My favorite recipes

Heather Sandberg is beginning to wonder if she wasn’t meant to be a farmer. She loves to garden and spends a lot of time during growing season in her yard. Her degree from WSU is in environmental science and she has worked in soil and water conservation.

Growing up in Moses Lake, she met her husband in school, but they did not date until college. Roger went to Whitworth University majoring in economics, and Heather attended Washington State University. She says her family is trying to convert him to cheering for the Cougs, which he takes well, but he’s a Whitworth fan at heart.

A highlight of her collegiate years was study abroad in Ireland.

“Everybody should have that–experiencing different cultures,” she commented. Students were from all over Europe as well as the United States. The students learning English were eager to become friends with native English speakers.

After graduating in environmental science, Heather worked with the Conservation District in Ephrata in water conservation. From there she ran an environmental education project for the conservation district.

She and Roger married after he graduated from law school at the University of Washington, and they moved to Colorado where they lived and worked for six months.

They returned to the Northwest and Heather did engineering designs for conservation structures at Lake Stevens while they lived in Edmonds. Roger worked for a judge in Everett. Heather became pregnant and was put on bed rest when Roger was hired in Pullman where he is a partner with Tim Esser. She has been a full-time mom since then.

“Water on Wheels” is a project that Heather and a co-worker developed, so she helped teach the program, which is now “Wheat Week,” to fourth and fifth graders. The curriculum includes learning experiences with watersheds, soils and energy and is tied into wheat production. Both teachers and students loved it. That was a brief break from being a stay-at-home mother to Maile (pronounced My-lee, Hawaiian name), 5 1/2, Lucy, 3 1/2, and Max, nearly nine months.

Heather enjoys all kinds of arts and crafts activities with her children, plays the stock market, and loves to decorate and redecorate. She would happily repaint each room in her house every six months, working continually to create a cozy, warm space, sort of Pottery Barn mixed with old, fun pieces.

While she can ignore Facebook for months at a time, Pinterest is a huge interest, especially to find kids’ projects. Heather paints pictures in acrylics. Her sewing is mostly confined to decorative pillows as she is very averse to ripping stitches. She doesn’t knit, either. Painting, sanding and crafting are her favorite activities.

Heather loves to experiment when she cooks, and her favorite cooking activity is figuring out the ingredients in great dishes in restaurants to reproduce them at home. She is always looking for something new to cook. Pinterest and recipe websites on the internet are a great source for recipes. She has cookbooks, but uses them very little.

With handwritten recipes from her Grandma Weber, Heather has started another long-term project. She takes photos of her girls helping cook and records recipes that her girls love, so that when combined with Grandma’s hand-written recipes, each girl will receive a customized cookbook when she graduates from high school.

Recipes:

Kraut Runza

Dough

2 cups warm water

1 Tablespoon dry yeast

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

5 cups all-purpose flour

3 Tablespoons margarine (melted and cooled)

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in sugar, salt, and then flour and margarine. Mix until smooth; then knead for 5 minutes on floured board (or mix in Kitchenaid mixer at medium speed for five minutes). Turn dough in greased bowl and cover with cloth. Let rise until it doubles in size (about an hour).

Filling

1 pound ground beef

3/4 pound cabbage (finely chopped)

29 ounces sauerkraut

1/2 pound diced onion

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic (powder or minced)

pinch of pepper

Brown beef. Next simmer kraut for 30 minutes and drain any excess juice. Add cabbage and onion and sauté in a little margarine with salt, garlic, and pepper. Mix all together and set aside. Punch down dough and divide into in two parts. Roll each piece of dough into a 12-inch square and cut into nine parts. Use 1/3 cup as a scoop and scoop filling onto each dough square. Fold edges of dough around filling to form balls. Place each on a greased cooking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Enjoy with your favorite mustard.

Soft Pretzels

Dough

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/8 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup bread flour

Baking soda wash

2 cups warm water

2 tablespoons baking soda

Baked Pretzel topping

2 tablespoons butter, melted

2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast, brown sugar and salt in 1 1/2 cups warm water. Stir in flour, and knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover, and let rise for one hour.

2. Combine 2 cups warm water and baking soda in an 8 inch square pan.

3. After dough has risen, cut into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 2-3 foot rope, depending on desired thickness. Twist into a pretzel shape, and dip into the baking soda solution. Place on greased cookie sheets, and let rise 15 to 20 minutes.

4. Bake at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with coarse salt, garlic salt or cinnamon sugar.

Tom and Jerry Batter

3 eggs with whites and yolks separated

1 pound powdered sugar

1/16 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Nutmeg to garnish your completed drink

(1 oz. white rum/brandy per drink if desired)

1. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy in a large glass or metal mixing bowl until stiff peaks form. Lift your beater or whisk straight up: the egg whites should form a sharp peak that holds its shape.

2. Beat the egg yolks to soft peaks in a separate bowl. Mix half the confectioners’ sugar into each bowl until light and fluffy. Mix the two egg mixtures together then mix in vanilla and cinnamon.

3. To make a Tom and Jerry, fill a cup of hot water with spiced rum or brandy, and stir in 1 heaping spoonful of batter. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg if desired.