BY MERLE MONAHAN/CONTRIBUTING WRITER
merlemonah@aol.com

WAKEFIELD—Kathy Moore says she was rather independent while growing up. She liked to learn things on her own.

“Take cooking for instance,” Moore said. “ I’d read cookbooks and try my hand at cooking something that looked good. It didn’t always turn out the way it looked, however. But I kept trying.”

Moore believes she can hold her own now. With the help of her mother, she has turned out to be a pretty good cook.

A single mother with two grown children and an 8-year-old son at home, Moore doesn’t have to cook as much now. But she has her family, which is quite large, sometimes for holiday meals.

“The last time I was the host, there were 35 people here,” Moore said. “Of course, I didn’t do all the cooking, but I did my share.”

She spends a lot of time with her mother and father, often taking them something she has cooked.

“They like my chicken and dumplings and my spaghetti—I make my own sauce,” Moore said. “I’ve improved quite a bit. I often think about the first pancakes I made. Horrible.”

She gives a lot of credit to her late former father-in-law, a retired Army cook, who visited when she and her husband lived in Lawrenceville.

“He liked to hunt and fish, and he liked to cook what he caught,” Moore said.

He said he first taught her how to fish — even bought her a fishing rod — and then taught her how to cook the fish.

“I remember how he’d stand beside me at the stove and tell me exactly what to do,” Moore said.

Although her family, which includes relatives on her mother’s and father’s side, is quite large, members are close-knit.

“We all like to visit and we like to eat,” Moore said. “For that reason, we all have to know how to cook.”

NAME: Kathy Moore

AGE: 51

OCCUPATION: Former daycare provider

FAVORITE FOOD: Shrimp

LEAST FAVORITE FOOD: Beets

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU REMEMBER COOKING: Pancakes

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR WORST COOKING EXPERIENCE: When I cooked the above mentioned pancakes, they turned out to be about an inch thick and the same size of the skillet I cooked them in. To this day, I can’t understand what happened.

ONE INGREDIENT YOU CAN’T COOK WITHOUT AND WHY: Believe it or not, it’s Splenda. I use it in everything that calls for sugar, and it does a great job.

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU HAVE LEARNED ABOUT COOKING: Have all ingredients on hand when you start, take your time and don’t forget to set the timer.

WHO IS THE BEST COOK YOU HAVE EVER KNOWN AND WHY: Well, my mom, Eloise Atkins, is the best, but my father-in-law, Pete Cutrell, taught me a lot too. Mama cooks like her mother did, the old-fashioned way. A lot of her recipes she has memorized, and everything she cooks is good. She knows how to season things perfectly — I think it’s a knack she has. She also is not afraid to try new things. I don’t know what my sister, and I would have done without her when we first got married — one or the other of us had to call her almost every day to ask a cooking question and she was always there. Now Pete was a retired Army cook, but he also knew how to cook venison. He also had good recipes for fish.

IF YOU COULD EAT ONE THING FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD IT BE: Seafood

Carrot Cake

Cake Ingredients:

4 eggs

2 cups white sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

3 cups grated carrots

1 ½ cups cooking oil

2 cups plain flour

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

Frosting Ingredients:

8 oz. softened cream cheese

2 sticks softened butter or margarine

1 box powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts (I use pecans)

Directions:

Mix all cake ingredients together well. Pour into greased tube or 13- by 9-inch pan and bake in 300- to 325-degree oven for about 1 ½ hours. Mix all frosting ingredients and frost cool cake.