My favorite recipes

It’s a crisp, sunny fall day, and Shani Nelson Hergert is busy at St. John Pharmacy. A St. John native, she left for college and work, but she is happy to be back in her home town. After graduating from St. John-Endicott High School, she attended Eastern Washington University to major in elementary education. During student teaching, she realized that wasn’t quite the career for her.

During her years working in Spokane, Shani worked for a wholesale jeweler, a florist, a legal assistant, a dispute resolution clinic and at AIA (now HUB International) Insurance.

Brad and Shani moved back to St. John in 2005. Brad also graduated from St. John-Endicott High School. He works for the Washington State Department of Corrections, so he has a bit of a commute to work. When their daughter was born in 2006, Shani stayed home for two years and provided child care for three to 13 children at any one time. She offered after school care, which is at a premium in so many places.

While being a stay-at-home mother had its rewards, she enjoyed taking a break by going to the post office and dropping by the drug store. When she was ready to work outside the home, she started at the ice cream counter at St. John Pharmacy.

Shani is now a pharmacy assistant and training to be a pharmacy technician, taking training online as well as having on-the-job training. She is still scooping ice cream and making milkshakes.

On the side, Shani is a Stampin’ Up demonstrator and a Thirty-One Bag consultant. A woman of many skills, she does minor watch repairs and is the local person to go to for a battery change.

For fun, the Hergerts attend Spokane Chiefs hockey games, camping and four-wheeling. Conr, who is 13, is active in scouting, football, wrestling, baseball, fishing, hunting and trap-shooting, while the family goes camping and four-wheeling. Katie is nearly seven, and she enjoys singing, drawing, wrestling and reading.

Recently, Shani started sewing, since St. John Pharmacy does “Spool Girls” every other month. There’s a Friday evening class for making a craft and Saturday for making sewing projects. She has recently finished pot holders, pajama pants, and her very first quilt. There are lots of things happening at the Pharmacy. They carry flowers and balloons, and when they’re really busy, they have coaxed Carol Harrison out of retirement to help arrange flowers.

St. John Pharmacy owner Michelle Welch has developed a display of old medicine containers, and there are numerous vintage Coca Cola signs and memorabilia, which are often brought in by customers and given to the pharmacy.

“We have the best customers!” Shani said.

Shani’s parents live in St. John and are still active. They are members of the Patriot Guard Riders, providing support at funerals of military members and veterans. They are active with the grandchildren, and her mom is in St. John Garden Club.

Shani learned to cook in high school consumer and family studies classes and in college when she was living on her own.

She has found that she likes to control the process and the end product. Her children like to help make and decorate cookies, and Brad cooks, too.

When Shani was on bed rest before Conr was born, Brad was chef. They had “man food,” she said, tacos, hamburgers and spaghetti.

Sources for her recipes include her friends, her mother and Pampered Chef. Shani loves Pampered Chef products and recipes. She is known for her desserts and loves to make anything chocolatey and gooey.

Recipes:

Bubble Bread

Every Christmas Eve I make this for Christmas morning.

1 package Rhodes frozen rolls (24)

1 package butterscotch pudding (not instant)

1 cube butter or margarine, melted.

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Put 24 frozen rolls into a greased or sprayed Bundt pan or angel food cake pan. Sprinkle dry pudding mix over the rolls. Sprinkle walnuts or pecans over pudding mix and rolls. Drizzle butter over all. Mix cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over all ingredients.

Set pan of prepared rolls on counter overnight. Bake in the morning at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. Rolls will fill the pan—don’t add more!

Meatball Sandwich

1 batch of 30 meatballs, frozen or thawed

1 cup ketchup

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped onion (or use onion powder to taste)

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke, optional

6 sandwich rolls, split

Place meatballs in an ungreased 1-quart baking dish. Combine the next 5 ingredients; pour over meatballs. Cover and bake at 350 F degrees for 1 hour. Serve on rolls.

Note: These meatballs may be served as an appetizer with toothpicks instead of on rolls.

Chicken Enchilada Ring

2 cups coarsely chopped cooked chicken (about 12 ounces)

1/4 cup chopped pitted ripe olives

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese blend

1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies, undrained

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 Tablespoon taco seasoning

2 8-ounce packages refrigerated crescent rolls

1 cup salsa

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Chop chicken; add cheese, green chilies, mayonnaise, and taco seasoning.

Unroll crescent dough. Separate dough into triangles. Arrange triangles in a circle on a round cooking stone with wide ends overlapping in the center and points toward the outside. (There should be a 5 cm. opening in the center.)

Scoop chicken mixture evenly onto widest end of each triangle. Bring points of triangles up over filling and tuck wide ends of dough at center of ring. (Filling will not be completely covered.) Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Slice and serve with salsa and sour cream.

Adapted from a Pampered Chef recipe

Carmel Corn

2 bags air pop popcorn

2 cubes butter or margarine

2 cups brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Make 2 batches of air pop popcorn

In a large pan boil:

2 cubes butter or margarine

2 cups brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup light corn syrup

Let boil until the pan is full of bubbles. Add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. Mix rapidly.

Use microwave or oven method to finish carmel corn.

Microwave:

Put popped popcorn in paper sack, pour carmel mix over popcorn, and then shake a lot. Put bag in microwave for 1 1/2 minutes; take out and shake. Put it back into microwave for another 1 1/2 minutes, and then shake a lot. Put back in microwave for 45 seconds.

Take out popcorn in bag and let it cool on wax paper or in a large bowl, separating it often.

Oven:

Put popcorn on cookie sheets and pour carmel over it. Bake for 1 hour at 200 degrees F.