COOK OF THE WEEK - SHARON MILLER

Sharon Miller is the Branch Manager at the Gilmore City branch of Bank Iowa. Sharon has worked with Bank Iowa for 28 years. When asked what she likes best about working at Bank Iowa, she stated, “I like interact-ing with our customers and help-ing with their financial needs.” Sharon sees the future of Bank Iowa to be strong throughout Humboldt County, when small town friendliness is combined with state of the art technology. Sharon has been married to her husband, Ron, for 44 years. They live in Gilmore City. Sha-ron grew up in the Manson area. Ron grew up in Gilmore City. They have two grown children and four grandchildren. They attend the First Lutheran Church in Gilmore City. Sharon stays busy as she carries on numerous duties at her church. She is also on the Gilmore City Library Board and Past Presidents of American Legion Auxiliary. Sharon lists her hobbies as paper crafting, painting and reading. Ron’s hobbies include garden-ing, fishing and trap shooting. One of their favorite menus is melting meatballs, mashed pota-toes and green beans. One of her recipes she shares with us today is that of the melting meatballs. Melting Meatballs12 ounce can evaporated milk2 pounds hamburger1 or 1-1/2 teaspoons salt1/4 teaspoon pepper5 slices bread, torn1 can cream of chicken soup1 soup can of water1/2 to 1 package Lipton dry onion soup mix Mix hamburger with salt, pepper, bread and evaporated milk. Shape into balls and place in greased 9 inch by 13 inch cake pan. Mix soup, water, dry onion soup mix together and pour over meatballs. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.Sicilian Meat Roll2 beaten eggs3/4 cup soft bread crumbs (1 slice)1/2 cup milk or tomato juice2 tablespoons dry parsley flakes1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon oregano1/4 teaspoon pepper1 clove garlic, minced2 pounds ground beef6 to 8 thin slices of ham6 ounces mozzarella cheese Combine first 8 ingredients. Then add beef and mix well. On sheet of foil, pat meat to a 9 inch by 12 inch rectangle. Put ham slices on this. Leave small mar-gin around the edges. Sprinkle on shredded mozzarella cheese. Starting from short edge, roll up meat. Seal all the edges. Place in cake pan or jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Center will be pink from the ham. COOK’S NOTE: I usually cut the recipe in half, depending on how many people I’m cooking for.Crescent Roll Casserole1 pound hamburger2 tubes crescent rolls1 cup mozzarella cheese1 cup cheese (grated) like Parmesan1 can spaghetti sauce Prepare the hamburger and drain. Add spaghetti sauce; stir together and bring to a boil. Un-roll 1 tube of crescent rolls and place flatly down on a casserole dish. Pour hamburger and spa-ghetti sauce mixture over cres-cent rolls. Add mozzarella cheese and grated cheese on top of mixture. Unroll the last tube of crescent rolls and place on top of cheese. Bake at 350 de-grees for 15 to 20 minutes, until crescent rolls are golden brown.Perfect Pizza Crust1 package active dry yeast1-3/4 cups warm water (110 degrees)3 tablespoons salad oil1 tablespoon honey1 teaspoon salt4 cups all-purpose flour Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl; beat in the oil, salt and honey. Add flour and beat in enough additional flour (about 1 cup) to form a stiff dough. Turn onto a well-floured board and knead it until smooth, about 3 minutes. Put dough into a greased bowl; cover and let rise in a warm place until it doubles in size. Punch down dough and divide it into thirds for thin crust or halves for thicker crust. Roll, pat and stretch dough to fit pizza pan, remembering to form an edge. Bake on the lowest rack in a 500 degree oven for about 5 minutes for thin crust or about 7 minutes for thick crust. Spread the baked crust with sauce and condiments and bake again on lowest rack of 500 degree oven for 5 to 8 minutes.Pumpkin Scones2 cups flour7 tablespoons sugar1 tablespoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon cinnamon1/2 teaspoon nutmeg1/4 teaspoon cloves1/2 cup canned pumpkin (plain)3 tablespoons half and half1 egg6 tablespoons cold butter, cubes Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In food pro-cessor blend first eight ingredi-ents. Pulse to combine. Add cold butter and pulse until the butter is finely chopped. Blend pump-kin, egg and half and half to-gether in a separate bowl. Add to the flour mixture and pulse again until the dough comes together. Knead the dough a little on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 9 inch circle. Cut into eight equal wedges, using a pizza cutter. Bake at 425 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Make glaze with 1/2 cup powdered sugar, thinned with a little half and half. Driz-zle over the cooled scones. If you do not have a food proces-sor, you can mix by hand, cut-ting into the cold butter with two forks or a pasty knife. Add the pumpkin mixture and stir until blended.Country Apple Fritter BreadBread Loaf1/3 cup light brown sugar1 teaspoon ground cinnamon2/3 cup white sugar1/2 cup butter, softened2 eggs1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour1-3/4 teaspoons baking powder1/2 cup milk or almond milk2 apples, peeled and chopped (any kind), mixed with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamonOld-Fashioned Crème Glaze:1/2 cup powdered sugar1 to 3 tablespoons milk or cream, depending on thickness of glaze wanted Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan and spray with non-stick spray or line with foil and spray with non-stick spray to get out easily for slicing. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Set aside. In another medium-sized bowl, beat white sugar and butter together using an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, until blended in; add in vanilla ex-tract. Combine and whisk flour and baking powder together in another bowl and add into creamed butter mixture and stir until blended. Mix milk into batter until smooth. Pour half the batter into the prepared loaf pan; add half the apple mixture, then half the brown sug-ar/cinnamon mixture. Lightly pat apple mixture into batter. Pour the remaining batter over apple layer and top with remain-ing apple mixture; then the re-maining brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. Lightly pan apples into batter; swirl brown sugar mix-ture through apples using knife or spoon. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, approximately 50 to 60 minutes. To make glaze, mix powdered sugar and milk or cream together until well mixed. Let cool for about 15 minutes before drizzling with glaze.Fudgy Coconut Squares1 cup butter or margarine, softened1-1/2 cups sugar3 eggs1 teaspoon vanilla extract1 cup all-purpose flour1/4 cup baking cocoa1/2 cup chopped walnuts1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk1 cup shredded coconutIcing:2 cups confectioners’ sugar1/4 cup baking cocoa5 tablespoons evaporated milk2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract In a mixing bowl, cream but-ter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine flour, cocoa and walnuts; add to the creamed mixture. Spread into a greased 13 inch by 9 inch by 2 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until a toothpick in-serted near the center comes out clean. Combine condensed milk and coconut; carefully spread over the hot chocolate layer. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until coconut is light-ly browned. Combine icing in-gredients until smooth, spread over warm bars. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before cutting. Makes about 4 dozen.Dutch Letter Bars2 cups sugar1 cup margarine or butter1 teaspoon almond extract2 cups flour1 cup almond paste (canned solo or tube) 2 eggs Spray a 9 by 13 inch pan with Pam. Mix all ingredients togeth-er with a mixer. Spread mixture evenly. Sprinkle generously with sugar and slivered almonds. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes until lightly browned. Let cool and cut into desired squares. This will make its own crust on the bottom. If you are reading this, then you probably enjoy new recipes. If you would like to share some of your recipes with the com-munity, YOU could be Cook of the Week. Please contact me, Sally Cuthbertson, if you would like to be in this column some week. I can be reached by phone at 515-373-6346 or email me at sacuthbe@msn.com. I will be happy to email or send you my short questionnaire and set up a time to come and visit you at your convenience. I’m always looking for NEW Cook’s of the Week. Also, if you are new in town, this is a good way to introduce yourself to the Humboldt community and surrounding communities. I look forward to visiting with you. The COOK OF THE WEEK 3rd Edition Cookbook is available. Cost per copy is $10.70, plus $4.80 shipping/handling. Order a copy today by sending a check or money order, along with name and shipping address, to: Humboldt Independent, 512 Sumner Ave., Humboldt, IA 50548.