Eating Our Way Through History: A Seasonal Roundup Recipe

There are two things John (J.W.) Ambrose remembers about Catherine Kuhn.

Maybe three. 

One: his grandmother’s chicken and dumplings. “They were the best,” said the Cochise resident. 

Two: she loved to make popcorn balls at Christmas. “I remember her saying ‘you have to get the thermometer up to 140⁰ or 160⁰. I would sit there and wait. And she would remind me that a watched pot never boils.” 

Three: she played cards nearly every afternoon in her Patagonia home with good friend Laura Lewis.

2:30 p.m. Clockwork.

“Laura had the mail route for 42 years,” said Patagonia resident Maureen De La Ossa. Returning from her mail run at mid-afternoon, Lewis would stop by the Kuhns’ place on Harshaw Road for canasta and shanghai, their preferred games of chance. Since three players were needed for the latter, De La Ossa would sometimes be recruited and be rewarded for her participation with cookies and milk.

Kuhn’s recipes for chicken and dumplings or that for cookies did not make it into the 1951 Cowbelles’ cookbook “Roundup Recipes.” But her pumpkin cake, a seasonal treat, did. Fall was a perfect time to celebrate the cooler temperatures and a seasonal mainstay—pumpkin. (FYI: squash is a suitable substitute.)  

That Kuhn was a Cowbelle may seem a little surprising in a time when 50 percent of a household’s income had to come from the cattle industry in order to qualify for inclusion. John Lee, Kuhn’s husband, was a heavy equipment operator—the first in the area. But family members did own a ranch in Willcox, which was enough to get her a seat at the table.

“She was a real nice lady,” said Bob Bergier of Patagonia, a friend of the family who lived a quarter mile from the Kuhn place. And while he too recalls Catherine’s penchant for cards, he also remembers another fixture of her character—a desire to give back to the community as an election poll worker.

That those were probably her two “social activities” doesn’t strike De La Ossa as particularly unusual. After all, there were limited organizations to which people—particularly women—could belong to at the time, Cowbelles being one of them. 

Pumpkin Cake

½ cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup white sugar

3 cups sifted flour

2 eggs, well beaten

1 cup canned pumpkin

4 teaspoons baking powder

½ cup milk

1 cup chopped nuts

1 teaspoon maple extract

Buckskin Frosting

3 egg whites, unbeaten

1 ½ cups brown sugar

Dash salt

6 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla

Grease three 8-inch cake pans and line bottom with waxed paper. Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream ½ cup shortening. Add sugars, flour, baking powder and soda to the mixture and combine well. Then add eggs, canned pumpkin, squash and milk. Fold in chopped nuts and maple extract. Combine well. Pour into pans and bake for 30 minutes. 

In the meantime, prepare the Buckskin Frosting. In a double boiler combine the unbeaten egg whites, brown sugar, salt and 6 tablespoons water. Beat well with mixer and then get lower pan boiling rapidly. Cook 7 minutes, beating constantly. It’s done when it stands in peaks.

Remove from heat. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until thick and smooth. Ice cake.

A copy of “Roundup Recipes” can be viewed at the Bowman-Stradling History Center located at the Santa Cruz County Rodeo and Fair Association, 3142 S. Highway 83, Sonoita. Handouts of recipes printed in the PRT are free. The center is open Mondays through Fridays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For access, please visit the fairgrounds’ office. For more information on the center, contact SonoitaHistoryCenter@gmail.com.

Carrie White can be contacted at CarrieWhitePRT@gmail.com.