Evelyn Couch is among four generations of her family to have recipes featured in the 100th anniversary cookbook of First Gospel Workers Church.

“I like to cook,” said Couch, 86, who still plays organ at the church, which began its year-long centennial celebration last September. “I like to cook baked macaroni and cheese from scratch, and I used to cook a lot of fried chicken with homemade noodles and hot rolls as my main dish.”

Couch began preparing meals at an early age.

“My father died when I was 5, and my mother had to go to work,” she said. “She had four children and one on the way, so I told her that if she would let me quit school, I would do all the work, all the cooking and everything. I quit in the sixth-grade.”

Couch’s two daughters, Gail Smallwood and Joan Carlton, have learned something from their mother’s prowess in the kitchen. Smallwood has 14 recipes and Carlton five in the 84-page cookbook.

“Now they are teaching me,” said Couch, who offers six recipes of her own and added that her mother was the one who taught her how to cook.

Couch said she started attending services at 7 years old and considers First Gospel her home church.

“My mother, to start with, brought me to church in a horse and wagon,” she said. “But, most of the time we walked.”

Phil Erwin, co-pastor with his wife, Nancy, provides a historical glimpse of their church, whose services he describes as old-time Pentecostal, in the first four pages of the cookbook.

The Gospel Girls, a women’s group that meets once a month and coordinates activities such as church dinners, compiled the recipes. Members plan to use proceeds from cookbook sales to landscape the front of the church.

Health salad

2 cups shredded cabbage

1 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup raisins