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Cheddar Bacon Cheese Ball
This nutty, flavorful cheese ball is a longtime hit. It's the perfect appetizer or snack and goes well with both crackers and veggies.
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Zucchini Relish
If you’re looking for something to do with all that zucchini, this sweet and tangy condiment is the answer! Delicious on hot dogs, sausage, ham sandwiches, burgers, etc, zucchini relish adds depth and sweetness to any savory sandwich, and pairs well with fish (in tartar sauce or alone), meatloaf, or eggs. The great thing about this relish is that you can preserve a bunch of summer zucchini to enjoy throughout the year, and it tastes just as delicious as any relish made from cucumbers. (Maybe better?) This recipe comes from my grandma, Ann Williams Stephens, and is a family classic. She has been making this relish for decades, and pulls…
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Grandpa’s Tomato Salad
This salad tastes like summer. Juicy, sweet, tangy, savory, spicy, creamy, tomatoey summer. My Dad would always make it with garden-fresh tomatoes, and everyone wanted in on that flavor party. In fact, I always thought my Dad invented the recipe, until I later learned that it was my Grandpa Bullough who deserved some of the the credit for passing this food tradition along. Grandpa was known for his love of mayonnaise, and drenching everything in it was his idea of a great no-cook meal. In this case, a little mayo, ranch dressing, and parmesan cheese go a long way in making this a standout salad. It’s great as a lunch,…
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Whole Wheat Bread
This is another recipe from my mom, Heather Stephens Bullough, aka “the Bread Queen.” She worked hard to earn this title. I remember as a young mom, she made bread often and was constantly working to improve her recipes and technique. The internet hadn’t yet become the mainstream tool that it is today, so she consulted cookbooks and asked friends and neighbors for their recipes and tips on baking better bread. Wanting to provide her family a healthy diet, she especially wanted to perfect her whole wheat bread, which can be tricky and wasn’t as common at the time. She went through a few rounds of unsuccessful bread “bricks” as…
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Special Tossed Salad with Old-Country Dressing
This recipe comes from my great-aunt, Janet Beck Clark (1936-2012). I remember Aunt Janet as a fun, kind, charismatic woman who loved spending time with family and friends, and was always hosting and organizing events, both large and small. She organized our extended family reunion for many years until she passed away, and she was good at spotting specific talents and strengths in certain people and delegating responsibilities accordingly. I remember she would always ask my Dad to be in charge of the games, which is his forte for sure, and then she would enthusiastically participate in all the games and activities, either as a player or a cheerleader. Not…
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Swedish Oatmeal
Sweet, creamy Swedish Oatmeal. This is the stuff of my childhood dreams. I grew up eating this dish and hearing my mother tell stories about our Swedish ancestors who used to eat it too. I would imagine them as children in the Swedish countryside more than a hundred years earlier waking up in the morning and having this for breakfast with fresh-picked blueberries and milk from the cow in the barn out back. Of course, I have no idea how close my childhood imaginings came to approximating the truth of this idyllic image, but like many old family stories, this had become the stuff of lore. At least I was…
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Dilly Bread
This recipe belonged to my great-grandmother Florence Robinson Beck (1905-1998), which she passed along to my grandmother Linda Beck Bullough. My grandmother said that she made it often for her own growing family during the 1970’s and 80’s. I’ve been wanting to try it for a while, and I happened to have some cottage cheese in the fridge today. Since we were having soup for dinner, I decided to give it a shot. Wow! I’m glad I did! It’s light and pillowy, more like a roll than a bread, and the flavor is fabulous. The cottage cheese melts and disappears into the bread, so other than the soft, creamy texture…
