ANNA MONICA / L’Observateur / October 18, 1999

When her children ask why she wants to keep cooking, Marie Navarra Guidry simply says that if she couldn’t cook, she just couldn’t live. So they are nowconsidering getting her a new stove.

Mrs. Guidry never did actually learn how to cook from anyone. She just starteddoing it as a young girl and long before she married the now late Wilkin Guidry of Garyville. There were times she even had to show her mother how to cookcertain dishes, including rice. Whenever there would be friends coming over, herfather would ask her to do the cooking. “I put more things in my cooking,” shesays.

Although she cannot say she likes to cook one thing more than the other, Mrs.

Guidry does a lot of gumbos, stews and spaghetti. Her friends like to use herrecipe for cabbage casserole. A specialty of hers that gets eaten really quicklyis rio favre, a dish of crowder peas cooked with seasoning and sausage, then after water has been added, rice is put in to be cooked with the peas. OnSundays, when her family is there, she often alternates that dish with spaghetti and meatballs.

The three sons she raised, the late Wilkie, Kevin of LaPlace and Keith of Garyville, show up often at her home to eat very much the same dishes they did when growing up. In turn, their children also are usually among about 10 peopleenjoying home cooking there every Sunday, or at any other time they show up.

Usually Mrs. Guidry has something put away in the freezer so she can offer agood meal on short notice. It’s especially important to her to be ready when theyoung grandchildren show up.

Since her late husband never complained about what she cooked for him, Marie Guidry saw no reason to change her way of cooking. Her love for the kitchenextends to baking, and she is always ready to try a new cake or pie, much to the delight of members of her family. It’s not unusual for some to hassle over thelast piece of her coveted pineapple upside-down cake.

This soon to be 86-year-old says she has been cooking all her life, and lately, having a touch of diabetes, has even transformed her well-known bread pudding into a sugar-free dessert. Her latest recipe book purchase is for diabetics soshe can modify the recipes for her own diet.

“I would rather do that than give up cooking,” she admits.

Here are a sampling of Mrs. Guidry’s recipes:

1-2-3-4-S Plain Cake 1 cup butter 3 cups flour 5 tsp. baking powder1 tsp. vanilla extract2 cups sugar 4 eggs 1 cup milk Mix butter or margarine, sugar and eggs in large bowl. Next add vanilla extract.Stir in milk, then baking powder. Fold flour in gently. Bake at 350 degrees for 30minutes or until cake center bounces back from slight pressure.

Cabbage Casserole

1 medium cabbage 1 lb. ground beef1 can Ro-tel tomatoes 1 cup chopped onions 1 cup chopped celery 1 cup bread crumbs Chop and boil cabbage. Fry ground meat. Add onions, bell peppers, celery, cabbageand tomatoes. Cook 45 minutes. Add part of bread crumbs to mixture. Put incasserole dish and add remaining bread crumbs on top. Brown in oven preheatedat 350 degrees.

Beef Flavored Rice 2 cans beef broth (bouillon) 1 can water 1 block butter or margarine (melted) 2 cups raw rice (washed) throw off starchy water 3 links hot or mild sausage Seasonings: 2 onions, parsley, 1/2 green pepper, salt, black pepper, Creole seasoning and Worcestershire sauce (to taste).

Cook in oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, uncovered. Stir with fork. Cover forfive minutes. It is then ready to eat.Angel Biscuits 1 pk. dry yeast1/4 cup warm water 2-1/2 cups flour 1/2 tsp. baking soda1 tsp. baking powder1 tsp. salt1/8 cup sugar 1/2 cup shortening 1 cup buttermilk Let yeast dissolve in warm water and set aside. Mix all the dry ingredientstogether as listed. Cut shortening into dry mix as you do for pie dough. Stir inbuttermilk and yeast mixture. Thoroughly blend and mix. The dough can berefrigerated and kneaded lightly after removing from refrigerator. It should beallowed to set at room temperature to allow it to rise a little before baking.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

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