Cooking for 60 people, and loving it.

Byline: HOME COOKING By Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

If only video cameras had been invented in the 1950s, everyone could see Terrie Clemons' first efforts to "cook" for a group.

"My grandmother used to watch the Betty Crocker Hour on television when I was about 5, and I'm told that afterward I would put on an apron, pull a chair up to the sink, climb up and do my own 'show,' ' Clemons says. "I would say things like, 'Now ladies, if you really want to please, add 1/2 cup milk and 3/4 cup of detergent and stir it all together,' and I would go on like that for hours."

She didn't end up with her own cooking show - although Clemons admits to being a "Food Channel junkie" - but she did end up cooking for appreciative crowds.

Specialty: Preparing really big meals, enough to feed as many as 60 people at a time, which she does several times a year at student-teacher retreats for Marist High School - a private Roman Catholic school in Eugene - where, incidentally, she was a member of the first graduating class in 1969.

"I started when I was 19, helping my parents cook at the retreats, which got started after I graduated but which my younger siblings attended," Clemons says.

Years later, in 1984, she was asked to take charge of cooking for the retreat program, and she's been doing it ever since.

Cooking experience: "I learned how to cook out of necessity," Clemons says. Her mother suffered from cancer and other illnesses throughout Clemons' childhood, and as the oldest of four surviving children - seven others died in infancy - "I became a caretaker early on," she says.

Doing much of the cooking for her family from age 11 "is probably where I got my call to service," she says. "I just love to take care of people, and I do it best through food."

Despite her illnesses, Clemons' mother "loved messing with spices" and was a proficient cook.

Besides great fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, "she did absolutely wonderful barbecued ribs," Clemons recalls. "The Sunday didn't go by that we didn't sit around the table with a huge amount of good food. That's probably why I'm really big on good food and family time."

Biggest cooking success: With the blessings of her husband and children, putting meals on the table for dozens of people eight or nine weekends a year up the McKenzie River for students and teachers at Marist.

"This is a tough deal - I prepare the menu, buy the food and usually recruit a friend or two to help me, plus the students who are chosen to work in the retreat kitchen," Clemons says. "We're up at 4 a.m. to start the coffee and the sticky buns. Then we're cooking meals and snacks all day, sometimes until midnight, for 45 to 60 people. It's just massive amounts of food all day long. I love doing it."

Biggest cooking failure: That also happened at a retreat, when the fresh turkeys she expected for a complete turkey dinner turned out to be frozen.

"I usually check all the food personally before we go and again when we get there, but this time I didn't," she recalls. "I panicked - I just about died."

This was about noon, and dinner was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Clemons sent one of her helpers all the way back to Eugene to buy all the pre-roasted chickens WinCo could come up with, "and he drove in at 5:35 p.m.," she says.

"Nobody ever knew what had happened, except me, the two people helping me and the two seniors assigned to the kitchen for that retreat. But my blood pressure was way off the charts."

Favorite cookbooks: Just one, without a doubt - her dog-eared, falling-apart 1978 edition of "Our Favorite Recipes" compiled by the Marist Women's Club. The following recipes are all from the book.

To-Die-For Sticky Buns

Syrup:

1 cup ( 1/2 pound or 2 sticks) butter

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup light corn syrup 

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Buns:

2 loaves frozen bread dough, thawed

1 cup butter, at room temperature

3 cups brown sugar

4 to 5 tablespoons cinnamon

To make the syrup: In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and corn syrup and mix thoroughly. Bring the mixture to a full boil, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes. Spread the syrup evenly into two ungreased 9-by-13-inch pans.

Sprinkle chopped pecans over the syrup, if desired. Let stand for a few minutes.

To make the buns: Roll each "loaf" of thawed bread dough into a rectangle 1/4 -inch thick. Generously spread half of the softened butter over the top of each rectangle. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar evenly over each rectangle, followed by half of the cinnamon on each.

Roll the dough up like a jellyroll along the long side of the rectangle, and slice the dough into 12 equal disks, about 1/2 -inch thick. Place the rolls side by side on top of the cooled syrup mixture.

Slightly warm the oven and then turn it off. Place the rolls in the warmed oven and let them rise until double in bulk. Remove and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put the rolls back in the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Take them out of the oven and immediately invert each pan upside down onto a large cookie sheet or serving platter; leave the baking pan on top of the rolls for a few minutes so the syrup will drizzle down onto the rolls.

Makes 24 sticky buns.

Terrie's Cream of Potato Soup

6 slices bacon

1 medium onion, diced

3 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 carrots, chopped fine (optional)

Water

3 cans cream of chicken soup 

Salt and pepper to taste

5 cups 2 percent milk

In a large saucepan, fry bacon until crisp. Remove and set aside.

Put the bacon grease in a large kettle, and saute the onion over medium heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Add potatoes and carrots and saute 3 minutes longer. Cover the onion, potato and carrots with enough water to just cover the potatoes. Cook until the potatoes are fork-tender but not mushy. Add the cream of chicken soup, salt, pepper and milk. Add the crumbled bacon.

Simmer on the stove over very low heat for 1 hour. Do not allow the soup to boil. Serve hot with crackers or bread.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Terrie's Almond Roca 

1 pound butter (4 sticks)

2 cups sugar

2 cups salted almonds, chopped

6 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

16 ounces milk chocolate

Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Add 1 cup of the chopped almonds, water and corn syrup, and cook to 300 degrees, using a candy thermometer and stirring constantly.

Remove from heat, and add the vanilla. Pour into a buttered jellyroll (15-by-10-by-1-inch) pan. Cool.

Melt the milk chocolate in a saucepan and spread it over the candy layer. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of chopped nuts evenly over the top, pressing them into the chocolate.

When completely cool, break into pieces of desired size. Store in an airtight metal container to avoid stickiness.

Peanut Brittle 

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 1/2 cups corn syrup

1 teaspoon butter

2 cups peanuts

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1/4 teaspoon salt

Oil for greasing

Combine sugar, water and corn syrup in a large saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Wash down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent the sugar from crystallizing.

Insert a candy thermometer and boil without stirring until it reaches 300 degrees. Add the butter and nuts. Reduce heat and stir for 1 minute over low heat.

Remove from the heat and add baking soda and salt. Mix well, return to heat and stir quickly until golden in color, taking care not to scorch the mixture.

Spread thin on a well-oiled cookie sheet. Let harden, then break into pieces for serving. Store in an airtight metal container to avoid stickiness.

To nominate a cook for this feature, send mail to Home Cooking, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440; contact Randi Bjornstad at 338-2321; or e-mail [e-mail].