My favorite recipe - Aug. 20, 2009

Jana Mathia | Aug 20, 20090

Meet Patti Meyer, LaCrosse

As a child, Patti Meyer was expected to help other people and work. This jack-of-all-trades still follows those teachings today and has been active in the LaCrosse community since moving there.

“You want to make a difference,” she said.

Patti’s father moved her family from Missouri to Boise when she was a child. They moved to her grandfather’s dairy farm and lived and worked there until her grandparents sold it and bought a motel.

It was in Boise that Patti met her husband, Charlie, who was originally from Illinois, but was stationed with the Air Force in Mountain Home, Idaho. They were married in Boise and then moved to California when he worked for Lockheed.

Patti had several jobs at that time, including making seatbelts and fast food.

“Whenever we needed money, I went to work,” she said.

Shortly after they were married Charlie gave Patti a sow as a birthday present. The next day the sow gave birth to about a dozen piglets.

The sow proved to be a poor mother and ended up as bacon and ham. Patti and Charlie got other pigs and started raising them, building their own hog operation.

Their four children were born while they were in California. They also started to do foster care and took in “stragglers and strays” who ended up sticking around. The family had a farm with cattle, horses, chickens, ducks and a garden in addition to the hogs. Patti commented that Charlie was a city boy, so he had a steep learning curve to do farm work.

In 1974 the family moved to Bremerton where Charlie went to work at the shipyards. They brought their equipment and business with them, buying new pigs after they arrived.

In Bremerton they had the majority of their 25 foster children. Patti noted she still gets Christmas cards and other communication from those children, some of whom are now grandparents.

Patti was active in the community of southern Kitsap County. She owned a grocery store in Olalla for one year, worked at the shipyard, worked with CASA and drug and alcohol rehab. Patti was also involved in a support group for battered women.

Patti came to Whitman County in 1991 when she purchased land in Winona with the intent of operating another pig farm.

“Everything that could go wrong did,” she said.

One day Patti came home to the fifth-wheel trailer she lived in on the farm to find police officers swarming everywhere. The police eventually arrested a robber they had tracked there.

She learned the farm would no longer support a swine operation because of disease problems so she sold off the pigs and started raising cattle. She lived on the farm for two and a half years and waited for Charlie to retire from the shipyards.

For one year she ran the TeaPot Café in LaCrosse.

After commuting between LaCrosse and Winona, Patti was offered a small house to rent in LaCrosse. She eventually bought the house in 1995 but sometimes she misses being at the farm in Winona.

“It’s just you, the birds and the snakes. And the coyotes,” she said.

Charlie moved to LaCrosse in 1996, leaving the majority of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren on the West Side. Charlie remained in the Air Force Reserves and went to work for Community Action for three or four years until he was injured.

Patti operated a second-hand and antique store for a couple of years in LaCrosse. She also drove mail truck and revamped the Community Outreach. She also worked as an aide in the school kitchen.

Patti now drives a bus during the school year. She helps at the TeaPot and remains on the Outreach board. She and Charlie run the food bank and have turned their first house over for its use, moving across the street into a bigger house.

Patti also serves on the city council and LaCrosse Arts Council.

Cookie Sheet Cake

1 cup water

1 cube (1/2 cup) butter

3 Tbsp. cocoa

1/2 cup shortening

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup sour milk

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Heat water, butter, cocoa and shortening in pan. Pour over flour and sugar mixture. Mix eggs, soda, milk, salt and vanilla and add to rest of ingredients.

Bake in a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Frost while still warm.

Frosting:

Heat in cube butter, 3 1/2 Tbsp. cocoa and 6 Tbsp. milk in a pan. Pour over 1 box powdered sugar.

Add 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 cup nuts and spread over cake.

Ranger Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup quick oats

1 cup Rice Krispies

1/2 cup coconut

Blend shortening and sugars. Add egg and flavorings, beat well. Sift flour, soda, baking powder and slat together. Combine with oats, Rice Krispies and coconut. Add to creamed mixture and stir until well blended. Drop by spoonfuls onto a well greased baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees or until brown.

This is really good for using up the little bit of cereal no one wants in the box.

Fruit Dip

1 lg. container of Cool Whip

1 pkg. cream cheese

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 tsp. almond extract or vanilla

Serve with fresh fruit. Best with chocolate covered strawberries. Extremely sweet, but ooh so good.