Welcome to our kitchen! In the spring of 1949 the Ladies' Aid of Harmony Corners Community Church collected recipes from every family in the congregation, typed them up on Verna's typewriter, and had them mimeographed and bound with a red cover and two brass fasteners. That was "Favorite Recipes," our first cookbook, and it sold for fifty cents to raise money for the new church kitchen. We have put out a new edition about every ten years since. The 1999 edition is our Fiftieth Anniversary book, and Bev's granddaughter, who is home from college this summer, offered to put a few of the recipes on the Internet so folks who have moved away could have them, and so we could see what all the fuss is about.

These are the ones that are on the table at every single potluck. Not the fancy ones. The ones that come home empty. We have typed them just as they are in the book, with the notes the ladies wrote in the margins. If you would like the whole book, it is $8 at the church office or after the second service, and the money goes to the kitchen, same as always. (We finally got the new stove.)

Everything here feeds a crowd, because that's what a potluck is for. Cut them in half for a family, but honestly, the leftovers are the best part.

Not written down anywhere until now. Everybody knows them anyway.

1. Bring enough for twelve. That's a 9-by-13 pan. A 9-by-13 is the official unit of measure of the potluck.
2. Put your name on the bottom of the pan on a piece of masking tape. Also on the lid. Also on the serving spoon. Marlys has lost four spoons this way and she is still looking for the one with the blue handle.
3. Hot dish goes at the head of the line, salads next, then the buns, then the bars. Do not put your bars at the front of the line. We know what you're doing.
4. Go through the line once with a reasonable plate. When everybody has been through, you may go again, and you should, because nobody wants to take home a half-full pan.
5. Jell-O is a salad. It goes on the salad table. This is not open for discussion.
6. Take a little of everything and a lot of nothing, at least the first time. Somebody made every one of those dishes, and she is watching.
7. If you bring something new, stand near it and say what's in it. People are shy about a dish they can't identify, and Ardis is allergic to walnuts.
8. Bring a serving spoon. The church has nine. There will be forty dishes.
9. Everybody helps clean up. The men do the tables and chairs, the ladies do the kitchen, and the children go outside so we can hear ourselves think. Yes, we know it's 1999. It works.
10. Never go home with somebody else's pan. If you do, bring it back next Sunday, washed, with a bar in it.

Notes from the margin: Elaine uses cream of celery half the time and nobody notices. Some put a cup of shredded cheddar on top for the last ten minutes; the young people like that. Dorothy skips the beans and calls it "the kids' one." If you have to drive it to church, wrap the whole pan in a bath towel and it will still be hot at noon.

Notes from the margin: The sugar sounds strange but leave it in. LaVonne says if you put the bacon on the night before it goes soft, so she puts it on in the church kitchen. Some add a layer of chopped green pepper or water chestnuts. That makes it eight layers and nobody has ever complained.

Notes from the margin: Can be put together the night before and baked in the morning; add fifteen minutes if it goes in cold. Crushed potato chips work for the top if you're out of corn flakes. Ardis says the secret is not to skimp on the sour cream, and she means it.

Notes from the margin: Verna's original from 1949 used whipped cream, because that was what there was. Orange gelatin with mandarin oranges makes "Orange Fluff," which is the same thing and just as good. Do not use fresh pineapple, ever; the gelatin won't set. (Canned is cooked, and that's why it works.)

Notes from the margin: They'll look pale and slightly cracked on top when done. That's right. Don't overbake or the filling gets rubbery. Keep them in the refrigerator if it's summer. Dorothy grates a little of the lemon peel into the filling, which she did not put in the book and we are telling on her.

Notes from the margin: No baking, which is why Bev makes these in July. If the chocolate layer cracks when you cut them, let the pan sit out a few minutes first. Bev says makes 36 bars; Bev's grandchildren say makes 12.

Notes from the margin: A dozen fits in a 9-inch square pan for a smaller crowd. Marlys has also done these with turkey and cheddar and with roast beef and Swiss. They travel well wrapped in the foil and a towel. Whatever you do, do not skip the poppy seeds; that's the whole taste.

The big percolator in the church kitchen makes 60 cups and it has been making them since 1971. One cup of grounds for the full pot, and it takes about 45 minutes, so somebody has to start it during the sermon. Some of our older members, whose folks came from Norway and Sweden, still make egg coffee at home for company, where the grounds are mixed with a raw egg before they go in the boiling water and it comes out clear as tea; if you've never had it, ask Verna, and set aside an afternoon.

The coffee is always on. That's the last rule of the potluck, and the most important one.

We hope you'll try some of these, and if you're ever near Harmony Corners on the third Sunday of the month, there's a plate for you. Bring a 9-by-13.

The Ladies' Aid Society
Verna, Ardis, Marlys, Elaine, Dorothy, LaVonne, Bev, and all the girls