HAMILTON, Ill. — Judy Kammerer comes from a long line of good cooks.
“My mother was an excellent cook. My grandma was,” the Hamilton woman said. “I won’t say I’m good, but everybody eats what I fix or else they go hungry.”
Between family — her husband of nearly 60 years John, their four children Tom, David, Gregg and Lynne and seven grandchildren — and activities at Hamilton United Methodist Church, Kammerer finds reasons to spend plenty of time in the kitchen.
Most of the time, she focuses on main dishes like Chicken Noodle Soup, a staple for church soup suppers. “Of all the soups I make, that’s the easiest,” she said.
In warm weather months, Kammerer might opt for Chicken Salad, made with a touch of Parmesan cheese. “Any other white cheese would work, and when I make tuna salad, I put shredded Colby Jack in there,” she said.
“When I make my dressing, I always use sour cream and mayo — in chicken salad, tuna salad, potato salad,” she said. “It’s just a good combination. Everybody seems to like it and wants to know why it tastes different.”
Kammerer often relied on a Crock-Pot to fit cooking into a schedule made busy over the years by teaching preschool for 18 years and serving as a Girl Scout leader for years for her daughter’s troop, a niece’s troop and a granddaughter’s troop.
“We made sure all the kids could cook before they left home,” Kammerer said, and her husband “liked to bake with the kids when they were little so they could learn fractions.”
Kammerer grew up just across the Mississippi River in Keokuk, Iowa, but spent much of her married life living in Hamilton.
“I didn’t do a lot of cooking when I was growing up, but I would help my mom with baking. I liked that more,” Kammerer said.
Married five months after her high school graduation, Kammerer knew she had to learn to cook, mastering recipes like her husband’s favorite Spaghetti, usually served with salad and garlic bread, and Ham and Bean Soup.
When daughter Lynne decided to make a family cookbook, Kammerer knew it wouldn’t be easy to record some of the family’s favorites.
“When baking, you have to follow the recipe,” she said.
But with other dishes, “you just kind of throw it in there until it looks right and tastes right,” she said, and tasting as she goes is key. “You have to make sure there’s enough seasoning in it.”
Kammerer may start with a recipe, then tweak it or combine recipes into one dish. Her Pecan Pie, for example, draws from recipes from her mom and her dad’s cousin. “You just kind of make it your own,” she said.
“It’s a lot of trial and error. Just experiment, try something different,” she said. “I might see a recipe in a magazine and tweak it.”
Kammerer found the recipe for Jell-O Cookies more than 40 years ago in a magazine and has made it ever since, choosing flavors to suit the season. “At Christmas we use lime Jell-O or cherry,” she said. “It makes a really pretty cookie.”
Best of all is having plenty of people around the table — for any type of meal.
“The dining table belonged to my mom’s parents. It’s over 100 years old. During threshing season, Mom helped Grandma. She remembers going around the table serving,” Kammerer said. “We can get 12 around the table. It’s cozy when we do that.”
1 package chicken breasts (six to seven pieces)
1 (32-ounce) box chicken bone broth
1 (32-ounce) box chicken stock
2 (32-ounce) boxes chicken broth
1 carrot or 6 to 7 baby carrots, shredded
Put chicken in Crock-Pot with bone broth and olive oil. Cook on high for five to six hours. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to break up/shred chicken into smaller pieces. Add remaining ingredients, except noodles, to Crock-Pot. Add noodles 30 minutes prior to serving.
NOTE: For an evening meal, Kammerer starts the soup around 8 a.m. on high, then turns it to low around noon. Soup can be reheated, with more broth added.
2-3 chicken breasts, cooked
4 tablespoons dill relish
¼ cup sliced almonds or chopped pecans
¼ to ⅓ cup dried cranberries or sliced red grapes
½ cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese (or serve with sliced white cheese – Swiss, Havarti or provolone)
Slow cook chicken in Crock-Pot with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 16 ounces of chicken broth or chicken stock. Allow to cool. Shred or dice chicken.
Add next six ingredients, mixing well. Mix together sour cream and mayonnaise, and stir into salad.
8 ounces each dried Great Northern, baby lima, navy and pinto beans
1 tablespoon bacon grease
1 large carrot or 6 baby carrots, shredded
⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
⅛ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Put beans into a large, six-quart kettle, and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, and let boil for 10 minutes. Turn heat to medium, and cook for 20 minutes; drain. Put ham hock in the kettle, then return beans to the kettle.
Add bacon grease, carrot, onion, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, salt and ham. Bring to a boil. Turn to low heat, and cover. Cook for at least six hours, stirring occasionally.
1 pound Italian sausage (optional)
1 medium onion, diced (optional) or ½ to 1 teaspoon onion powder
1 medium green pepper, diced (optional)
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes (optional)
5 (15-ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 small can mushroom stems and pieces (optional)
½ cup chopped green olives (optional)
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Brown hamburger and sausage in olive oil. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder. Use a slotted spoon to transfer meat to Crock-Pot. Add Worcestershire sauce and onions. Let cook for 30 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, mixing well. Cook on high for around four hours, then turn heat to low. Turn Crock-Pot off about 30 minutes before serving.
Serve sauce with spaghetti noodles and Parmesan cheese along with a tossed salad and, if desired, garlic bread.
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 packages Jell-O (any flavor)
Sift flour and baking powder.
In a separate bowl, cream butter. Gradually add sugar, and mix well. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Add Jell-O, and mix until smooth. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing after each addition until smooth.
Force dough through cookie press onto ungreased baking sheets. Or, for cut-out cookies, roll out between two pieces of parchment paper.
Bake at 350 degrees for 9 to 11 minutes, depending on size of the cookie, or just until set. Remove from oven. Let cool, and decorate as desired.
Sift dry ingredients into a nine-inch pie pan. Add milk and oil. Mix well with spoon until well blended. With fingers, press dough firmly and evenly around bottom and sides of pie pan. Flute the edge.
NOTE: Crust works well with Pecan Pie. May use crumb topping if wanting to make a fruit pie.
Cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well. Add corn syrups, vanilla and salt, mixing well. Stir in pecans. Pour into a nine-inch pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until knife comes out clean.