MY FAVORITE RECIPES - Meet Myrna Morasch

Back: Myrna, Krista, Kyle. Front: Blake, Tyler

Growing up in Montana, Myrna Morasch learned to fish from her father, cook from her mother and garden from both her parents. That early learning instilled a love in her so Myrna lists her hobbies as fishing, cooking and gardening.

“With my grandkids first of all,” she added.

Myrna married Endicott native Randall Morasch and moved to his hometown 52 years ago. They had four children, Scott, Kelvin, Maureen and Gary, now deceased.

Myrna drove school bus for seven years and helped Randall in his custodial duties at the Endicott school. After he died she worked in several restaurants around Colfax and then in a nursing home and at the hospital as a nurses aide. She quit working full time in 1988 due to an injury and said she has been enjoying life since. She works as needed for Union Creek Bed and Breakfast, and Flowers and More...

Myrna has been the superintendent for the horticulture section of the Palouse Empire Fair for seven years now.

“I love it,” she said. Myrna used to volunteer and help out the previous superintendent. Then one year she showed up and the fair manager said there was no chairman, he thought she was going to do it.

Myrna has been gardening all her life and has a variety of plants inside and out.

“My children tell me my house is a jungle, I have so many plants,” she said.

As fair horticulture chairman, Morasch keeps busy all year long looking for judges, volunteers and decorations. During the week of the fair she is there every day getting things set up. She also oversees the grains and ag mechanics, but the flowers are by far her favorite.

“I’m very well pleased with how the flower show has grown,” she stated, pointing out last year there were more than 500 entries. “The way it’s growing they’ll have to build me a building just for flowers.”

“It’s a mad house getting all those flowers in at a certain time,” she noted.

Part of the flower section includes place settings and education posters. In the place setting contest a person brings a tablecloth or placemat and flatware and cup and any decorations they want and arranges them. Last year there were 22 entries and she had to keep asking for more table space.

She also encourages education posters as the state fair judges Palouse Empire on how many posters there are.

While Myrna brings many of her own flowers, she loves seeing what others have. She gets enthusiastic when she sees a little kid walk in with a flower for the fair. There are competitions for 4H, FFA and Open Class. She also likes it when people bring in strange, unusual plants and flowers. If she sees an unusual flower on the road side, she likes to pick it and try to see if anybody can guess what it is. Once she was even able to stump the girls at Flowers and More…with her discovery.

Myrna recalls when she was a child riding on her dad’s back with her feet in his back pockets and catching her first fish. She taught all her children to fish and has helped with the Fishing Kids derby at Gilchrist pond in past years. When her grandchildren visit from California and Walla Walla, she often takes them fishing along the Tucannon or at Williams Lake.

She has also passed on her love of cooking to all her children.

“They’re all excellent cooks,” she said. She also shares her talent through Trinity Lutheran Church, of which she is a trustee, and at the basketball tournaments in Endicott.

Myrna is a member of the 50 Club, meaning she has donated 50 units of blood, platelets and plasma to the Inland Northwest Blood Center.

“It’s been a few years I’ve been doing that,” she said. She used to give only blood, but her type was such that she was a desirable donor for platelets and plasma. She agreed to start donating the platelets and plasma when asked and has been doing so since 1990.

Regardless what else she does, Myrna’s greatest passion is her family. One year she spent nine months in California while her daughter Maureen received a kidney transplant from brother Kelvin. She recently went to watch her granddaughter play ultimate Frisbee, but enjoys her grandchildren so much, it doesn’t take much of an excuse to spend time with them.

Recipes:

Sweet Hot Mustard

1 (4 oz.) can Coleman’s Dry Mustard

1 cup vinegar

3 jumbo eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup Best Food’s Mayonnaise

Mix the mustard with vinegar and let stand overnight. Beat the eggs, salt and sugar and add to mustard mixture. Place in top of a double boiler. Cook until thick (about 10 minutes) over boiling water. Remove and heat and beat in mayonnaise.

Refrigerate in quart jar.

Good on Everything!

Lettuce Soup

3 heads of leaf lettuce

1 med. onion

1/2 of a1 lb. pkg. bacon

6 eggs, hard boiled

6 medium potatoes boiled and quartered

salt and pepper to taste

2 qt. milk, more if needed

Wash and cut lettuce into small pieces. Chop onion. Add with lettuce and cook in large pan until tender. Use only small amount of water.

Cut bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp. Add bacon and grease to cooked lettuce.

Boil the eggs and peel while hot and cut into quarters and add to lettuce. Add milk to mixture and heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put boiled potatoes in soup bowl and pour lettuce mixture over.

Swiss Steak

Round steak cut into servings. Roll in flour and fry just to brown on both sides. Place in deep roasting dish. Peel and slice 3-4 onions over meat.

Add a lg. can of chopped tomatoes to the meat drippings. Bring to boil and pour over meat and onion. Add enough water to cover meat.

Put in oven at 325 and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Great over boiled potatoes.

Mom’s Banana Bars

1/2 cube margarine

2 eggs

3 ripe bananas

2 cups flour

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. baking powder

Bake in greased jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees until it springs back to touch.

Spinach Dip

1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1 (16 oz.) container sour cream

1 cup Best Foods Mayonnaise

1 pkg. Knorr Leek Soup mix

1 can (8 oz.)water chestnuts, drained and chopped fine

3 green onions, chopped fine

Mix well and chill 2 to 3 hours. May substitute 16 oz. plain yogurt for sour cream.

Mom’s Lemon Meringue Pie

1 1/2 cup cold water

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup corn starch

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 egg yolks well beaten, save egg whites for top

Mix sugar, cornstarch and add to lemon juice and cold water. Cook until thick. Add beaten eggs. Cook until eggs are cooked, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir constantly to keep from scorching. Pour in baked pie crust. Beat egg whites and add 1/3 cup sugar. When stiff put on top of pie and broil in oven until brown.

Sauerkraut Salad

1 lg. jar sauerkraut

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

1/2 cup finely chopped green or red pepper

1/4 cup finely chopped onions

1/4 cup finely chopped pimento

Add sugar to sauerkraut (juice and all). Let stand 30 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and stir well. Refrigerate overnight in sealed container.