Leah McCormick

By Published On: March 4, 2015

After growing up on mostly peas and butterbeans, Leah Morris McCormick of Bruce has discovered roasted asparagus.

“I have burned my family out on them,” she said, “but I will eat the whole bunch alone. The family is sick of them!” She says she goes heavy on the Parmesan cheese in making them, and says she wants to learn, experiment and branch out more with other vegetables.
When younger, she cooked “junk” from boxes and mixes. Now it makes her happy to know that she knows where at least three-fourths of her meal comes from, and that’s father-in-law, J.D. “Peanut” McCormick’s garden, and she says that is important to her.

As a breast cancer survivor, she wants to try and stay away from processed foods and make clean recipes. She started several years ago making Lemon-Ginger Honey Tea and says she can “tell such a difference,” and that it is easy to make. She was having a lot of sinus issues due to her immune system being compromised from chemo, and while researching on the internet, found that hot liquids, particularly teas, not coffee, help to thin mucus.

“Ginger is an excellent anti-inflammatory, honey helps with my allergies and lemons deliver a powerful shot of vitamin C. It’s a powerful concoction and I truly believe the foods we eat, or drink, have healing properties. Just as much as the pills we are so prone to take…without any side effects,” she said. The cold buster is a good recipe, “you just have to get past the color of it,” she said.

The laundry detergent is one she heard about from The Duggers’ website and in looking for a simpler and more natural way of life, she decided to try it. For less than $2 it makes a 5-gallon bucket of liquid detergent that lasts six months. The recipe is for unscented, but you can add essential oils for scent, she said.

She likes the taste of cream cheese and says that she and friend, Gina Schmitz agree that if you put it on cardboard it would be good. Cheesecake is her favorite food and she likes it plain. It was introduced to her by the late Connie Logan. They liked to make it in cupcake tins, using vanilla wafers as the crust, and whatever topping they wanted, but strawberry being their favorite. The mini cheesecakes are also a family favorite and something she takes to church, too.

“I am not a baker,” she said, but can make Granny (Virginia Ray McCormick’s) coconut cake. “It is a deceptively plain and simple bundt cake, but so dense and moist that when you taste it, your eyes will roll back in your head!” In baking, she has learned you can’t rush it, and not to open the oven door before it’s time.

Granny’s ‘Bad Good’ Coconut Cake
(Virginia McCormick)
2 cups self-rising flour
2 cups sugar
5 whole eggs
1 cup oil
1 cup coconut
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. coconut flavoring
Grease bundt pan and flour. Mix all ingredients well. Bake at 325° for 40-45 minutes.
Filling: 1 stick butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. coconut flavoring
Mix together. Boil one minute. Punch holes in cake (I use a bamboo skewer for this.) Put filling on while hot. Use all of the filling.

Lemon-Ginger Honey Tea
Ginger root
1-2 lemons
1 Tbsp. honey
Pour boiling water over three slices (more or less if desired) ginger root in a cup. Let steep. Juice one or two lemons (your choice) and add juice to cup. Let cool a little before adding honey.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap
4 cups hot water
1 Fels-Naptha soap
1 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda
1/2 cup Borax
Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan of water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until melted. Fill 5-gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight.

Roasted Asparagus
Drizzle olive oil over asparagus that has been spread out on a cookie sheet. Add coarse sea salt and Parmesan cheese. In a 350° oven, roast for 15 minutes.

Cold Buster Smoothie
(Kerry Heinz)
1 cup chopped strawberries
1 orange
2-3 large kale leaves, stems removed
1/2 cup almond milk
1 Tbsp. honey
Handful of ice
Blend two minutes.

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