By Jamie Creamer, original columnist for The Country Kitchen

Autauga County’s Paige Gaines didn’t realize until this past summer that in January of ’91, she made Neighbors magazine history as the first Alabama Farmers Federation member to share her and her family’s favorite recipes in what debuted as a monthly cooking column then called The Country Kitchen.

Back then, Paige’s hands-down, top-of-the-list dish was an easy, sweet and cheesy side that never failed to satisfy her friends and family, including her husband, Harold, and their three sometimes-picky preschoolers.

Thirty years later, that same juicy, crumb-topped casserole remains Paige’s never-fail-to-please menu item, whether for a church potluck, family holiday feast or just whenever. That recipe was, and is, Pineapple Casserole.

She has no idea the source of the recipe or how she discovered it.

“But it’s a staple now,” she said. “We have a covered-dish dinner at church every first Sunday, and if I don’t show up with it, I might as well not go.”

Paige’s life three decades ago was, in a word, crazy. Besides going nonstop as a young mom, she was an extra farmhand on Harold’s Autaugaville operation and was an avid and talented seamstress. In fact, she recalls keeping those three little Gaineses clothed in smocked and appliqued outfits and kept that up “till they got to the point where they didn’t think that was cool anymore.”

Since marrying Harold in 1979, she always put home-cooked meals on the table for breakfast, lunch and supper. Though her three children are grown and married with kids of their own, she’s still a threat to whip up meals for Harold and herself.

The end of 2024 brought a major change for the Gaineses when Harold retired after 58 years of farming. He sold his cattle, except for a few “old-lady cows” as Paige calls them. Though he still harvests a hay crop, Harold rented out his row crop acreage.

“He always wanted to play golf but never had the time, so he’s doing that a little more, and we always wanted to travel, but road trips and traveling weren’t doable with the farm,” Paige said. “We did buy a motor home a few years ago, and we’ve been making good use of that.”

The Gaineses are now the proud grandparents of four granddaughters and one grandson, all of whom live within a 100-mile radius of Autaugaville. Paige still sews up a storm, filling orders for her booming online sewing business, Paige’s Pastime.

“When we go on the road, I always take a bunch of fabric and one of my sewing machines,” she said. “I’m not retiring from that.”

Through the years, folks have often asked Paige where she learned to cook, but she said it’s more a matter of how she learned to cook.

“I learned by watching,” she said. “I have to watch somebody and then start practicing.”

Case in point is Peanut Brittle, which she learned straight from Harold’s sister, Julia.

“We were at her house, and I stood there and watched and listened the whole time she was making it,” Paige said. “Then I got home, and I practiced, and I practiced, and I practiced. There were a few times I just about burned the house down, but I finally got it.” 

Then there’s Banana Pudding, which Paige’s mother, Blanche Stewart, patiently walked her through a few times.

“With the pudding, you cook it and stir it till it kind of plops from the spoon when you hold it up,” she said. “You can’t learn that from a recipe book.”

The other recipe she shares here has been a family favorite for decades. That’s California Jubilee, an entree that won first-place honors in a cooking contest umpteen dozen years ago sponsored by Montgomery’s AM 740, known most all over the state as Big Bam. The competition was held in the then-new Montgomery Mall, and she left there with a snazzy prize: a shiny microwave oven.

“What’s funny now is that microwaves were so new, I had to go to a special class to learn how to work it,” she remembered.

Enjoy these recipes from Paige. As is true with her Pineapple Casserole, no matter how dramatically life changes over the years, some recipes stand the test of time. 

Recipes: