OxfordPress.com

Cook of the week: Sharon Taylor

NAME: Sharon Taylor

HOME: Oxford

WORK: Employed in Dining, Housing, and Guest services department at Miami University, Oxford.

HOW LONG COOKING: Started cooking the family supper when she was 15 and her mother, Sylvia Williman, of Hamilton, went back to work.

HOW OFTEN COOKS: Six nights a week; always a big family/friend dinner on Sundays, often making her 2 favorite recipes and appetizers.

COOKING MENTORS: Self-taught, experimental cook influenced by mom; creates new versions of her mother's basic recipes.

COOKING SPECIALTY: None. An eclectic cook who does it all — uses lots of vegetables in her meals.

FAVORITE COOKBOOK: The Betty Crocker Cookbook her husband, Don, bought her before they got married in 1974.

FAVORITE RESTAURANT: Applebee's.

SPECIAL INTERESTS: Swimming, walking, volleyball, corn hole, and spending time with her husband and their daughters Renee, Niki, and Michelle.

TWO FAVORITE RECIPES: Sharon's spaghetti sauce and meatballs, and Swiss Bliss.

Sharon's spaghetti sauce and meatballs

SAUCE:

3 (29-ounce) cans tomato sauce

1/2 medium green bell pepper, diced

1/2 medium onion, diced

6 - 8 mushrooms, sliced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon oregano

2 tablespoons red cooking wine (She uses Holland House red cooking wine.)

1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 or 2 cups water

On the stove top in a large stockpot or Dutch oven, add all ingredients; mix together. Cover and simmer on low for 2 hours. After you put the sauce on the low heat, make the meatballs.

Yield: 10 - 1 2 servings.

MEATBALLS:

1 pound ground beef

1/4 cup diced onion

1/4 cup diced green pepper

1 egg

dash of Parmesan cheese

dash of salt and pepper

dash of garlic powder (not garlic salt)

10 - 15 Saltine crackers

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together and form meat balls fairly loose, about the size of a golf ball. On the stovetop in a skillet sprayed with vegetable spray, add meatballs and brown. Add browned meatballs to the already simmering sauce. Cook at least 3 hours, covered, over a very low heat. (Note: The longer the sauce and meatballs cook, the better it gets. If the sauce is not thick enough, remove the lid and turn up the heat until you get desired thickness.) Altogether, Taylor cooks the sauce about 5 hours, turning the sauce off and on periodically as it simmers. Serve with cooked spaghetti.

Yield: about 18 meatballs.

—Sharon Taylor

Swiss Bliss

1 or 2 tablespoons margarine

1 envelope onion soup mix

1 (16-ounce) can tomatoes, drained and chopped (reserve juice)

1/2 cup juice from tomatoes

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 pounds chuck or round steak

1 green bell pepper, sliced

coarse ground pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)

2 20-inch sheets aluminum foil

Lay both sheets of foil on top of each other; then put on a cookie sheet. Spread the entire center of the foil with margarine. Cut steak into serving portions. Arrange steak on foil, slightly overlapping each portion. Sprinkle with onion soup mix; put on green peppers, tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper. In a bowl, mix together tomato juice, worcestershire sauce, and cornstarch. Pour over top of meat. Bring foil up over and double-fold the edges so it seals tightly. Repeat with second layer of foil Bake for 2 hours at 365 degrees.

Note: Wrap and bake potatoes separately in oven while cooking meat. The meat gets so tender it falls apart. This recipe makes its own sauce, which can be made into a gravy, if desired.)

Yield: 5 - 6 servings.

—Sharon Taylor