Mixing up some memories

Tina Wells Staton, right, and her sister Nancye Wells Maze love to prepare old fashioned home-cooked meals, here they are shown with a freshly baked casserole.

From her first batch of homemade biscuits to learning to make the perfect meringue, growing up on a farm has defiantly influenced the way Tina Staton cooks.

The youngest of six children born to the late George and Christine Wells, Tina Wells Staton grew up on a farm near Sharpsburg.

A country girl at heart, Tina says she loves to pamper her family with home cooked meals and baked goods.

“I loved growing up on a farm and learning to cook from my mother. Mom was an old fashion cook and could fix a meal without having to measure anything,” Tina said.

By the time she was in her teens Tina had learned to prepare different recipes.

“I guess I married kind of young so I started cooking complete meals at an early age,” Staton said. “I can remember breakfast was the first meal I cooked on my own. I fixed my husband Tim some homemade biscuits and gravy, and well, the biscuits turned out kind of hard.”

Family meals during the holidays are some of Staton’s fondest memories.

“Mom would always have homemade cakes, pies and candy during the holidays,” Staton said. “The one thing I really miss is my mom’s cooking,” she said.

With her own children now grown, Tina says she stays busy stirring up the same cherished recipes for her grandchildren.

“My grandchildren keep me pretty busy these days”, Tina said. “I still bake a lot for Ava and Bryson and one of our favorites is a chocolate pie that I still make using mom’s recipe.”

Mom’s Homemade Chocolate Pie

1 cup sugar

3 1/2 tablespoon cocoa

2 egg yolks

dash of salt

1/2 tablespoon butter

3 1/2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cup milk

Mix sugar, flour, cocoa, salt and eggs yolks together; add milk, stirring constantly.

Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens. Pour in baked pie shell.

Meringue- 6 egg whites and about 1 cup sugar, beat until thickens; poor over pie and bake in oven until meringue is nice and brown.

Do you remember when you first learned to cook?