Chelsea West

“I just love to cook and I enjoy working in the restaurant business,” said Chelsea West,  a waitress at Pizza Palace in Bruce.
She started cooking at a younger age and loves any kind of dessert and pasta. She started out making a lot of cookies and cake, but says she is “not that great with pie.” Her mother-in-law, Lisa West of Wisconsin, “makes amazing pies with homemade crust, especially rhubarb pie.” Chelsea says the crust was too thick when she tried.
She just recently learned to make homemade bakery style cakes and buttercream icing from a friend, and wants to learn to make different kids of icing. She is practicing to make their daughter, Paisley’s, first birthday cake.

“I love stuff  like that,” and Libby Kakales Tidwell was very complimentary of some cupcakes Chelsea made and shared with them at work. Amish Friendship Bread from a starter is something she used to make a lot of  that “is really good,” she said.
She uses a lot of fresh vegetables and pasta, and likes adding veggies to pasta recipes. One vegetable mixture passed along to her from a friend includes brussel sprouts, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, regular potatoes and fresh garlic cloves. She tosses these in olive oil and spreads on a cookie sheet in the oven for about an hour. About 15 minutes before completion, she adds a some Worcestershire and little Dale’s to the mix. “It is some of the best stuff.” She occasionally adds other vegetables.

Her mother, Teresa Bryant, “makes the best biscuits and cornbread,” which she says she will not try to make. But she does make  broccoli cornbread, that she recently had with Cowboy Soup, and Mexican cornbread. “You can’t beat the broccoli cornbread.”
Chelsea has always liked a variety of food, different recipes, likes to cook different things, and has a lot of recipes. She has as gotten a few cookbooks from her mother, but has made several others from her recipe clippings.  Pinterest is a favorite of hers for checking out recipes. “Most of the time I will leave a recipe alone, I mostly stick to it,” she says.

She plans to soon start making homemade baby food for their daughter, beginning with sweet potatoes and carrots. Creamy homemade soups like tomato bisque and corn chowder are what she enjoys making, as she is not big on stew.  She likes to make pumpkin pancakes around Christmas time. She also makes pumpkin rolls, made like a  sweet potato roll. She loves to make sweet potato casserole and candied yams, and she makes the casserole topping using  pecans, brown sugar, flour and butter.
Something she “finally perfected” and makes occasionally is tilapia with orange cream sauce and sauteed vegetables over angel hair pasta. The veggies she likes to use are a mixture of bell pepper, onion and mushrooms sauteed in butter with fresh garlic.

Husband Caleb grills and she likes his steak and hamburgers. “All of his seasonings and marinades are good.” He didn’t cook when they married, but now grills almost year around and steak is a favorite. They grow tomatoes and banana peppers and likes to make homemade salsa, which she loves. Her mother taught her to made muscadine jelly.
Chelsea loves Mrs. Voula Kakales’ cabbage, and really likes her lentils and had never liked lentils before tasting hers. She frequently takes leftover desserts, especially chocolate ones, to work for Mr. Bill, who she says is a chocoholic. Mr. Bill and Mrs. Voula are “my taste testers, and they are very honest!”
Sausage Alfredo
1 pkg. smoked sausage
8-12 oz. penne pasta
2 cups heavy cream (I used a pint)
Cajun seasoning, any kind
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Saute sausage five minutes. Add cream and Cajun seasoning. Boil. Reduce heat. Simmer 3-4 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken. Stir in Parmesan. Add pasta and stir. (Great additions are cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, onions. Simmer to the side with olive oil. All used in the mixture I made.)

Pumpkin Pancakes
2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. sugar
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
1/3 cup oil
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1-15 oz. can pumpkin
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. all-spice
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves
In large bowl, beat eggs. Add milk, oil and vanilla. In separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and all spices. Pour egg mixture into flour mixture. Blend well, then add canned pumpkin. Cook small amount on medium heat. Batter will be thin.

Nestle Toll House Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1-2/3 cups (10 oz.) Nestle Toll House dark chocolate morsels
1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 375°. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets two minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Pasta Salad
1 pkg. pepperoni, diced
Couple pieces ham, diced
Half onion, diced
1 whole red bell pepper and yellow, diced
5 Tbsp. olive oil or vegetable oil
1 large package swirl noodles
Little salt and pepper
Italian dressing
In skillet put oil. Add onion, bell pepper, ham and pepperoni. Saute all together. Let cool.

Homemade Blueberry Ice Cream
(Chris Bryant)
Mix together 1-1/2 cups sugar, 4 eggs, 1/2 gallon milk. Put on stove and stir constantly until just slightly warm to the touch. Remove from heat. Add Eagle Brand milk, 1 Tbsp. vanilla, 1 can blueberry pie filling. Stir all ingredients. Pour liquid mixture into ice cream maker. Fill to line with milk.