Tested recipes that feed a crew

Corn silage meals. Easy after-school treats and snacks. Slow cooker meals for nourishing little, tired minds that keep them from getting hungry and angry.

My mind is swirling with meal ideas as I move cows around to prepare them for next week’s weather. I like finding new recipes, but I am definitely a fan of the old standbys. Old cookbooks are the prime place to find those tried and true recipes. Every once in a while, I come across familiar names as I comb through the pages. Perhaps you know some of these ladies who submitted these recipes to the Wisconsin Guernsey Breeders cookbook compiled in 1985. If you are one of them, thank you. I treasure this cookbook very much, and if you know of one, tell them thank you for making my people happy with their recipes.

Cherry coffee cake by Barb Schomburg of West Salem, Wisconsin, and Bettsann Dosch of Richland Center, Wisconsin
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
Mix the above ingredients together until crumbly. Take out 1/2 cup of the crumbs and reserve for the topping.
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
21 ounces cherry pie filling
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
Beat together the eggs and milk; add to the remaining crumbs along with extract. Spread in a buttered 9-by-13 pan. Cover all over with cherry pie filling. Sprinkle with the reserved crumbs. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes.
I have made this cake with my homemade apple pie filling, peach-blueberry pie filling and canned rhubarb sauce. I have made this recipe countless times and never hear a complaint.

Award-winning peanut butter cookies by Mandy Speerstra of Whitehall, Wisconsin
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup butter
2 eggs
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cream sugars, butter and peanut butter until blended and smooth, and beat in eggs; add dry ingredients. Mix together. Roll in balls and press with fork to about one-half inch high on the cookie sheet. Bake approximately 10 minutes at 350 degrees. If you are a peanut butter cookie fan, these are a treat.

Baking powder biscuits by Beatrice Jones of Bangor, Wisconsin
3 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons shortening
1 cup milk
Sift flour; measure and sift with baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening with two spatulas. Add milk. Turn onto lightly floured board. Knead lightly and pat into sheet 1/2 inch thick. Cut with floured cutter. Bake in 450-degree oven for 12 minutes.

Breakfast casserole by Carol Kolb of Cleveland, Wisconsin
1/2 pound butter
1 dozen beaten eggs
12 slices cubed bread
1 pound pork sausage, fried
1 cup evaporated milk (or 3/4 cup whole milk)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Mix butter and bread in 9-by-13 pan. Mix eggs, milk, soup and sausage (ham or bacon may be used) together and pour over bread mixture. Top with grated cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Can be made a night or two before you plan to use it for breakfast.
Jacqui and her family milk 800 cows and farm 1,200 acres of crops in the northeastern corner of Vernon County, Wisconsin. Her children, Ira, Dane, Henry and Cora, help her on the farm while her husband, Keith, works on a grain farm. If she’s not in the barn, she’s probably in the kitchen, trailing after little ones or sharing her passion of reading with someone. Her life is best described as organized chaos, and if it wasn’t, she’d be bored.