Sharing a few recipes of some senior center friends

Many of you know that my full-time job is working at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center -- a job I have absolutely loved for 20 years. I have loved and lost so many wonderful friends through the years. Relying on more than 20 volunteers each day, we have been challenged to fill those places, but we have been truly blessed to have the very best volunteers.

I have been given a couple of recipes lately from my friends at the center, and a few I still have from years gone by. I pulled a few of those together to pass along to you today. Enjoy, and come and see me at the Senior Center.

Bonnie Pierce baked and brought this cake to the senior center for a birthday. She shared a piece with the office staff, and she immediately shared the recipe with us.

Ugly Duckling Pudding Cake

• 1 (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
• 1 (4-serving size) lemon instant pudding mix
• 1 (16-ounce) fruit cocktail, including syrup
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Blend all ingredients together except brown sugar and pecans in a large mixing bowl. Beat 4 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer. Pour into greased and floured 9x13-inch baking pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly pressed and pulls away from sides of pan. Do not underbake. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Spoon butter glaze over warm cake. Serve warm or room temperature.

Butter Glaze: Combine 1/2 cup each; butter, granulated sugar and evaporated milk in saucepan; boil 2 minutes. Stir in 1 1/3 cups coconut.

My office co-worker Karen Stafford really enjoys making fried pies during fresh peach season, and this is her recipe for the crust part of the fried pies.

Fried Pie Crust

• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
• 1 large can evaporated milk
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 5 cups flour

Blend all dry ingredients and shortening. Add milk and eggs to dry mixture. Roll out and cut into 6-inch rounds. This recipe will make about 18 pies.

Wendell and Joyce Watkins from the senior center love to travel, and these next two recipes are from their Mackinac Island trip to Michigan. For those of you who have never been there, these two recipes are very typical in Mackinac City and the island. There are fudge shops everywhere, and pasties are a true Michigan favorite.

Mackinac Island Fudge

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, not margarine
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Mix milk, butter, sugars and salt in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil 6 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla and powdered sugar. Beat with mixer until smooth and thick. Add nuts. Pour into buttered pan and freeze for 20 minutes. Cut into pieces once set. Makes 1 pound fudge.

To make peanut butter fudge, follow above recipe but cut butter to 1/4 cup and add 1/2 cup peanut butter and continue with directions.

Pasties -- pronounced pass-teas -- are a very traditional "sack lunch" favorite of Cornwall miners. The pocket pies could be reheated on a shovel over a candle. Now pasties are an Upper Peninsula of Michigan specialty. There are little pastie cafe's and diners in every town and along the roads in the UP.

Meat Pasties

For the filling:

• 8 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 large rutabaga, peeled and cubed
• 1 pound ground sirloin
• 3 sweet onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon black pepper

Combine the filling ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.

Make a double recipe of a two-crust pie dough and roll out the dough into 8 circles.

Put a large cupful of filling on each crust. Add a teaspoon of butter on top. Fold crust over top of filling like a turnover, and seal edges well using a dad of water as "glue." Place pasties on a baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then turn oven down to 350 degrees for 60 minutes or until nicely browned. When done, brush the top with butter. Serve piping hot or at room temperature. Makes 8 pasties.

Another very special person from the senior center who loved cooking and eating was Roger Riley. On many occasions, we would talk food and shared many recipes back and forth together. This recipe is one he shared with me a few years ago. Not a day goes by that I don't miss his presence at the senior center.

Sausage Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

• 4 large portobello mushrooms
• 8 ounces sweet Italian sausage, ground
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, finely shredded
• 1/2 tablespoon black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• Cooking spray

Wash mushrooms and pat dry. Break stem from inside of mushroom cap and set aside each part. Crumble sausage into frying pan and cook until done. Set aside sausage. Chop mushroom stems and stir in sour cream, Parmesan cheese, black pepper and garlic powder. Add sausage and stir together well. Lightly spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Spoon 1/4 of the sausage mixture into each mushroom cap hollow. Spread mixture out to mushroom cap edges. Place mushrooms in baking dish. Sprinkle Italian breadcrumbs over the top of sausage mixture inside mushrooms. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serves 4.

Dave Davidson is one of our wonderful volunteers and delivers meals for us when he is not traveling or fishing. He is also very good cook who enjoys canning and baking. This is a recipe he makes from his homegrown apples.

• 6 apples
• 2/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked

Cut apples in small pieces. Mix cornstarch, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon together and sprinkle over apples. Put apples into pie crust. Mix remaining 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and butter until it crumbles. Sprinkle over apples. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

Have a great week and until next time, happy cooking.