My Favorite Recipes By Linda Marler

Meet Dana Carroll, Colfax

Dana and Bill Carroll came to Colfax about 30 years ago to start The Growers’ Guide. It wasn’t quite a straight path from Montana to Colfax.

Dana and Bill first met when he was five and she was two and a half years old. They knew each other for years, and his sister was Dana’s close friend. They saw each other at county fairs and other places. Their first date was her junior prom. Her date was injured in a car accident, and Bill’s mother and sister volunteered him to take her to the big dance. They began dating steadily after that.

Dana attended Western Montana College near her home, Dillon, Mont., and earned a secondary education degree with majors in English and history social studies.

Montana State University is Bill’s alma mater; he graduated in zoology.

Married in June of 1973 at Dillon, they stayed there while she completed college. She did her student teaching in the junior high at Belgrade, Mont. She soon found out that she preferred high school. They lived in Bozeman during this time, and she worked at several jobs there.

Valier, Mont., was their next home. They arrived in December of 1975, and Bill worked for Cenex as the fertilizer plant manager while Dana substituted and then was hired full-time to teach English and history. After three years, their oldest daughter Keely was born, and Dana became a full-time mom with some substitute teaching on the side.

By then, Bill had moved from Cenex to working for The Prairie Star, a regional farm paper. He did advertising sales, photography, labeled the papers for mailing, and probably made coffee and shoveled snow for five years. Sometimes the staff worked 24-hour stints in order to get the paper published.

They moved from Valier to Colfax to produce The Growers’ Guide, a regional newspaper for farmers and others interested in agriculture. Lots of the information is from land grant universities that is pertinent to local issues and of interest to local people.

Putting ads together is Bill’s strength. Although Bill had worked for a similar paper, Dana also had experience working on her college newspaper. Dana can look at ads and determine if they look good or need help. The two produce the paper monthly and marvel at how the work has changed with the advent of computers. It is far less time-consuming.

Graphics work, photography and writing are all easier with computers, and they don’t have to hand label each edition for readers.

Coming to Colfax coincided with new additions to the family. Caitlin was born in 1988 and Colleen in 1991. So far they have one son-in-law, Ian, Caitlin’s husband, and assorted grand-pets. Colleen has shocked her family and former teachers with her participation in Roller Derby while she attends Central Washington University at Ellensburg.

A special joy was traveling to Ireland. They loved the huge telescope at Birr, the ancestral home of the Carroll clan. The local lord, quite the scientific intellectual, made a telescope with a mirror weighing three tons, which was installed in 1845. They visited Newgrange, the oldest stone tomb in Europe, which predates Stonehenge by 1,000 years. The Blarney Stone was fun, too.

The Carrolls wanted to do more heritage research, but the results were disappointing. The English regime of Oliver Cromwell destroyed homes, buildings, churches and records of births, baptisms, marriages and deaths. Millions of Irish were killed. In addition to that, graveyards are of little assistance, since sixty years of heavy rains will render headstones unreadable.

Bill’s great-grandmother left Ireland at the age of 13, caring for 10 and four-year old cousins on the way. They came to their uncle in Kansas City and traveled from there to Butte, Mont., about 1877.

Bill has worked for years on histories for his and Dana’s families, producing hundreds of pages of information. His emphasis is on saving the stories and the wonderful old photos of their families.

Fun times with their family includes trips to visit in Montana and vacations on the Oregon coast.

Dana and Bill are loving their life in Colfax and enjoying both their work and their leisure time. There is time to travel and enjoy life, followed by periods of intense work prepping to print the next edition. That rather mirrors the lives of the farmers and agribusinesses.

Recipes:

Vegetable Dip

1 can ripe olives

2 large tomatoes

5-6 green onions (use tops, too)

small can chopped chiles

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 Tablespoons cider vinegar

1 teaspoon garlic salt

Chop and mix all ingredients. Add garlic salt, and add salt and pepper to taste. Chill and let marinate for several hours. Serve with taco chips. Keeps well in the refrigerator and gets better as it ages.

You can also add chopped mushrooms, corn, or whatever else you can think of.

Lamb Curry

First, I have to tell you I NEVER use lamb (sorry to those who raise sheep!). I always make this recipe with leftover pork roast. My grandmother used to fix this, so I think of her when I make it.

3 large apples, pared, cored, and chopped

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic

butter

2-3 Tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon curry powder (add more if you like spicier foods)

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups meat stock (I usually use chicken stock)

1 teaspoon gravy flavoring

grated rind of 1 lemon

1/2 cup raisins

3 whole cloves

2 cups cubed leftover cooked lamb (or pork)

Sauté apples, onion, and garlic in butter until golden brown. Remove the garlic. Blend in flour and curry powder. Combine lemon juice, stock, and gravy flavoring; stir into apple and onion mixture, stirring constantly. Add lemon rind, raisins, and cloves; cover and simmer 30 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally. Add lamb or pork and heat thoroughly. Serve over rice and add garnishments.

The fun part happens when adding the garnishes to this dish. Here are some ideas: chutney; tomato wedges; additional raisins; slivered salted almonds; chopped peanuts; French fried onion rings; pineapple chunks; sieved hard-cooked eggs; bacon bits; fruit, mint, or pepper jelly; sweet or sour pickles; flaked coconut; sliced avocado; candied ginger; chopped green onions. You can try one or pile on as many as you like for different tastes and textures.

Hot Fudge Pudding

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons cocoa

1/2 cup milk

2 Tablespoons melted shortening or vegetable oil

1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 3/4 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix first set of ingredients and spread in a 9 x 9 inch baking dish. Mix the brown sugar and cocoa and sprinkle over the top. Pour 1 3/4 cups hot water gently over the entire batter. Bake for 45 minutes.

During baking, the cake mixture rises to the top and the liquids make a chocolate sauce that settles to the bottom.

This recipe came from some dear family friends and has become one of our family favorites!

Bretsett

My mother made this every Christmas, and it is a tradition I have carried on. It is a family favorite. I believe it is Scandinavian in origin.

1 cup scalded milk

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 packages yeast

1/2 cup warm water

2 eggs

3 1/2 to 4 cups flour

Filling:

One option is butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts.

My favorite is:

3 ounces cream cheese

1 Tablespoon butter, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 cup cherry pie filling

Let cream cheese reach room temperature, and then blend it with the sugar, lemon juice, and softened butter. Spread this on the dough and top with cherry pie filling.

Dough:

Pour milk over shortening, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cool. Dissolve 2 packages of yeast in 1/2 cup warm water and add to the bowl. Beat the eggs and add to the mixture. Add enough flour to make a soft dough.

Let the dough rise once and punch it down. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Let dough rise again, punch down, and flatten it out. Cut the dough in half and make each half into a rectangle shape. Fill with the filling of choice. Fold the long sides together and transfer to a greased round baking pan. Tuck one end into the other, making a circle shape. Cut several slits around the top of the dough. (I use kitchen shears for this.) Bake 20 to 30 minutes at 375 degrees F.

As the bread is cooling on racks, brush with 1/3 cup sugar dissolved in a little water, or with melted butter.