Fort Wayne – Elizabeth VanHorn of Fort Wayne thinks she makes good baking powder biscuits and sausage gravy.

“That and potato candy,” she says.

Potato candy?

“I made that during World War II to send to my brother. He was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., and at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. He was an instructor in field artillery,” she says.

Noting that she never had a recipe for the candy, VanHorn describes how she would make the treat.

“Take a small potato and cook it and mash it until there are no lumps in it,” she says. “Add powdered sugar until it becomes a consistency you can roll it without sticking. Add vanilla and roll it out into a rectangle shape. Spread it with peanut butter. Roll it up like a log. Slice it.”

She says that before mailing the candy, she would wrap it in waxed paper and foil. After her brother received the package, he would cut the candy into slices.

VanHorn, 97, says she was around during the Great Depression and thereby learned not to be wasteful – something taught to her by her mother, Mae Smith, and grandmother Caroline Evans.

“I use (leftovers) up. I came up during the first Depression. I’ll keep vegetables, and when I have enough I’ll make soup or combine them with a sauce. Whatever was left I would find a way to combine something,” she says, “My mother could take leftovers and make them taste as good as the first time.”

It wasn’t until she became a 4-H leader that VanHorn realized she needed to use recipes.

“When I learned to cook it was a handful of this or a pinch of that. But then I begun as a 4-H leader, and I started using recipes. I had to teach the children,” she says.

Asked to describe her cooking in one word, VanHorn replies, “Probably country.”

Her reasoning was because her husband was a meat-and-potatoes man.

“I remember my daughter when she was young. I asked her if she was ready to eat her vegetables, and she said, ‘I’ll wait until daddy eats his.’ He ate them,” she says.

VanHorn and her late husband, C.E., had three children: Joan Baldwin of Auburn, Wayne, who is deceased, and Lee, who lives near Chicago.

She has “seven grandchildren and lots of great-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.” Beaming, she says, “I’ve got the most precious family in the world.”

VanHorn is a retired nurse and a volunteer at The Cedars, a nursing home in Leo-Cedarville.

Cathedral Window Holiday Bars

1 1/2 cups softened butter or margarine, divided

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 (4-ounce) bars sweet cooking chocolate

2 cups powder sugar

1 (10 1/2 -ounce) package colored miniature marshmallows

1 cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix 1 cup butter, brown sugar and 2 eggs; stir in flour and salt. Press in ungreased 13-by-9-by-2-inch pan. Bake 25 minutes; cool. Heat chocolate and 1/2 cup butter in 3-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until chocolate is melted; remove from heat. Stir in powdered sugar and 2 eggs; beat until smooth. Stir in marshmallows and pecans. Spread over cookie base. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. Cut into bars, about 2-by-1 1/2 -inches. Store covered with aluminum foil in refrigerator. Makes 32 bars.

Caramel Corn

12 cups popcorn, popped

2 cups brown sugar

2 sticks margarine

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

Heat brown sugar, margarine, corn syrup and cream of tartar in a large pot on stove to a soft ball stage (232 degrees). Add baking soda. Pour onto popcorn while foaming and mix well. Put on cookie sheets and into a 250-degree oven for 1 hour, if not eaten immediately. Makes 12 cups.

Persian Fruit Cake

1 cup crushed pineapple

1 cup chopped dates

1 cup golden raisins

1 cup nuts, your choice

1 cup maraschino cherries

1 cup juice from pineapple and cherries

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup muscatel wine

In a large pan, mix pineapple, dates, raisins, nuts, cherries, juices, water, salt, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cloves together and bring to a boil. Cool to tepid and then add flour, baking powder and wine. Pour into a greased and floured tube pan and bake in a 325-degree oven for 1 to 2 hours or until done. Makes 18 to 20 servings.