My favorite recipes

Mary Bertrand returned to LaCrosse, feeling that her heart was calling her there, in 1997. She still owned the family home at LaCrosse and after many years in big and busy cities, she decided to come home.

Mary’s family moved to LaCrosse in 1945, where her father worked as a foreman for Union Pacific Railroad. In those days, Union Pacific was a major factor in Whitman County, moving vast amounts of freight, employing many people and paying generous taxes into county coffers. Her father already had a large family, so he was not drafted for military service during World War II.

After eighth grad...