When we were going through my grandmother’s house in Nocona after it sold, I found a few neat keepsakes, but the biggest treasure I thought I had found was her biscuit cutter. I was so excited to show my mother (her daughter) and just knew she would be happy it was found and would still be used after all this time.
My mother, however, had a different thought about my precious biscuit cutter. She said, “Suzanne, you know that biscuit cutter is just an old tomato paste can that has both ends cut out.”
I was still no less delighted with my cutter. I continue to use it today. My husband has bought me vintage, new and fancier cutters, but this cutter is something I go back to time and again.
My Memaw was recruited to be a lunch lady from 1952 to 1958 at Nocona Elementary, back when lunches were cooked, not “fixed.” Lenora Brown Burnett was an excellent cook and everyone knew it. She went on to work at the Nocona Major Clinic kitchen from 1958 to 1969.
You could only use shortcuts if you knew how to do it the long way. That is how I still approach cooking. You can only use a cake mix if you know how to make a cake with lots of ingredients, time and effort.

Read Suzanne’s Love & Luck column in the Thursday Bowie News on the On the Table page.

Top photo – Grandmother’s biscuit cutter and hand written recipes. (Photo by Suzanne Storey)

By BARBARA GREEN
[email protected]
It’s a bitter cold January week, so it must be time for the Montague County Youth Fair, which opens Wednesday running through Saturday.
More than 330 students from across the county will compete in everything from golf ball art work to top dairy goat in this annual event where there are 1,160 entries. Almost every contest saw an increase in entries from the prior year.
Scheduling was still in flux at presstime due to pending weather. Watch the fair’s Facebook page for any late changes.
The All Together Show was moved to 5 p.m. on Jan. 8 in the show barn. It had been set for Thursday.
There were no changes for leadership day on Wednesday at presstime.

Read the full story on the fair in the Thursday Bowie News.

Welcome to the first combined edition of The Bowie News, we hope you enjoy the things we have added and we invite your feedback to know what you would like to see.
Starting Jan. 9, there will only be one print edition of The Bowie News as we combine our former Wednesday and Saturday editions.
Your newspaper will have a Thursday dateline and the only real change in delivery will be one day later. Instead of Wednesday postal customers should receive it on Thursday, when it also will be delivered to the machines and racks. The e-subscription will arrive at 6 a.m. on Thursday.
Some of our standard pages have shifted their locations. The obituaries will now be on page 7A, while records will be on 6A and the community page remains on 12A. New additions include a home and garden page featuring prominent horticulturalist “The Garden Guy,” Norman Winter as he explores planting, gardens and southern horticulture. The food page, “On The Table,” will feature a new county columnist, Suzanne Storey, who will share what she believes is vital to each successful recipe, “love and luck.”
Section B will still showcase our county sports coverage, but also will include additional outdoor, college and professional sports coverages.
There will be a new “Out and About” page that will feature area cultural entertainment, library news, coming attractions and many other items of interest. Other coverage will include agriculture, business and health, plus expanded puzzles.
We hope you enjoy this evolution of local news coverage. We invite you to share your feedback on what you would like to see in your Bowie News
There also will be opportunities for questions and answers with our columnists, plus questions of the week on Facebook that will in turn be reported in the print edition. Email questions to [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from our Bowie News readers.