Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By KIMBERLY DAVIS kdavis@leader.net
Tuesday, March 11, 2003 Page: 11A
The activities and nutrition staff of Birchwood Nursing and Rehabilitation
Center, Nanticoke, have cooked up an interesting concoction for fund raising.
Residents at the center are dictating their favorite recipes to members of
the staff. The recipes will be compiled into a cookbook that will be sold to
raise money for residents’ association projects. Staff and family members may
contribute to the cookbook as well.
Lisa Luksic, activities director at the center, said people with
Alzheimer’s disease and other memory-loss afflictions often remember details
from long ago. A favorite recipe would be one of those precious memories that
they can share.
Mary Sayre, 79, Birchwood resident and president of the center’s resident
council, shared her recipe for breaded pork chops, the way she made them for
her late husband William.
“It’s been a long time since I made them. It’s been nine years since he’s
been gone,” she said. “I miss him. I miss the pork chops, too.”
Coat the pork chops in cracker crumbs, Sayre said, then in a beaten egg,
and again in cracker crumbs. Bacon grease is her secret. She fried the pork
chops in a frying pan on low heat for about an hour, turning them from time to
time until both sides were golden brown.
Sayre served up her tasty pork chops with mashed potatoes, peas and carrots
and a little salad. “I did it my way,” Sayre said.
Her recipe will be added to the collection gathered at weekly Recipe Recall
gatherings scheduled at Birchwood.
“Let’s not forget the cultural aspects of food and the comfort it
provides,” wrote Gina Giarratano, registered dietician at Birchwood, in a
center newsletter. “The food is such a focus in this setting.”
“A lot of the residents here are of Polish and Czechoslovakian descent,”
Luksic said, as she introduced Rose Sivilich, 66, with a recipe for potato
pancakes.
Sivilich would grate two to three pounds of potatoes at a time, by hand,
for her special potato pancakes. To the grated potatoes she added four or five
medium onions, grated, three eggs, about a half cup of flour, and salt and
pepper.
One to two tablespoons of baking powder, Sivilich said, would make the
pancakes rise to fluffy perfection. “They’re better with it. They’re tastier,”
Sivilich remembered.
“You fry them in oil until they’re golden brown. The one side gets brown,
and you turn them over.”
Sivilich said that some people like to serve their potato pancakes with
applesauce, but she always preferred sour cream. Also, she said, a hot cup of
tea or coffee is best to wash down the greasy treats.
Her recipe made a big pile of potato pancakes. “But they didn’t last too
long,” she remembered with a smile.
Mickey, one of Birchwood’s canine mascots, sat by diligently as Sivilich
recited her recipe. “We’ll probably put a doggie biscuit recipe in the book,
too,” Luksic said.
Proceeds from the book will go toward refreshments at resident council
meetings, prizes for bingo, and appearances by Polka Pete and Jolly Joe
Timmer, Sayre reported. Birchwood also has a happy hour for residents every
Friday from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., where wine, beer and cheese are served.
“What they’re really saving money for right now is a gazebo outside,”
Luksic said. “We received a $1,000 donation from Telephone Pioneers of Verizon
toward the project.”
The Birchwood cookbook is scheduled to go on sale in June, and the price
per copy will depend on the cost of printing. “I want to keep it between $5
and $10,” Giarratano said.