Make room in the “sweets” section of your recipe file, because this month’s “Country Kitchen” is jam-packed with out-of-this-world goodies you’re going to have to try.

They come your way courtesy of Carol Glass of Franklin County.

As her family and friends will tell you, Carol is a master in the art of candy-making. She says it comes from years and years of making lots and lots of candies–for everything from school bake sales to refreshments for meetings to gifts for neighbors.

“There have been times in years past, especially around the holidays, when you could walk in this kitchen and not be able to see the countertops for all the candy,” Carol says. “Some Christmases, I’ve made 25 batches or more of peanut brittle.”

She speaks of her candy-making in the past tense because, in recent years, she’s cut way back on the sweet stuff, in attempt to be more health-conscious for herself, her family and her friends.

“With everybody watching their cholesterol and weight and blood pressure, it’s just better not to make candies and sweets and have it tempting them,” Carol says — although, if she took a poll, most of them probably would say, “Go ahead; tempt us.”

Carol and her husband, Ronnie, live on a farm just outside of Russellville. They were in the dairy business for 30 years but sold out two years ago, mainly because it eventually wore them down.

“Dairy farming is 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and finding labor that you can depend on to help is almost impossible,”she says.

Although selling the family dairy operation was a difficult decision, the Glasses haven’t regretted it.

“We’ve been married 33 years, and for the first time, we can go places together and do things we’ve never been able to do because we always had the dairy,” Carol says.

Ronnie now has a good job in Russellville but still has cattle and hay on the farm.

Carol for the past dozen years has supplemented the family income making custom draperies at a shop in her yard. She only works three days a week in her drapery business, but on those three days, she puts in 16-18 hours straight at her sewing machine.

When she catches up on her drapery orders, she “relaxes” by sitting down to a little smocking and French sewing. “That’s my first love,” she says.

Both Carol and Ronnie are members of the Franklin County Farmers Federation Board, and she is chairman of the Women’s Committee. They have two daughters and a son, all grown and married, and two grandchildren, with Number Three due any day.

Below, she shares some of her favorite candy recipes, two cake recipes handed down from her and Ronnie’s grandmothers, and, the only non-sweet dish in the bunch, a recipe for a easy and fantastic Spaghetti Casserole.