ELSANOR, Ala. — Mary Jeffrey knows how to cook. And she’s got the apron and cookbook to prove it.

Jeffrey was featured in the Dec. 7-13 edition of American Profile, which is carried as a supplement to The Independent and other Gulf Coast Newspapers. Her cake, a Holiday Cranberry Raisin Spice Cake ran in American Profile and was included in American Profile's cookbook, Hometown Recipes for the Holidays. If you missed it, you can find the recipe on-line at americanprofile.com/article/30591.html.

“When I grew up, we didn’t have TV or a radio,” said Jeffrey, who makes her home in Elsanor. She has a Robertsdale post office box, which is why she is listed as being from Robertsdale in the cookbook.

Jeffrey started cooking at an early age.

“I would watch my mother and grandmother,” she said.

Measuring was not part of the routine.

You just put in a little of this and a little of that, and you just knew when it was right,” said Jeffrey.

The cake, Jeffrey says, was a family tradition.

“My mother would make it every Christmas,’said Jeffrey. “We always had cranberry sauce left over, and the longer it sat, the better it got.”

While festive, the cake need not be made just at Christmas — all the ingredients are available year-round at your local supermarket.

That’s one of the reasons that Jeffrey decided to submit the recipe — she knew from years of experience that it was good.

There was also a practical reason for picking her holiday cake.

“I heard they were looking for Christmas recipes,” Jeffrey said. “I’m really not into cakes, cookies or pie. I don’t like to mess with the yeast.”

Jeffrey has had a variety of work in her life, being a “candler” and packer at an egg farm, a housekeeper at a Gulf-side motel and a worker at a convenience store.

“They want me back (at the convenience store,) chuckled Jeffery, explaining that the store values her cooking skills.

Jeffrey is married to Leslie “Jim” Jeffrey The couple has three daughters, Jackie Leady who lives in Ohio, Claudia Put, Cher’e Deck and a son, James Jeffrey, all of Elsanor.

Jeffrey (her maiden name was Zajicek) says that the cooking she learned from her Czechoslovakian grandparents, the duck or goose and the dumplings and sweet and sour cabbage didn’t go over too well when she started to cook for her American husband and his family.

To make matters worse, her new mother-in-law owned a restaurant in Ohio.

The way Mary and Jim met would take a couple of chapters in a novel.

“Our mothers would write to each other,” said Jeffrey. “I went up for a visit and met Jim. We got engaged over the phone.”

The couple was married in 1961.

“He didn’t know I could cook. He gained 30 pounds the first month,” smiled Jeffrey. “That’s how he knew I could cook.”

Still, Jeffrey wanted to cook the “American” dishes that would please her new husband so, “I got a cookbook, and started following the directions.”

Some things eluded her.

“I really did have to learn the American way,” said Jeffrey. “I had to learn how to cook a turkey from his mother. I just did what his mom did.”

Her skills have gone down to her children. All are good cooks. She says one of her daughters can bake better cookies than she can, and her son, James, is an excellent cook.

“When he was 12, he got supper ready,” recalled Jeffrey. "He even baked apricot rolls, following the directions on the yeast package.”

Jeffrey recalls him saying, “I just followed directions, and I learned by watching you.”