By Peggy O'Neill
Helena Independent Record
October 27, 2010
Judi Harris’s favorite cookbook belonged to her mother. The pages of the black, hardcover book called “America’s Cook Book” are stained and loose. The binding is cracked. Notes are scribbled in the margins. It’s a book that looks well-used and well-loved.
Inside the front cover are two inscriptions. Harris’s mother, Betty May Vehrs, wrote her name in the book, along with the date she received it — Sept. 30, 1941. Vehrs also wrote the name of her sorority at Oregon State University, where she majored in home economics.
Vehrs wrote the second inscription 55 years later. It says: “To Judi — I know you’ll enjoy this textbook as much as I. Much love, Mother.”
By habit, the book falls open to Harris’s comfort foods — banana bread, fruit cobbler and apricot-date bars.
“I grew up with these recipes,” Harris said. “These are my three favorite things.”
Administrative assistant by day, phenomenal cook by night, Harris recently swept the Jefferson County Fair baking contests with her interpretation of these recipes.
Her blackberry cobbler won “Best in Show,” and her banana bread and apricot-date bars won first-place ribbons. It was the first time Harris had ever entered anything in a fair.
“I was not expecting to win,” Harris said. “I was really just in it to share the recipes. I was shocked that the cobbler won best in show.”
Harris’s fiance, Doug Nulle — also an avid cook and an appreciator of most things Harris creates in the kitchen, was not surprised.
“Her cobbler wins with me, hands down,” Nulle said. “I was really stoked when I saw she got best in show.”
It’s a gracious compliment considering he also entered his own creation in the fair — apple jelly — which was eliminated from judging because of a faulty canning process.
The couple have a friendly rivalry when it comes to cooking. Harris and Nulle competed against each other at the Montana Wild West Chili Cookoff at the Montana Wild West Fest in August at the Kleffner Ranch.
Nulle entered a time-honored Nulle family recipe; Harris entered her version of a recipe she found online. Out of four entrants, Harris placed third and Nulle didn’t place.
But cooking won’t come between these two high school sweethearts who spent 27 years apart before reconnecting a few years ago over the Internet. One six-hour phone conversation and one plane flight later, Nulle proposed.
Harris rattles off the dates like ingredients in a recipe: “On Feb. 19, he called. Two weeks later, on March 6, he flew out. On March 7, we got engaged.”
Harris, 55, and Nulle, 57, left their respective homes in Idaho and California and moved together to Clancy. They’ve been cooking together ever since.
Harris says she dreams of one day having a cooking show. She is working on launching a website that will feature her recipes and cooking tips. Her mom has passed away and “America’s Cook Book” is out of print, but Harris wants to continue a tradition.
“I just really want to share my recipes — my mom’s tried and true recipes,” Harris said. “I got my love of cooking from her.”
Helena Independent Record
October 27, 2010
Judi Harris’s favorite cookbook belonged to her mother. The pages of the black, hardcover book called “America’s Cook Book” are stained and loose. The binding is cracked. Notes are scribbled in the margins. It’s a book that looks well-used and well-loved.
Inside the front cover are two inscriptions. Harris’s mother, Betty May Vehrs, wrote her name in the book, along with the date she received it — Sept. 30, 1941. Vehrs also wrote the name of her sorority at Oregon State University, where she majored in home economics.
Vehrs wrote the second inscription 55 years later. It says: “To Judi — I know you’ll enjoy this textbook as much as I. Much love, Mother.”
By habit, the book falls open to Harris’s comfort foods — banana bread, fruit cobbler and apricot-date bars.
“I grew up with these recipes,” Harris said. “These are my three favorite things.”
Administrative assistant by day, phenomenal cook by night, Harris recently swept the Jefferson County Fair baking contests with her interpretation of these recipes.
Her blackberry cobbler won “Best in Show,” and her banana bread and apricot-date bars won first-place ribbons. It was the first time Harris had ever entered anything in a fair.
“I was not expecting to win,” Harris said. “I was really just in it to share the recipes. I was shocked that the cobbler won best in show.”
Harris’s fiance, Doug Nulle — also an avid cook and an appreciator of most things Harris creates in the kitchen, was not surprised.
“Her cobbler wins with me, hands down,” Nulle said. “I was really stoked when I saw she got best in show.”
It’s a gracious compliment considering he also entered his own creation in the fair — apple jelly — which was eliminated from judging because of a faulty canning process.
The couple have a friendly rivalry when it comes to cooking. Harris and Nulle competed against each other at the Montana Wild West Chili Cookoff at the Montana Wild West Fest in August at the Kleffner Ranch.
Nulle entered a time-honored Nulle family recipe; Harris entered her version of a recipe she found online. Out of four entrants, Harris placed third and Nulle didn’t place.
But cooking won’t come between these two high school sweethearts who spent 27 years apart before reconnecting a few years ago over the Internet. One six-hour phone conversation and one plane flight later, Nulle proposed.
Harris rattles off the dates like ingredients in a recipe: “On Feb. 19, he called. Two weeks later, on March 6, he flew out. On March 7, we got engaged.”
Harris, 55, and Nulle, 57, left their respective homes in Idaho and California and moved together to Clancy. They’ve been cooking together ever since.
Harris says she dreams of one day having a cooking show. She is working on launching a website that will feature her recipes and cooking tips. Her mom has passed away and “America’s Cook Book” is out of print, but Harris wants to continue a tradition.
“I just really want to share my recipes — my mom’s tried and true recipes,” Harris said. “I got my love of cooking from her.”
