My Favorite Recipes: Meet Ronda Winstead, Pullman

Ronda and Dave Winstead have been married for 28 years. The couple has lived in Whitman County for six years.

Trading the big city for a smaller town life, Ronda Winstead and her husband Dave moved to Pullman about six-and-a-half years ago when Dave’s job brought them here.

“We came from the Denver area,” Ronda said. “It’s a lot smaller here!”

A small city was not entirely unfamiliar to Ronda, though. She grew up in a small town in Utah, and she found the return to a smaller community an easy transition.

“It was actually kind of nice to get away from the big city,” she said.

Dave’s job at what was then Family Home Care and Hospice brought them to this area. The company has since been bought out twice, first by Gentiva and then more recently by Kindred at Home. He is the executive director there, leading a staff to provide home health care for those in need. With Gentiva, they focused on hospice care, but with Kindred, the care is now just home health.

Dave’s job actually took them to several places.

“We’ve lived all over,” said Ronda. “We were in Denver for three years, and before that, we were in California and Oregon.”

Pullman has been their longest home, she said.

“Our average is four years, and we’ve lived here longer. We’ll be here until he retires.”

Ronda said she is looking forward to that time to be able to spend more time with their children and grandchildren. The Winsteads have six children and 15 grandkids. One of their children is deceased.

The children and grandchildren are spread out.

“We’ve got them in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa and Arkansas,” she said. “So take your pick! And we will! I really am looking forward to that. I miss my kids and grandkids so much!”

As for her cooking skills, Ronda said she mostly learned those from her mom.

“The basics I learned at home growing up,” she said.

When she and Dave married 28 years ago, she experimented more with cooking.

“When I got married, I just sort of started looking at recipes and got a little more creative,” she said.

Growing up, Ronda was accustomed to fresh produce from the garden. The family had a garden with fresh tomatoes, carrots, onions, peas and more. In fact, Ronda said, it was not until later in life that her produce variety was expanded a bit.

“We didn’t do broccoli or cauliflower,” she said. “I didn’t even know what those were, and they’re so good! I just didn’t grow up with it.”

Ronda said one of her favorite times of the year to cook is the holidays. She does a lot of baking and candy making, and she also enjoys creating some warm dishes in the winter time.

“I like to make good soups,” she said. “Those are fun and hit the spot when it’s cold outside.”

While her children were growing up, a Christmas Eve tradition was to make braid bread with hot chocolate.

“We ate that Christmas Eve, and the kids loved that,” she said.

She said she did have some picky eaters amongst the children, and they enjoyed things such as mashed potatoes and gravy and her fluffy scrambled eggs with cheese, as well as some casseroles.

A few years ago, Ronda put together a recipe book with some of her favorites and gifted it to her grandchildren. It is some of those recipes that are shared below.

Recipes

Zucchini Bread

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup white sugar

¾ tsp cloves

1 cup oil

1 tsp nutmeg

3 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups grated zucchini (peeled and grated)

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

Beat eggs, gradually beat in sugars, then oil. Combine dry ingredients. Add to first mixture, then add zucchini. Stir in vanilla. Pour into two greased and floured loaf pans. Bake one hour at 325 degrees. Let stand 10 minutes, and turn onto wire rack to cool.

Swedish

Braid Bread

This is a recipe shared with me by a good friend, Kathy Thede, around 1990-91, when I was living in Salem, Ore. I went to her mom’s home with Kathy, and together we made several batches of bread and I made it every year for Christmas after that when the kids were home. We used to have hot chocolate and braid bread on Christmas Eve.

3 cups milk, scalded

1 TBSP + 1 tsp salt

½ cup sugar

¾ cup liquid fat

Pour scalded milk over sugar, salt and fat. Cool to just lukewarm. Add to this mixture: two well-beaten eggs and three yeast cakes. Let the yeast start to work. The yeast needs to have a warm environment to work properly. Add 9 ½ cups flour. Mix well until dough has a good elasticity, approximately 10 mins. Turn into greased pan, and put in warm place until dough raises double in size. Knead and let rise again. Knead and divide dough into four balls. Divide each ball into three equal smaller balls and roll each into a long, skinny shape, which you will braid and arrange on a greased baking sheet, making sure to tuck under the ends.

Let rise again and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 mins. Frost with powdered sugar frosting and sprinkle ground nuts on top if desired while frosting is still moist. This makes a beautiful and delicious bread for the holidays!

Salmon Party Log

1 1lb can (2 cups) salmon

1 8oz pkg softened cream cheese

1 TBSP lemon juice

2 tsp grated onion

1 tsp horseradish

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp liquid smoke

½ cup chopped pecans

3 TBSP snipped parsley

Drain and flake salmon, removing skin and bones. Mix all ingredients except pecans and parsley. Chill several hours. Combine pecans and parsley. Shape salmon mixture into a 8x2 log; roll in nut mixture; chill well. Serve with crackers.

Beef Stroganoff Sandwich

2 lbs ground beef

1 loaf French bread

½ cup chopped onion

Butter, softened

1 tsp salt

2 cups sour cream

½ tsp garlic powder

2 tomatoes, diced

½ tsp pepper

1 large green pepper, diced

3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

In a skillet, brown ground beef and onion. Drain. Add salt, garlic powder and pepper. Cut bread lengthwise in half; butter both halves and place on baking sheets. Remove meat mixture from the heat; stir in sour cream. Spoon onto the bread. Sprinkle with tomatoes, green pepper and cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Serves: 8-10

Chicken Chowder

This soup was a favorite of family and others. When living in Pedee, Ore., we had a fair in November and sold soup and rolls…this was a hit! I always add plenty of chicken bouillon, more than called for to taste. Also excellent as a vegetable soup, without the chicken.

1 3lb chicken

1 cup flour

5-6 TBSP chicken bouillon

1 quart milk

4 cups diced potatoes

1 cube butter

1 cup diced celery

Salt to taste

½ cup diced onion

Dash of pepper

1 cup grated carrots

½ tsp sugar

Cover chicken with four quarts of water and simmer until done. Remove meat from bones and save. To one quart of broth add bouillon and vegetables. Simmer until done (approximately 20 minutes). Melt butter. Add flour. Blend and add milk. Stir with wire whisk until smooth and thickened. Bring to a boil. Turn down heat. Pour milk mixture into un-drained vegetables. Add sugar, salt and pepper. Mix remaining broth and diced, skinned chicken with vegetables and milk mixture and simmer for 10 minutes.

Serves 15-20.

Fried Tomatoes

This recipe has been handed down from when my mom (Great Grandma Allen) was a young girl growing up in the Depression. They lived on a farm, and so they had lots of tomatoes and tried to fix them in different ways. This was an instant hit!

Large, firm, ripe tomatoes

Flour

Vegetable or olive oil

Milk

Salt and pepper to taste

1-2 eggs

Cut the tomatoes into half-inch slices. Beat one to two eggs and add enough milk to make a nice dipping mixture. Pour oil into a fry pan and heat to medium high. Take a slice of tomato with fork and dip into egg/milk mixture, covering both sides. Then dip tomato into flour and coat both sides. Salt and pepper tomatoes in fry pan and fry until golden brown on both sides. Put on platter and keep in warm oven until all tomatoes are fried. Make a milk gravy with the drippings from the fry pan and pour over the tomatoes. Makes a delicious side dish!

Cheeseburger Casserole

1-½ lb. Ground beef

1 can cheddar cheese soup

1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup

1 bag of crinkle French fries

¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese.

Brown ground beef. Drain extra fat. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray. Preheat oven to French fry directions. Place browned meat in bottom of casserole dish. Add cheddar cheese soup and cream of chicken or mushroom soup. Mix together. Spread evenly in dish and place fries next and top with cheddar cheese. Bake for time specified on French fries package. Serves six.

Raspberry Almond Cookies

½ cup butter, softened

1 egg, separated

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup flour

½ tsp vanilla

¼ tsp salt

¾ cup finely chopped blanched almonds

3 TBSP seedless raspberry jam

In small bowl cream butter; beat in sugar, vanilla, salt and egg yolk until light and fluffy. Stir in flour until well-blended. Cover and chill 30 minutes or until dough is firm to handle. Divide in thirds. On a lightly floured surface, shape dough into one-inch thick rolls. Cut rolls in ¾-inch thick slices; roll each into a ball. In saucer, slightly beat egg white.

Dip each ball in egg white, then roll in almonds. Place one inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. With floured index finger, make deep indentation in center of each cookie. Fill with ¼ tsp jam. Bake in preheated 300 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden. Remove to rack to cool. Store loosely covered in cool place.