Due to COVID-19, she has slowed down a bit and therefore, graciously given me a piece of her time. Since she is not one to talk about herself, I jumped at the opportunity.

This busy lady grew up in Randolph next door to where she currently lives. She was the oldest of five children.

“We were far from wealthy and both of my parents grew up during the (Great) Depression so they knew the value of hard work.”

Her mother was raised in a family of 10 children. As would be expected, the children spent most of their time in the warmer months working in the fields. Their mother did all the cooking, therefore when Mrs. Gorth’s parents married, the bride had few, if any cooking knowledge.

The Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Cake incorporates chocolate and strawberries in a light dessert.

“It was trial and error for a long time and she determined that would not be the case with her children,” the daughter said. “All of us were taught at least the rudiments. We had a huge garden each year and my parents, advocates of the old saying ‘Idle hands are the devil’s workshop,’ made sure we pulled our fair share of duties.”

As in the case of her mother, she along with her siblings, spent many hours out of doors tending to the garden.

“I hated that (weeding the garden) with a passion,” she recalled.

“One day I was out there doing my usual grousing about how I hated it, and my mother who loved every form of gardening, offered me a deal. She would pull weeds if I wanted to cook the meals.”

The young girl anxiously grabbed the opportunity to move from the garden to the kitchen. In the beginning, her mother did the majority of the cooking, but as she became more comfortable and acquired a few more skills, the young Elise took on more of the responsibility of preparing the family meal.

“I eventually became a decent cook. I love trying new recipes and one of Ken’s complaints is when he finds a dish on the table that he especially likes, he probably will never see it again as I want to try something new all the time,” the wife said with a twinkle in her eye.

“One of my favorite things to do is to try to replicate some of the fancy desserts I see online. To be honest, I’m not that great at it. I can make it taste good, but I rarely end up with anything that looks in any way like the masterpiece I was trying to replicate. Fortunately, I don’t have to earn my keep as a cake decorator. But I still have fun trying and both of the cake recipes here are the end result of seeing a beautiful cake online and attempting to copy it.”

After her senior year at Randolph Central School, she graduated from college where she earned a degree in communications with an emphasis on radio and television. Her first opportunity to use her newly acquired education was at a small radio station in Syracuse which is now defunct. Later, a friend from college recommended her for a job in advertising at a publishing house in the Silicon Valley.

“I had always wanted to see California, so I accepted it and spent 10 lovely years out there. I loved California and it was there that I met Ken.”

They married soon after and when she took him home to visit my parents, he liked what he saw.

“He thought Randolph was the prettiest town he had ever seen and said he wouldn’t mind living here,” she said. “We were both feeling it was time to get out of California. Housing prices even then were climbing astronomically, and we thought we would enjoy living a quieter lifestyle so a couple years later we moved here.”

She was hired at the former Co-operative Insurance Company of Western New York. In time, the Co-op was taken over by North Country Insurance whose headquarters was in Watertown, New York. She was eventually promoted to manager of the Randolph location, but just a couple years later, the home office closed all of the branches, moving everything to Watertown. Everyone in the Randolph branch lost their jobs, with the exception of Gorth, who was kept on with the new title of Western Regional Marketing Manager. She retired from there after 30 years with the company.

“There never was a group of nicer people to work with,” said Gorth as she rememberd her co-workers at the Randolph location.

A few years before she retired, her good friend, Mark Hinman, gave her a reference for the editor position that had opened at The Randolph Register. She was hired part-time enabling her to work both jobs.

“I loved the job from the first and it has been a great place to work for the past 20 years.”

Her love of photography began about 35 years ago when her son was a little boy. She invested in a good camera and started taking pictures of him. Then she bought a few books and studied how to take good pictures. Later, she added more books on photography and gave her best effort to learn Photoshop.

“As my skills (and cameras) got better, I started dreaming of having a real studio. Eventually that dream came true and I’ve had a small studio for about 10 years now.”

Before the pandemic, she made family and high school senior portraits, but she may be best remembered for her fun Christmas portraits with the beautiful props and backgrounds.

“Due to COVID, I haven’t done anything for months, but hopefully I can get going again at some point. I love doing it,” she said.

Interestingly, while she was working at the radio station in Syracuse, she was interviewed for a job as public relations director for a large hospital in the Boston area. She was flown to Boston for the interview and after some discussion was offered the job.

“It would have been a far better job than the radio station job and I was tempted, until they told me it would require a lot of photography. ‘I don’t know how to do photography,’ I told them. ‘We’ll teach you,’ they said.”

“Well, I was afraid I couldn’t do it and besides I loved the radio station. So, I turned it down. I still shake my head over that one all the time.”

Christmas is her favorite time of year and it shows in nearly every aspect of her life, including her photography, cooking, decorating and good deeds.

“I cook and bake until I’m so tired I can hardly stand,” she said.

Her Christmas dinner table includes many family favorites. The fruits of her labor are not only beautiful, but delicious to the palate. Her love of baking, gift of creativity and patience for tackling multi-step desserts is exhibited in the Peppermint Chip Layer Cake. When it comes to taste and appearance, the Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Cake is no slacker either.

“Ken and I both enjoy decorating but our tastes could not be more different. I love the elegant, classy look with all white lights. Ken thinks Christmas should be about traditional colors. He loves multicolored lights on the tree and fun decorations all over,” she explains. “We’ve been married 43 years, and you learn to compromise if you plan to keep a healthy marriage. He gets the outdoors decorations all to himself and can put up flashy lights and fun decorations to his heart’s content. I get the main tree and can make it as elegant as I like.”

Aside from the Christmas tree, the rest of their house is a blend of their totally opposite tastes. No matter how beautiful her tree or sparkly his embellishments, the most memorable part of their Christmas home is the extensive Christmas village display.

“Once, every five years or so, we go to the massive amount of work of putting up my Department 56 village. We really don’t have a place for it, so we have to take scores of books out of the bookcase, set up tables, and rearrange so much furniture that it truly wears us out. But I love having it up and this is the year we did it,” she says.

The village, which is made up of about 100 buildings and an additional one hundred pieces in the form of people, animals, trees, bridges, roads and a couple of lighthouses, encompasses a very large area of the couple’s basement den. Outside of the town is a very large wooded scene. Amongst the trees is a lake, a river with working waterwheels and an area dedicated to miniature skiers with some wildlife interspersed throughout.

“So, I get to look at my pretty little village this year until probably sometime in February when Ken will say ‘it’s time to get real and put things back in place.'”

Another important part of their holiday is the annual Memory Table display. The table is decorated with pine boughs, pretty red ribbon and beautiful angels. Lovely flameless candles, each representing a family member who has passed and who is dearly missed, are placed around the decorations.

“Christmas, to me, is made when our son and his wife drive up the drive from Tennessee. They both teach at a university so they get a bit more of a break than many do for which we are grateful,” she shares. “Our son has deep roots to Randolph and even though they live in a lovely part of Tennessee, he thinks there is nothing like Randolph and he always hopes for snow–lots of it–when he is home.”

Shannon, their beloved daughter-in-law grew up in Jamestown, therefore returning to the area is coming home for her as well.

“They were married in the Randolph Library–the only wedding ever to take place there,” says the proud mother.

In an effort to make Christmas last as long as possible, on Christmas Eve the family members open the small gifts that have been tucked into their stockings and wait to open the gifts under the tree on Christmas night after they have enjoyed their dinner.

“I love the old Christmas carols that have so much meaning. Christmas for me is about the Savior who came to die so that my sins can be covered with His blood and I can find a place in my Heavenly home. He has walked with me all through my life and a million gifts to Him at Christmas and all other times can never repay what He does for me each day.”

Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Cake

Crust

24 chocolate cream-filled sandwich cookies, crushed

6 T butter, melted

Pinch of kosher salt

Chocolate Mousse

2 tsp gelatin

2 1/2 T cold water

2 1/4 c chocolate chips

3 c heavy cream divided

1/2 c powdered sugar

2 qt strawberries, stems removed

Ganache Topping

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 c semisweet chocolate chips

Chocolate shavings

Crust: Spray 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine crushed cookies, melted butter and salt. Press mixture into pan and set aside. Make chocolate.

Mousse: In a small bowl combine gelatin and water and let set for 5 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, bring 1 cup heavy cream to a simmer and then remove from heat. Whisk in softened gelatin and stir until completely dissolved. Pour mixture over chocolate chips and whisk until chocolate is melted. Let mixture cool, stirring occasionally. In a separate bowl, with an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat remaining 2 cups cream with powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Stir in about 1/4 cup whipped cream into melted chocolate mixture. Then gently fold in the remaining whipped cream until fully incorporated. Spread a thin layer of mousse over crust. Cut in half as many strawberries as necessary to press around outside edge of the pan, then place whole strawberries inside, stem side down. Transfer remaining mousse to a piping bag and fill in all the gaps between strawberries, then spread mousse over strawberries, creating a flat top. Refrigerate until set, about 4-6 hours.

Ganache: Heat heavy cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Place chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl. Pour hot cream over chips. Let sit 3 minutes until creamy and no lumps remain. Refrigerate ganache until slightly thick, 15 minutes or so, and spread over mousse. Sprinkle chocolate shavings on top.

Peppermint Chip Layer Cake

Cake

3/4 c unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 c sugar

3/4 c sour cream, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 T peppermint extract

6 large egg whites, room temperature

2 1/2 c flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 c milk, room temperature

1/4 c water, room temperature

Peppermint Chip Frosting

1 1/2 c salted butter

1 1/2 c shortening

11 1/2 c powdered sugar

4-5 T water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 T peppermint extract

3/4 c peppermint pieces

Red White Chocolate Ganache

5 oz white chocolate chips

3-4 T heavy whipping cream

Red gel icing color

Decoration

Candy cane Hershey kisses

Peppermints

Cadbury chocolate balls

White chocolate peppermint M&Ms

Peppermint pieces

Cake: Prepare three 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom and grease the sides. Preheat oven to 350∂F. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light in color and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time. Add sour cream and vanilla and peppermint extracts and mix until well combined. Add egg whites, three at a time, mixing after each until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then combine the milk and water in a small measuring cup. Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until well combined. Add the milk mixture and mix until well combined. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between the cakes pans and bake for about 21-23 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

Frosting: Beat the butter and shortening together until smooth. Slowly add about 1/2 of the powdered sugar, mixing until smooth between each addition of powdered sugar. Add 3-4 tablespoons of water and vanilla and peppermint extract to the frosting and mix until smooth. Slowly add the remaining powdered sugar, mixing until smooth between each addition. Add additional water to the frosting as needed to get a smooth consistency, then stir in the peppermint pieces.

To assemble cake: Use a large, serrated knife to remove the domes from the top of the cakes so that they’re flat. Place the first cake on a serving plate. Spread about 1 cup of peppermint frosting evenly on top of the cake. Add the second layer of cake and another cup of peppermint frosting. Top the cake with the remaining layer and frost with the peppermint frosting.

Red ganache: place the white chocolate chips in a metal bowl. Microwave the cream until it starts to boil. Remove from the microwave and pour over white chocolate chips. Let sit for 2-3 minutes, then whisk everything together until it’s smooth. If it doesn’t get completely smooth, microwave for about 10 seconds, then whisk together. Add small amounts of the red gel icing color until you have the desired shade of red. Allow the ganache to sit for a few minutes until it just starts to thicken. A squeeze bottle may be used for control when adding ganache to cake or ganache can be poured over cake and spread to edges with an offset spatula, allowing it to drip down the sides.

To decorate cake with candy, use some remaining frosting to pipe a ring around the cake. Place the candy around the ring, propping it up on the frosting to give it some height. May be refrigerated until ready to serve but is best served at room temperature. The candy may soften when exposed to moisture, so you may want to add it close to the time you are serving the cake.

Blake’s Absolutely Must-Have Sweet Potatoes

3 c canned yams, drained and mashed

3 eggs

1 c sugar

1 stick margarine

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix ingredients well, in order given. Place in casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Topping:

1 c crushed cornflakes

1 c coconut

1 c light brown sugar

1/2 c pecans

1/2 stick margarine

Combine ingredients. Remove casserole from oven and sprinkle topping evenly over. Return to oven and bake additional 15 minutes.

Roasted Green Beans with Cranberries and Walnuts

2 pounds fresh green beans, stem ends trimmed

2 T extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered

1-1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp sugar

1 tsp fresh lemon zest

2 tsp fresh lemon juice,

1/2 c dried cranberries

1/2 c walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350∂F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Line a rimmed baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Place the walnuts on the prepared baking sheet and bake until fragrant, 5 to 10 minutes, watching carefully so they don’t burn. When cool enough to handle, transfer the nuts to a cutting board and coarsely chop. Place the foil back on the baking sheet and increase the oven temperature to 450∂F. Place cranberries in a small heatproof bowl. Cover the cranberries with boiling water and set aside. Place green beans directly on the foil-lined baking sheet. Using a rubber spatula beans with the olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and sugar. Roast for 15 minutes and then stir with a spatula to promote even cooking. Continue roasting until the beans are tender, slightly browned and just starting to shrivel, about 10 minutes more. Drain the cranberries. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, drained cranberries and toasted walnuts to the green beans. Toss well. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Family Favorite Eggnog

4 c milk

5 whole cloves

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp ground cinnamon

12 egg yolks

1 1/2 c sugar

4 c light cream

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Combine milk, cloves, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and cinnamon in a saucepan. Heat over lowest setting for 5 minutes. Slowly bring milk mixture to a boil. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks until light in color. Add sugar and whisk together until fluffy. Whisk small amount of hot milk mixture slowly into the eggs and then add the rest, whisking while pouring. Pour mixture back into saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for 3 minutes, or until thick. Do not allow mixture to boil. Strain to remove cloves and let cool for about an hour. Stir in cream, 2 teaspoons vanilla and nutmeg. Refrigerate overnight before serving.