Here’s What’s Cooking in Lynne Almasy’s Kitchen

All month long, Farm and Dairy is gathering Around Your Table! Each week in November, we are featuring one lucky cook who has sent in her favorite recipes for all of us to enjoy! Thank you Common Wealth Kitchen Incubator for Sponsoring our Reader’s Kitchen Contest.

This week’s winner is Lynne Almasy of Hubbard, Ohio. Stay tuned each week in November as Around The Table gets comfy in all four of our winners’ kitchens!

Above Photo (left to right):  Lynne, Sean, Eric, Thomas, Gary, Lauren, and Lynne’s husband Greg

“This is why I love to cook – to feed my family! This photo of all of us was taken at my fourth child’s graduation last May. Even with five kids there are always extra kids for supper. I bake almost every day. They tell me, ‘cookies aren’t dessert, just a snack. We need a dessert as well.’  We have always eaten supper together, and favorite memories growing up are stories around the kitchen table. We raise our own meat and grow a lot of our own vegetables. There is something quite satisfying about growing your own.”

We asked Lynne…

What is your favorite meal to prepare, and how long have you been making it?
My favorite meal to make is Thanksgiving dinner.  I’ve been making it since 1992.  We raise our own turkey and raise or know who raised almost everything in the meal.

From whom did you learn most of your cooking skills?
I learned most of my cooking skills from my grandma, Evalyn Plumeret.  She was a wonderful cook, and had lived through the Depression.  She saved the ends from celery to make soup and the bacon grease.  She could have 4 extra people show up for supper and stretch whatever she had made to feed everyone — a skill she fortunately passed on to me. By opening some applesauce and some extra veggies, you can spread it around to feed extra people.

What is your fondest kitchen/cooking memory from your childhood?
My favorite memories are standing on the kitchen chair in my grandma’s kitchen with her apron tied under my arms stirring bowls of batter.  I still have that bowl!

What recipe do you cook that has been handed down in your family the longest?
My grandma’s 24-hour salad.

What kitchen tool or utensil could you simply not survive without?
RADA knives

If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of cooking advice, what would it be?
It’s the advice I give anyone who asks me how to make something:  Don’t be afraid to try! Also, buy fresh, buy local, and buy in season. Fresh, local ingredients give you great results. There are plenty of local butcher shops and fruit markets to get seasonal ingredients. Learn to freeze or preserve when fruits and vegetables are in season, so you can eat well all year long.

Congratulations, Lynne!

Lynne’s Recipes:

• Real Pumpkin Pie
• REAL Whipped Cream
• Pat-in-in-the-pan pie crust
• Twenty Four Hour Salad
• Fusilli with Summer Vegetables and Sausage
• Grandma’s Stuffing
• Bread and Butter Pickles

Can’t get enough recipes? Peak into Brenda Baker’s or Kathi Hamilton’s kitchens for their recipes.

Come back next week for more great recipes out of our week four winner’s kitchen!

Proudly Sponsored by:
Common Wealth Kitchen Incubator of Youngstown, Ohio
Helping folks create jobs working with the food we love.
330-746-9711
cwkiyoungstown@gmail.com