DEBORAH CORRAO / L’Observateur / October 11, 1999

When Ouida Nutt cooks now, she makes enough for a couple of months. Sheand a friend get together and make food she keeps wrapped in frozen food containers wrapped in aluminum foil. Every night she takes one out andwarms it up.

“I start cooking on Friday,” she says. “He comes over on Saturday. It takesus about three hours to wrap the food and clean up.”Nutt, 84, moved to LaPlace in 1929 with her parents. Her father, WilliamSherwood Edwards, served as principal of John L. Ory School from 1928until his retirement in 1940.

Nutt served for many years as director of Protestant religious education at Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Her duties included working with the SundaySchool, Youth Group, children’s music, camps and retreats.

Still active in First Baptist Church in LaPlace, Nutt keeps Sunday School attendance for children in grades 1-6 and calls absentees to let them know they’re missed. She says she makes about 70 calls a week. She alsoattends worship services every Sunday morning.

For the past two years she’s made pecan clusters, covered in white and dark chocolate, to give to each and every member of the church the first Sunday in December. She also distributed the candy to church memberswho were sick and homebound.

Nutt says she enjoys eating everything but Mexican food and keeps fit by caring for her dog Silas and walking 200 laps a day.

“A lap,” she says, “is from my chair, through the living room, down the hall to the bedroom.” Here are a few of Ouida Nutt’s favorite recipes:

Fruitcake

1 big jar Borden’s None Such mince meat

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 16 oz. container candied cherries

1 16 oz. pineapple (cut in pieces)

8 oz. whole pitted dates (cut in half)

2 cups English walnuts

2 jumbo eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

Mix together mince meat and condensed milk. Add fruit, nuts and eggs. Siftflour and soda into mixture. Stir. Spray 3 loaf pans with Pam. Spoon cakemixture into pans. Cook at 300 degrees for one hour and 15 minutes. Test. If not done, test every 10 minutes. When done, put cakes on counter andcool for 15 minutes. On another counter lay out three long strips ofaluminum foil. After 15 minutes, hold cake on side and flip onto foil. Thisputs top of cake on the bottom, so hold two edges of foil and flip. Do thisto all three cakes. Cool, wrap in foil, refrigerate, eat.

Pumpkin Pie

1 9 5/8 unbaked pie shell

1 16 oz. can pumpkin (2 cups)

1 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk

2 jumbo eggs

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Mix ingredients together and pour into uncooked pie shell. Bake 15 minutesat 425 degrees. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake 35-40minutes until done. Remove from oven. Cool and refrigerate.

Apricot/Coconut Balls

1 pkg. dried apricots (put through vegetable grinder)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 lb. coconut

1/2 lb. powdered sugar

1 slab white chocolate

Mix together apricots and milk. Stir in coconut. Stir in powdered sugar.Make balls out of mixture. Roll in powdered sugar. Place on waxed paper ontray. Put toothpicks in center of balls. Freeze for 20 minutes. When nearlyfrozen, melt white chocolate slab and stir. Swirl balls in melted chocolateusing toothpicks. Place on waxed paper to harden. Remove toothpicks,place in plastic bags and refrigerate.

If chocolate did not soften, roll balls in more powdered sugar, move toothpicks, put in bags and refrigerate.

Use unsoftened chocolate with one pound pecans. Stir spoon up onto waxedpaper for pecan clusters.

Buck-Eyes

1 16 oz. jar smooth peanut butter1

1/2 lb. melted oleo1

1/2 lb. powdered sugar

1 slab dark chocolate

Make into small balls. Place on waxed paper on tray. Stick toothpicks intop center of ball. Freeze in freezer 20 minutes. Four minutes before timeis up, melt 1 1/2 slab dark chocolate in bowl in microwave. Stir. Hold ontoothpick and swirl in melted chocolate. Do not cover top with chocolate. Place on waxed paper. Let cool, harden, remove toothpicks, put in plasticbags and refrigerate.

Pecan Clusters Almond bark

1 1/2 slab dark chocolate (in squares), melted in microwave

1 1/2 slab white chocolate, melted

2 lbs. pecans

Stir melted chocolate in separate bowls. Add 1 lb. pecans to each. Stir. Spoon onto waxed paper. Let cool and harden. When hard, place in plasticbags and refrigerate.

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