It’s about time Peggy Key made it to “The Country Kitchen.” The Marshall County resident, who has had her recipes featured numerous times in Alabama Living and Quick Cooking magazines in recent years, says she long has been a fan of Neighbors’ cooking column and has added many a recipe from “The Country Kitchen” to her bulging files. Now, she wants to return the favor.

“All of these are my very, very favorites out of all my recipes,” Peggy says of the collection that follows. “I hope folks will give them a try, because I want them to enjoy my recipes as much as I enjoy theirs.”

Peggy and her husband, Dalford, live north of Guntersville, in a community locals call Honeycomb Valley. Dalford just retired from a long career at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, but Peggy’s still going strong in her long-time role as an in-demand substitute teacher at Claysville Junior High in Guntersville.

At Claysville, Peggy is a charter member of a group of teachers that calls itself the Gatlinburg Gang. Once or twice a year, members pack their bags, don their matching Gatlinburg Gang denim shirts and head north to the Smokies for a four- or five-day getaway.

“Mainly, we go to shop the outlets at Pigeon Forge; the shopping’s wonderful there,” Peggy says. “We have the best time. I tell people it’s like we have a weeklong ‘happy hour,’ just without the booze.”

On these road trips, Peggy always makes sure the crew has plenty of munchies along for the ride. Her Ranch Snack Mix, in fact, is considered as essential to a successful gang outing as toothbrushes and gasoline.

For nearly every one of her recipes, Peggy can tell you where she got it and how she’s altered it through the years to suit her taste. As you’ll see when you try the recipes here, she’s kept on until she’s got them just right.