News editor
St. Luke Hospital and Living Center in Marion has published a cookbook of recipes from employees, living center residents, and their families, titled “Recipes from the Heart: St. Luke Family Favorites 2012.”
Activity director Robyn Kukuk said some staff members talked about how long it had been since the previous cookbook was made, and residents decided they wanted to make another. Collecting recipes for the cookbook took five to six months, asking for a different category of recipes every so often.
Resident Ruth Viets said most of the recipes she submitted were ones she learned from relatives, although some of her favorites came from other sources.
“My husband was a pastor, so we would pick up a lot of neat recipes as we went to appointments,” Viets said.
One example was “Nickerson chicken casserole,” a cheesy casserole she learned at her husband’s first appointment, in Nickerson.
“We served it everywhere we served, and they even served it at my husband’s funeral,” she said.
Another favorite she submitted for the cookbook was oven caramel corn.
“That’s something the whole family can munch around on,” Viets said. “We would make that, of course, in the winter.
“I enjoyed selecting the recipes, because these are the recipes everyone asked for,” she said.
About 300 cookbooks are left of 560 that were printed. Most of the ones already sold were done as pre-orders, but 50 were sold at Art in the Park, Kukuk said. Cookbooks will also be sold at Old Settlers’ Day, she said.