A recipe for petite, pecan-filled muffins has made Pat Schrand a celebrity.

The Coffee County resident’s Pecan Pie Mini Muffins recipe recently was judged grand prize winner in a “nuttiest nuts” national recipe contest that was sponsored by Country Woman magazine. The honor earned Pat not only a complete set of Pfaltzgraff dinnerware but also a feature spread in the November/December issue of Country Woman magazine and a front-page picture and writeup in her hometown paper, The Enterprise Ledger.
Now, she’s achieved the ultimate: She’s been selected as the featured chef in the January 1998 edition of The Country Kitchen.

Pat and her husband Greg originally hail from Cincinnati but decided to put down roots in Enterprise after Greg retired from the U.S. Army in the late 1970s. They bought a 268-acre farm, where they raise cattle, peanuts and pecans. The Schrands are active members of the Coffee County Farmers Federation.

For Pat, cooking always has been one of life’s great pleasures. “I’ve been cooking as long as I’ve been able to reach the cabinet,” she says. “My mom was a good cook…and she always encouraged me and let me help.”

Pat’s doing her part to carry on cooking as a family tradition, too. A few years ago, after all three of the Schrands’ children had graduated from college and moved away, Pat compiled a cookbook of family favorites and gave each of them a copy for Christmas.The kids loved it, she says, adding, “Now they don’t have to make a long-distance phone call just to ask for ingredients.”

Following are a few of the recipes in that homemade cookbook, including her prize-winning pecan muffin recipe.