CLAYTON, Ill. — Don't expect anything fancy on Betty Kestner's table.

"I'm an old-fashioned cook. I'm not a fancy cook," Kestner said. "It's just the plain old good stuff that sticks to your ribs."

Thanks to her husband Hubert and their four boys, all good eaters, Kestner spent plenty of time in the kitchen preparing favorites like baked pork chops and fresh black raspberry pie.

"You've got to have time to do it, a good recipe. I've got to taste it before I make it," she said. "I'm too old-fashioned to throw it away and waste all that good food."

But Kestner doesn't stop with feeding family and friends.

She's cooked for church and community events, including the LaPrairie-Chatten Elevator annual meetings, and for the Clayton Lions Club twice a month for 26 years, serving country-style meals with homemade pie for dessert. "They love pie," she said. "They love to eat."

That's perfect for Kestner, who got an introduction to cooking by helping her mom in the kitchen.

"Folks didn't have a lot of money. You raised vegetables. Dad and Mom had potatoes, so you had them about every meal," Kestner said. "With meat and a gravy with it, you've got a good start."

Those childhood meals were simple but filling -- enough for Kestner, her seven siblings and whoever worked for the family at the time -- with extra touches when the threshers came to the farm like real lemons and store-bought ice for lemonade.

"We couldn't wait for the threshers to get to our house," she said. "Those were the good old days for me. I have very pleasant memories."

Kestner remembers the country-style meals always served at noon on the family farm and carries on the traditions in her home near Clayton.

Her own garden provides green beans, canned for the winter months, and tomatoes for the sauce used for the soup supper at her church, Good Shepherd Lutheran in Clayton.

The family, now including seven grandchildren, gets together on holidays and other occasions during the year -- or just when Kestner feels like cooking a Sunday dinner.

"Maybe I'll call on Saturday and say come eat dinner," she said, and when the family's coming, "I like to have my food pretty well ready ahead because they all congregate in the kitchen."

Favorite make-ahead main dishes include Cabbage Patch Stew and Hamburger-Noodle Casserole, topped with crumbled potato chips for added crunch. Chicken Loaf, a recipe from her sister, can be ready to put in the oven, and pretty pink Strawberry Swirl Salad can be made ahead and kept refrigerated.

Scalloped Pineapple, Coffee Cake, the nutty Pull Apart Cake and Sugar Cookies cater to the family's sweet tooth.

So does the black raspberry pie, made with a quart of fruit from the farm which is brought to a boil with a generous cup of sugar and about two tablespoons each of flour and very fine tapioca, depending on the sweetness of the fruit. "I don't have a recipe when it comes to pie. I use my own judgment," she said.

And with her piecrusts made ahead and stored in the freezer, "it doesn't take long to make pies," she said.

"I like coconut cream, lemon, and it's hard to beat good old apple," she said. "I make gooseberry pie. You've to get it sweet enough but not overly sweet because then you're just eating sugar."

Cabbage Patch Stew

1 pound ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped cabbage

1/2 cup diced celery

1 (16-ounce) can stewed tomatoes

1 (15.5-ounce) can kidney beans

1 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1-2 teaspoons chili powder

Cook and stir ground beef until light brown; drain. Add onions, cabbage and celery. Cook and stir until vegetables are tender. Stir in tomatoes, kidney beans (with liquid), water and seasonings. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer.

Chicken Loaf

1 cooked chicken, cut in small pieces

1 loaf bread, cubed or broken into pieces

3 eggs, beaten

2 cups celery

1 small-medium onion

Cook celery and onion together. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix all ingredients together, and pour into a 9x13-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour.

Hamburger-Noodle Casserole

1 pound hamburger

chopped onion and celery to taste

8 ounces noodles

1 pound Velveeta cheese

2 cups milk

1 can cream of mushroom soup

potato chips

Brown hamburger. Saute onion and celery. Cook noodles according to package directions. Melt cheese in milk. Mix together hamburger, celery and onions, noodles, cheese sauce and mushroom soup. Place in a greased baking dish, and sprinkle with potato chips. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

NOTE: Casserole may be made a day ahead.

Coffee Cake

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour (sifted)

1 cup sour cream or buttermilk

Cream butter until soft; add sugar, and cream until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each one. Sift dry ingredients together, and add alternately with sour cream. Stir in vanilla. Pour half the batter into a greased baking pan. Cover with half the topping. Carefully put remaining batter over top, and cover with the remaining topping. Bake at 325 degrees for about 40 minutes.

For topping, mix together 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 3/4 cup chopped pecans.

Strawberry Swirl Salad

1 (four-serving) package strawberry gelatin

1 (four-serving) package vanilla pudding

2 1/2 cups water

1 package Dream Whip (or 8 ounces Cool Whip)

1 (eight-ounce) package frozen strawberries, well drained

Mix gelatin and pudding together, and add water. Bring to a boil, and cook for a little while. Let cool. Add strawberries. When cold, add Cool Whip and swirl through gelatin.

NOTE: Kestner usually doubles the recipe.

Scalloped Pineapple

4 cups fresh bread, cubed or broken into pieces

1 (No. 2) can crushed pineapple and juice

1/2 cup oleo, melted

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup milk

3 eggs

Mix together pineapple and juice, melted oleo, sugar, milk and eggs. Pour over bread, and mix well by hand. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter or oleo (room temperature)

1 cup oil (scant)

1 cup sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt (scant)

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Beat butter, oil, sugars, vanilla and eggs until creamy. Add remaining ingredients. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Flatten cookies slightly with a fork or the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar, then sprinkle tops of cookies with sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Makes eight dozen.

Pull Apart Cake

3 cans refrigerated biscuits (10 per can)

3/4 cup nuts

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 cup sugar

1 stick butter

1 cup brown sugar

Cut each biscuit into four pieces. Mix together nuts, cinnamon and sugar. Roll each biscuit piece in cinnamon-sugar mixture and place in a greased Bundt, tube or 9x13-inch baking pan. Bring butter and brown sugar to a boil, and pour over biscuits. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Remove from pan; place cake on serving dish or cookie sheet.