Food for Thought: Old News cooking contests stir up memories | Lifestyles

The goings on in New Castle and the immediately passing summertime have limited the time obtainable these days to chat about food stuff.

There is hardly adequate time to consume lunch, and on these scorching, humid times, appetites are restricted.

A single day though I was busily composing information tales, a trustworthy reader who experienced read through a few of these foodstuff columns contacted me.

She experienced saved a whole lot of back concerns of the New Castle Information Vacation Cookbooks with meals cook-off recipes that were being judged in a contest sponsored by the paper. She asked me if I desired the cookbooks for the reason that she was acquiring rid of them.

They were being tabloid sections printed on newsprint that have been bundled within the paper.

Judges for the contests provided the late Peter Yerage, former food service director at the college then termed the Lawrence County Vocational-Technological Faculty, and Janice Hassen, retired Penn Point out Extension director. There generally have been visitor judges, as well, which include types from community eating places.

The concerns she gave me ranged from 1989 by 1995. I was leafing as a result of them and found names of females who were being single then, whom I know now by their married names.

There had been two difficulties where by the similar particular person, Joanne Stroud, experienced won the grand prize two a long time in a row. I tried using to locate her to attempt to faucet her memory, but apparently, now in her 80s, she has moved to a further condition.

Hassen remembers getting a decide at these gatherings. She shared what she remembers.

“Maxine Carlson was the particular person who initiated it,” she claimed.

Maxine, now deceased, was the Life style editor of the paper at that time and wrote her individual food column.

“We had it at the vo-tech university,” Hassen recalled. There was an software to enter the contest, and there were being diverse types, and persons despatched their recipes to Maxine. Then a committee reviewed them and invited people to “do the obstacle,” Hassen reported. “They had to just take their organized dishes to the university and we judged them.”

“There were various types,” she mentioned, noting there were being appetizers, side dishes, main dishes, casseroles, cookies, cakes and pies, desserts, soups and chilis.”

They could place the finishing touches on their dishes at the college, or heat them up there.

“It was constantly a pleasurable event,” Hassen said. “People arrived and they were being dressed up. It was lengthy at night time since there ended up so quite a few entries. We essentially tasted all the food items.”

She remembers New Castle resident Chloe Buckner successful a large amount of times.

“Chloe Buckner cleaned property all the time, specially in the baking groups. She was a quite great baker,” Hassen recalled.

At 86, Chloe in a cellphone job interview stated she nonetheless does a whole lot of cooking. What she remembers most about the contests ended up, “I was a winner.”

Baked goods and major dishes were being her specialties, and there was normally a large amount of competitors.

“All I know is, I received every thing and I had all these awards, largely for cookies and cakes. I just liked it. I enjoy cooking and I remember when I received the a single of the contests, and I went to the vo-tech school and I cooked for the learners and showed them how to make some recipes,” she claimed, introducing, “Pete Yerage was my most significant admirer.”

She stated that after she won the New Castle Information cooking contest for so a lot of a long time, he created her a person of its judges rather.

Chloe explained her grandmother, Clotile Ross, taught her to cook dinner.

“She was incredible,” Chloe mentioned. “She cooked for everyone in city, all the golf equipment. I cooked for everyone, much too. When I went destinations, individuals would ask me to take care of anything. I belonged to a whole lot of social clubs and would acquire a dish.”

Her favorite matter to make nowadays is spaghetti sauce, but her recipe isn’t a single she can create down, she mentioned.

Just one of her grand prize-profitable entries in the cooking contest was a recipe for Raspberry-Loaded Cookies, the recipe for which is showcased down below.

It was unusual for a man to enter the contest, and much more unheard of for a little one to enter. But in 1999, 5-year-old Jordan Reed from New Wilmington received the dessert group with his apple pie, that known as for rum in the recipe. The story printed in the tabloid claimed his mother, Diana Reed, helped him bake. We marvel exactly where Jordan is now, and we’re hoping he is nevertheless baking pies.

Below are Buckner’s and Reed’s two profitable recipes in the sweets category. Keep viewing, for the reason that following I thumb as a result of them, there just may be a lot more of these prizewinners printed once again in the long run. And there could possibly be individuals who won again then whom you could identify.

Raspberry-stuffed Cookies

Chloe Buckner

Cookies

¾ cup margarine

¾ cup sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup milk

4 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

raspberry jam

Icing

8 ounces product cheese

½ cup margarine

2 12/ cups confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

nuts or coconut

Product margarine and sugar. Include eggs. Combine in other substances (apart from for the raspberry jam)

until eventually a tender dough sorts. Make balls the measurement of cherries. Bake at 350 levels for 12 to 15 minutes.

Slice off tops, just a minor little bit. Scoop out a minor of the heart. Fill gap with jam and replace the top rated.

For icing, mix cream cheese and butter until well blended. Include vanilla.

Ice entire cookie, then roll in nuts or coconut.

Old World Apple Pie

Jordan Reed

Crust

1 ½ cups flour

6 tablespoons (¾ adhere) butter

2 tablespoons shortening

¼ teaspoon salt

3 to 4 tablespoons ice drinking water

Filling

2 ½ kilos of apples, peeled and sliced

2 cups brown sugar

¼ cup cornstarch

3 tablespoons dark rum

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping

¾ cup chopped pecans

½ cup oatmeal

½ cup flour

½ cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, butter, lower into items, shortening and salt in chilled bowl and blend until eventually combination resembles coarse food.

Incorporate 3 tablespoons of ice drinking water and combine right until dough holds alongside one another, adding a further tablespoon of drinking water if wanted. Roll out 1 crust to healthy in a 9-inch pie plate. Prick with a fork and bake 10 minutes.

Blend apples, 1 cup brown sugar, cornstarch, rum and cinnamon and spoon mixture into pie shell.

Combine topping substances and mix right until crumbly. Sprinkle on leading of pie and bake for 50 minutes.