By DEBORAH GERTZ HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
TAYLOR, Mo. -- Julie Martin doesn't have to look beyond her family tree to find inspiration in the kitchen.
"I just love to make food for people and just watch them 'ooh' and 'aah' over it," Martin said. "It's so fun."
With a grandfather the force behind Kiefer's Grocery Stores for years and parents in the restaurant business, cooking came naturally to Martin.
"I always watched my mom and my dad cook. Dad loved to cook. The two favorite things he made were spaghetti and homemade pizza," Martin said.
Martin's parents, Karen and the late Jim Kiefer, owned and operated Jim's Family Inn at 17th and State for several years until his ill health forced them to sell. Martin, who manages Quizno's, worked with her parents at the restaurant for 10 years.
Cooking still provides a connection to her dad and, thanks to a new cookbook, a way to help others battle the Hodgkins Lymphoma that claimed his life in April 2005.
Martin dedicated the recently published "Recipes from Heaven" to her dad and earmarked proceeds to the Lymphoma Society and its work to find a cure for cancer.
The cookbook went together with plenty of help from family -- her mom and brother and sister-in-law Drs. Jeff and Beth Kiefer -- and friends who shared the 175 recipes in categories ranging from appetizers to desserts.
Included are Gooseberry Pie, a recipe from Martin's grandmother who always made it for her dad, and the Oyster Stew made by her parents.
"He always made it on New Year's Day," Martin said.
Martin shared the recipe for Mock Apple Cobbler, which came from a good friend who died the same year as her dad, and her family's interest in the outdoors comes through with recipes for Fried Morels and "very, very good" Dutch Oven Doe.
"My dad loved to go mushroom hunting," she said. "My boys are big into hunting and fishing. A lot of their recipes deal with hunting and fishing."
Cody, 12, and Dylan, 10, like to help with the cooking and eating at the family's home in Taylor, Mo. Martin's husband Don handles most of the grilling, and she's often making a dessert or putting together a main dish. "It seems like every weekend we're cooking here or doing to somebody's house and cooking there," Martin said.
Chicken Spread makes a tasty appetizer for family meals or potlucks, and Spring Vegetable Ragout uses fresh from the garden produce.
"We have a garden. I love to make homemade salsas, relishes and preserves," she said. "We can a lot."
A favorite sweet treat is Cookies While You Sleep, contributed by her brother and sister-in-law, which combines chocolate chips with a meringue cookie.
More recipes to try, and potential new favorites, come from Martin's own cookbook collection.
"When I have free time, I just love going through my cookbooks," she said. "Recipes just pop out at me, and I've got to try that one."
Martin hopes her cookbook provides the same sort of inspiration.
"I hope you will use these recipes often and treasure this cookbook as a memory of my dad," Martin writes at the start of the book.
The cookbook is Martin's third fundraiser for cancer research after a 2006 golf tournament and the Relay for Life through Mount Olivet Baptist Church. Next up likely will be another golf tournament.
She plans to continue supporting the Lymphoma Society and also hopes to support the Ellis Fischel House in Columbia, Mo.
"It's a place where people who have loved ones in the hospital can stay. When Dad was there, that's where my mom stayed. It's a wonderful place," Martin said.
-- dhusar@whig.com/221-3379
HOW TO GET THE COOKBOOK
Copies of "Recipes from Heaven," the cookbook put together by Julie Martin in memory of her dad Jim Kiefer, are available by contacting Martin at (573) 393-2047 or martinpumping1@yahoo.com. The book sells for $9, plus postage, with proceeds going to the Lymphoma Society.
