Bernadine Brock's Fruit Nut Bread

2/3 cups sugar 1/3 cup soft shortening 3 tablespoons sour milk or buttermilk 1 cup grated apple or other fruit

2 cups sifted flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions:
Blend sugar and soft shortening until well mixed. Stir in sour milk and grated fruit. Sift flour, baking powder, soda and salt together, and add to fruit mixture. Mix well. Stir in chopped nuts. Pour into 2 well greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Let stand 20 minutes before baking. Bake at 350° until it tests done.

- If using applesauce: Use brown sugar, not white. Omit sour milk.
- For orange date bread: Use recipe above and omit sour milk. Instead, add the pulp and juice from an orange along with enough water to make 1 cup. Add 1 cup cut up dates.

Notes:
Bernadine Brock of Rose, Nebraska, placed this recipe in the Jolly Neighbors Extension Club's handwritten cookbook during the early 1960's. John and Bernadine Brock lived and worked on the ranch my parents bought at Rose when it was owned by Cecil Lee. Later, I believe they worked on the Shovel Dot Ranch. I have expanded the directions a little because all the recipes were greatly condensed to fit on one side of a 3x5" recipe card.