Terri Webster is burdened with what she calls “a really bad sweet tooth,” so baking desserts to share with people is her thing. She is indulging in that joy by baking up a storm for this weekend’s Holiday Premiere, sponsored by Charity League of Martinsville and Henry County. She is a first-year member of the community service organization.
The event will be held Friday through Sunday in uptown Martinsville at 105 and 117 E. Main Street. It will be an indoor festival complete with activities, vendors, Santa Claus and plenty of baked goods made by Webster and her fellow members.
She also bakes sweets for fundraisers and events for her Relay for Life team and her church, Hill Memorial Baptist, which she has attended for about seven years with her fiance, Mark Gillispie. She even keeps her father Terrell Odell supplied with cupcakes. “When he’s out of cupcakes, he reminds me,” she said.
Her skills extend to specialty cakes. She baked and decorated every one of her son’s birthday cakes. Her favorite was the one from his 13th birthday, which looked like a skateboard.
Since she does a lot of dessert baking, it’s only natural that she has branched out into trying to make treats healthier. Webster has experimented with sugar substitutes in her cooking with mixed results.
She said her ginger snaps and peanut butter cookies came out fine when she made the switch; however her sugar-free pumpkin bread ended up “more like corn pudding.”
A lot of people at her church request sugar-free foods for health reasons so she toys around with recipes to oblige them. She has also noticed that bake sales tend to sell out of sugar-free items quickly because there is a need for alternatives to foods containing a high amount of sugar.
While sweets are her favorite, she also enjoys making supper.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s baked goods or meat loaf ... I love to cook,” said Webster, 41, who lives on Merriman Road in Fieldale. She has worked for the Commissioner of Revenue office for Henry County for 20 years.
Webster especially likes making soups during the cooler months. Her son’s favorite is potato soup, but she enjoys making “any kind of soup” including vegetable soup and taco soup. She still likes to make pinto beans, which were among the first things she ever learned to cook, as well as deer chili.
In addition to chili, Webster often substitutes deer for beef in most dishes. “(Deer) makes the best meat loaf,” she said.
She recalled with humor an anecdote from her childhood when her food preferences set her apart from her peers. When she was a contestant in the Little Miss Martinsville pageant, one of the questions she was asked was “What is your favorite food?” While the other girls were responding with things like french fries and pizza, Webster’s answer was “fried chicken and pinto beans,” she said.
“Mom said, ‘Only my daughter would say that,’” Webster laughed.
Her love for those simple foods came from watching her great-grandmother and grandmother cook when she was little. She watched them make all kinds of foods and gradually picked up the skills herself. She learned more when she was out on her own, but learning to make her mother Joyce Odell’s corn bread was a highlight. “She makes the best corn bread,” added Webster.
When she’s looking for new recipes, Webster enjoys perusing the Internet or flipping through one of many cookbooks she owns. “You can never have too many cookbooks. There’s something different in every one,” she commented.
Sometimes she makes up her own versions by changing the spices in a recipe, often using spices instead of salt. “Very seldom do I use salt” or a salt substitute in a recipe, she said. However, when she finds a recipe that works, she usually leaves it alone.
Now that she is the mother of a 16-year-old, Kevin, she plans to teach him how to cook. “All kids should” learn how to cook, said Webster, so they can be prepared for the real world. He enjoys baking cinnamon rolls and cheesecakes, she added, but still needs to learn more about preparing meals.
When he’s not cooking, Webster said, he likes to race dirtbikes, play video games and hang out with his friends.
For now he’s testing samples of the treats she is making for Holiday Premiere. The event It will be held from 3-8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday in uptown Martinsville at 105 and 117 E. Main St. The $3 admission charge will also give attendees tickets to use for their choices of refreshments, gift-wrapping and more. Door prizes will be awarded throughout each day.
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