Debbie Bearden has an extensive collection of cookbooks, but she tends to reach for the same one, time and again.
It’s called “Let’s Start to Cook,” the first cookbook she received as a youth.
The cookbook’s pages are now yellowed with age and is familiar to Bearden as an old hairbrush.
“You can tell which are my favorite. When I open the book it opens to my favorite cake recipe,” she said.
Bearden and her husband, Duwayne, live on a working farm in rural Iola where they raise cattle and also chickens that provide an abundance of fresh eggs. During the summer the couple also have a large vegetable garden.
Throughout the summer Bearden cans vegetables from her garden and has also canned meat which makes for a quick meal on a cold winter’s night. Salsa and jellies also line her pantry shelves.
One of her favorite meals is baked chicken surrounded by potatoes, carrots, celery and onions.
Leftovers from the chicken and vegetables are used to make soup the next day, she said.
“I guess you could say I am a one-pot person. I like to cook complete meals in my Crock Pot and oven,” she said.
The first time Bearden uses a recipe she may follow it as written, but then usually adapts it to her family’s tastes.
“I feel a recipe is a guide. I like to adjust ingredients as I go along. I know what my family likes to eat,” she said.
BEARDEN GREW up on a dairy farm in Montgomery County near Havana. She is the oldest of four children. She has a sister and two brothers and said, “We were close in age and have remained close throughout the years.”
Bearden was responsible with helping her father in the dairy barn milking cows.
“I’d jump off the school bus, run into the house and change my clothes, grab a snack and head for the barn,” she said.
Her sister was responsible for helping to prepare the meals. Bearden said when she finished her chores she’d get to the kitchen in time to help her sister make the gravy for the meal. She was also the ice cream churner.
“I’d sit on top of our ice cream churn because that was the only way I could crank it,” she said.
When Bearden left home to attend Kansas State University her father hired Duwayne to help out on the dairy. He had worked on the farm for nine months before he and Debbie met.
“I’m sure my brothers and sister had told Duwayne all kinds of stories about me, but he liked me anyway,” she said.
The couple married 30 years ago. They began their life together in Arkansas on a farm near his parents with cows they had purchased from her father to begin a dairy farm.
The couple came to Iola when Ivan Strickler asked Duwayne to come to Iola to be his milker when he increased his herd from 120 to 400 cows. He remained at Stricklers for five years before taking a job in northern Kansas that led them to Nebraska.
The couple were in Nebraska for several months when Duwayne became acquainted with a beekeeper who asked him to come to California to help with his honey operation that would span the Great Plains from the Mexican to Canadian borders. After a few years the couple settled back in northern Kansas before returning to Iola where Duwayne once again worked at Strickler farms. This time for Steve Strickler.
After leaving the dairy, he worked as a quality control manger at Russell Stover Candies before the couple bought their own 80-acre farm.
“Duwayne likes being a farmer. It makes me happy, too,” she said.
BEARDEN SAID she enjoys cooking and sharing her recipes and food with others. Several of her favorite recipes are the chicken and vegetables, easy chocolate fudge cake, extra-good sugar cookies and banana nut bread.
Oven-Roasted
Chicken Dinner
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a roaster pan or 9 x 13 inch cake pan with oil or pan coating.
Wash a 3.5-5 pound chicken under running water and place in the center of the roaster. Season with preferred seasoning. I use salt, black pepper, red pepper, cumin and garlic.
Wash the following vegetables before chopping and adding to the pot: 2 pounds of baby carrots or 1 inch chunks of carrots, one bunch of celery cutting the stalks in 1-2 inches pieces, 9 potatoes quartered and 3 onions sliced or sectioned.
Add 1/2 to 1 cup of water. Place lid on the roaster. Bake for 4 hours or until tender.
This recipe, with additional water, can be put in a Crock Pot and cooked for 6 to 8 hours on low.
Leftovers make a good base for chicken vegetable noodle soup or chicken pot pie.
Serves about 8
Easy Chocolate
Fudge Cake
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour or line bottom of 2 (3 x 1 1/2-inch) round layer cake pans with paper cut to fit.
Melt chocolate in top of double boiler over hot, not boiling, water or in a saucepan set in a pan of hot water. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Place shortening in large bowl of electric mixer and stir until it softens.
Sift flour onto a sheet of waxed paper and then measure. Sift measured flour, baking soda, salt and sugar together over the shortening.
Add 3/4 cup milk and vanilla. Mix until all dry ingredients are dampened. Beat 1 minute on medium speed of electric mixer or 150 vigorous strokes by hand (count the strokes). Stop the mixer often and scrape the bowl and beaters with rubber spatula.
Add melted chocolate. Beat 1 minute more with mixer at medium speed or 150 more strokes. Scrape bowl sides often.
Add rest of milk (1/4 cup) and eggs. Mix well. Beat 1 minute or 150 strokes.
Divide batter in half and pour into the 2 pans.
Bake on the rack just below the center of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Test for doneness.
Cool before frosting.
Extra Good
Sugar Cookies
Sprinkle cookies with sugar before baking — they’ll glisten.
2/3 cup soft shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups sifted flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons milk
Beat shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat to mix well. Add the vanilla and almond extracts. (You can use 1 teaspoon vanilla and omit the almond extract.) Mix thoroughly.
Sift the flour onto a square of waxed paper and then measure. Sift the measured flour with the baking powder and salt. Stir it into the sugar-shortening mixture along with the milk. Divide the dough in half and chill in the refrigerator 1 hour or until the dough is easy to handle.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a baking sheet with unsalted shortening or salad oil.
Roll the dough, half of it at a time, from the center to the edge until it is 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick. (The thinner you roll the dough, the crisper the cookies will be.) Cut with a 3- or 4-inch round cookie cutter.
Use a wide spatula to place the cookies 1/2 inch apart on the greased baking sheet.
Bake on the rack in the center of the oven 8 to 9 minutes or until the cookies are light brown.
Remove the pan from the oven at once. Use a wide spatula to place the cookies on a wire cooling rack.
Makes about 24 cookies.
Banana Nut Bread
2 cups sifted flour
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3 mashed bananas
3/4 cup chopped nuts
Mix all ingredients together and bake in 350 degree oven for 60 minutes.
Makes 1 loaf.
