Kelley Liskow serves a tray of S’Mores Cookies during East Randolph United Methodist Church’s coffee hour. Photo by Beverly Kehe-Rowland

Kelley Liskow still remembers the yellow, soft-covered children’s cookbook where she got the fried bologna recipe she made frequently as a child. Her recipes and cooking skills have greatly expanded since then. Her interest in cooking grew when her boys were little and she found she wanted to do fun things with food for them.

“For Halloween, for years, we made mummy dogs by wrapping strips of crescent roll dough around hot dogs before baking them. We made monster toast where we mixed food coloring with milk before painting bread. Toasting the bread made the colors vibrant.”

She has dedicated 26 years of her life to the teaching profession as a special education teacher, having spent 17 of those years at Randolph Academy. She is currently in her ninth year of employment with Cattaraugus Allegany BOCES and has spent the last two years doing consultant teaching. She has taught every grade from Kindergarten through grade 12.

The habit of sharing fun projects with her sons has carried over to her life with her students. The educator is always on the look out for ideas she can share with them and her coworkers.

Although she no longer quilts, quilting was one of her hobbies until recently, having made wall hangings, pillows and blankets and giving most away to friends and family. Her mom learned to knit after breaking a wrist and was anxious for her daughter to learn, but to no avail until Mrs. Liskow’s son learned to knit from the older woman. After the son taught his mother how to do the basic stitches, she made a dishcloth with which to surprise her mother for Christmas. Since then she has broadened her knitting horizons and can now be seen practicing the passion whenever seated for a long period of time. She admits she chooses projects according to an attraction to the pattern but often has no idea who will end up with the hats, shawls, sweaters, blankets and baby booties and clothes she makes.

“My mother is pleased to see me make things for others. It’s relaxing and nice to create things to give away.”

In the past, reading filled much of her free time but it has been replaced by listening to books on CDs while she drives.

It is evident by the way she lives her life, that doing the Lord’s work and serving others is important to her. She is on the Board of Directors and past president of Randolph Lions Club, a Randolph Free Library board member and has taught Sunday school for 15 years at East Randolph United Methodist Church where she is a member and currently co-teaches Pre-K and Kindergarten with her dear friend, Pat Kibbe.

She is a distributor of Young Living Essential Oils and enjoys teaching classes about the use and benefit of the oils.

The featured cook married Mark Liskow 23 years ago, who has been employed with Land Pro in Falconer for 20 years, where he is a turf service manager. He, along with his family, gathers and boils sap to make maple syrup in early spring.

They have three sons. Tyler, who will be 20 years old in December, studies Agricultural Engineering at Iowa State. This is his first year at the school where he entered as a sophomore.

“He’s a wonderful boy,” says a very proud mother.

She has a lot to be proud of with Evan, as well. He is a senior at Randolph Central School and is giving welding school serious consideration. He worked at the Boy Scout camp for two summers and is nearly finished with his Eagle Scout project.

Adam is the couple’s third son. Two cats, Inky and Sam, “one fat and one not so much” complete the Liskow Family.

She has lived in Randolph for many years but grew up in Jamestown near the site of the former Gas Light Motor Inn, which is where the former Sam’s Club is located today. She is the daughter of Janice Kelley-Vanord and Ron Vanord of Westfield and Thomas Eckberg of Frewsburg.

The busy teacher shares some of the recipes she prepares for her family. She suggests saving the Aggression Cookies recipe for when you are having a bad day and says the more you work on mixing the cookies, the better they turn out.

“Mark’s Mac and Cheese is a recipe sort of based on what his mother did and he has added bits and pieces of other recipes,” says his wife, “The Chili Sauce is the recipe his mom always made and is delicious on hamburgers.”

She was happy to get her aunt’s recipe for the microwave version of S.O.S., because it cut down preparation time which allowed her to spend less time standing at the stove to make a family favorite.

“It’s a game-changer for making dried beef, one of our favorite comfort foods,” she states. “The Post-It note (on which it is written) is still taped in my cupboard.”

Mrs. Liskow hopes you’ll try and enjoy these recipes as much as her family does.

S’Mores Cookies

4 T butter

10 oz miniature marshmallow

10-14 oz box S’Mores cereal

Melt butter in large pot. Add marshmallows and stir until melted, continuing to stir until combined. Remove from heat. Fold cereal into marshmallow mixture. Press into greased 9″ x 13″ pan or drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.

Easy Garlic Potatoes

¢ c butter, melted

3-4 cloves garlic, crushed ( or garlic powder)

4-5 baking potatoes

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wash potatoes and then cut in half the long way. Combine butter and garlic and pour into the bottom of a 9″ x 13″ baking pan. Place potatoes cut side down on top of butter and garlic in pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Mom’s Sweet Chili Sauce

14 medium tomatoes, peeled

1 large onion, chopped

1 large green pepper, chopped

1 small red hot pepper, chopped (optional)

1 c sugar

1 tsp canning salt

1 tsp cinnamon

¢ tsp cloves

¢ tsp allspice

Combine all ingredients in a stock pot or large sauce pan. Cook over low heat until mixture has reduced by half, stirring as needed. Place hot chili sauce in hot jars and seal by placing hot sealed jars upside-down for a minimum of 5 minutes. Flip right-side up and wait for jar lids to pop, indicating they have sealed.

S.O.S.-Microwave

Version (White Sauce)

1 c milk

2 T butter

2 T flour

Dried beef

2 hardboiled eggs, sliced

Salt and pepper, to taste

In a 2-cup glass bowl or measuring cup, heat milk on 70% power for two minutes in microwave. In a microwaveable dish, melt butter on high. Add flour. Stir to combine. Cook butter and flour mixture on high for one minute. Briskly stir/whisk warm milk into flour/butter mixture. Cook for three minutes, stopping once to stir, or until mixture boils. Add dried beef, sliced eggs and salt and pepper. Recipe may be doubled or tripled by adjusting the cooking time.

Aggression Cookies

3 c brown sugar

3 c margarine or butter, room temperature

6 c oatmeal

3 tsp soda

3 c flour

Put all ingredients in a very large bowl. Mash, knead, squeeze, the more the better. Let it all out! Continue for 15-30 minutes. Use hands to form dough into 1-inch balls. Place on greased cookie sheets. Butter bottom of small glass. Dip glass into sugar and flatten dough. Glass should be buttered once or twice total, but dipped in sugar for each cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Makes 16 dozen small cookies.

Mark’s Mac and Cheese

2 ¢ c elbow macaroni, cooked al dente

4 T butter

1 small onion, finely chopped

™ c flour

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp dry mustard

3 c milk

3 c combined varieties of cheese, shredded or cubed

Hot sauce to taste

Melt butter in saucepan. Add onions, sautÈing until tender. Add flour, salt and dry mustard. Stir/whisk to combine. Add milk to flour mixture and stir continuously until milk is warm. Add cheese and hot sauce to milk mixture, stirring until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and fold in macaroni until thoroughly combined. Transfer mixture to a greased 2-quart casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.