Spaghetti

2 cups canned diced tomatoes

2 cups tomato sauce

1 cup water

12 cup diced onions

1/2 cup diced green bell peppers

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1-1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1-1/2 teaspoons sugar

2 small bay leaves

1-1/2 pounds ground beef

8 ounces uncooked spaghetti

2 cups cheddar cheese

1 cup Monterey Jack cheese

In a stockpot, combine the tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, onions, peppers, garlic, parsley, seasoning mixture, sugar and bay leaves. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat and let simmer covered for 30 minutes.

Crumble ground beef in a large skillet; cook over medium-high heat until fully cooked. Drain fat from meat and then add the ground beef to the stockpot. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Cover the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch pan with sauce. Add a layer of pasta and then a little less than half of each cheese. Repeat the layers, ending with the sauce.

Bake in a 350 degree F oven for the casserole. Top the casserole with a cheese layer.

Punch Bowl Cake

Bake one cake from yellow cake mix according to directions in a 9 x 13-inch pan. When cooled, cut into one-inch pieces. Place in punch bowl.

Add one large can crushed pineapple, undrained.

Make one large package vanilla pudding mix according to directions. Pour over pineapple.

On top of pudding mixture, layer two large packages frozen thawed strawberries.

Spread one large carton of cool whip on top. Sprinkle with coconut and pecans. Let set four hours or overnight. Serves a large crowd.