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Cooking, meals are family affairs
Skyler Walthall gives his mom, Amanda Walthall, a bite of Mini Carrot Cake Cup as the Murdock family gathers to taste some of their favorite foods in the Spencer-Penn Centre Kitchen. They were getting ready for the kids cooking camp Skyler's grandmother and Amanda's mother Dana Murdock, at right, will teach next week at the center. At left is Murdock's son J. C., and other daughter, Shawna. For more information on the class call the center at 957-5757
Teaching a cooking camp will combine three of Dana Murdock’s greatest interests: her favorite family recipes, Girl Scouting and what she’s learned from being a cookware consultant.
On behalf of Girl Scouts of the Skyline Council and the Spencer-Penn Centre, Murdock will teach a cooking class for kids next week at the center. She will use recipes and techniques she has learned from her family and by selling Pampered Chef products.
Murdock, 41, has three children. Daughter Amanda Walthall lives in Bassett with her own two children, Skyler and Kasydie. J.C., 14, and Shawna, 12, live at home in Henry with Dana and her husband, Curtis.
Murdock is the Girl Scouts’ field coordinator for five regions, including Henry County. She was doing some Pampered Chef fundraisers for Spencer-Penn Centre when the idea came up to hold a cooking camp, and she jumped on it.
Mealtimes are important to Murdock’s family, and a goal of her camp is to teach kids that it can be fun and easy to cook together at home instead of resorting to fast food, she said.
“We do a lot of family stuff,” including camping and four-wheeling, Murdock said. “Everything’s centered around our family.”
For the Murdocks, family time begins with eating meals together.
“No matter how many chairs it takes,” the family gathers around the table each day to dine and to talk about their days, she said.
Murdock grew up with that tradition, and although “it’s like I’m turning into my mother” by following the same rules, it remains important to her, she said.
The Murdocks share cooking as well as eating.
Murdock’s daughter “Amanda spent a lot of time in the kitchen growing up,” Murdock said. Amanda learned to cook a lot of desserts, such as pound cake and “sugar cookies, ahhhh ... ” Amanda interjected, rolling her eyes skyward and rubbing her tummy. “I made a mess of my mom’s kitchen!”
One of the family favorites is chicken salad, both Amanda and her mother said in unison.
“We’re picky eaters,” Murdock said. Because most family members don’t like fresh onions and celery, Murdock makes her chicken salad with onion powder and celery salt.
Other Murdock favorites are “baked spaghetti,” Amanda and her mother said in unison again with smiles, as well as flat iron steak and shrimp creole.
For gatherings and parties, sweet and sour meatballs are always a hit, Murdock said.
“And it makes the kitchen smell good” when the dish is cooked, Shawna added.
People are always “very, very surprised” when she tells them the meatballs are made with apple jelly, Murdock said.
Here, Murdock shares a recipe from her mother, retired Henry County teacher Clara Haynes, (her father is the late Thomas Turton) for orange salad. It is “a quick, throw-together, cool summertime” treat, she said.
The recipe for carrot cake cupcakes comes from Pampered Chef. Murdock likes their small size, she said.
She has success with many recipes, but one has her stumped: biscuits.
“I’m determined to learn,” Murdock said. “My mother-in-law’s tried to teach me, my daughter’s tried to teach me, J.C.’s tried to teach me. I just could not master that Southern staple,” she lamented.
She jokingly attributes that to not being born in the South, just moving here when she was 3. She was born in Flint, Mich., “and evidently that’s why I can’t make biscuits.”
Shawna interjected to say that cooking with lard is the secret to good biscuits. Her grandmother, Lorene Murdock of Axton, wife of Donald Murdock, taught her to make biscuits, Shawna said.
Before coming to Girl Scouts, Murdock worked for the state for 22 years. That included posts with the local health department and the Virginia Cooperative Extension Office.
She was excited to make the jump to a nonprofit organization 2 1/2 years ago, she said.
“I grew up in Girl Scouts ... it affected my life so much that I felt like I could make a difference working for the Girl Scouts. It’s been a challenge and a great opportunity.”
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