Janet Breen's Cookbook

JANET BREEN began cooking as a young girl when she learned to make toast using a drop-side toaster. Just before Thanksgiving, she, along with her older brother Richard, made orange cranberry relish with the hand-cranked, cast-iron meat grinder. She still uses that same meat grinder to make that wonderful relish. Her mother was instrumental in teaching her baking skills but cleaning up afterward was a skill she had to acquire. In fact, she recalls her father telling her that she couldn’t make fried chicken and strawberry shortcake again if she didn’t clean up the mess. One of her favorite dishes was her mother’s baked macaroni and cheese that was sliced and fried in butter the next day. Sadly, her mother did not write down the recipe and it is lost to this day. Another favorite recipe is acorn squash stuffed with meatloaf. That recipe suffered the same fate as the mac and cheese but soon it will be back. Sometimes recipe experimentation did not go well, and her father would say “I think my taster is off!” This recipe book began as a project to save and pass along favorite recipes gathered from family and friends over the years. Janet was a stay-at-home mother for several years, enjoying time with her husband and their 4 children. She has been working full-time as a CPA for the past 15 years and is looking forward to retirement when she can focus on building her kitchen skills, sewing special dresses for her granddaughters and most importantly, spending time with her children and grandchildren. She hopes that you enjoy this cookbook as much as she has enjoyed hunting and gathering the recipes.