Cooking has been part of Charma Kratzer’s life for as long as she can remember.

At 78 years old, the mother of three spent plenty of time in the kitchen as her children grew up. But before marriage, Charma began cooking for her family when she was 10 years old in the 1940s.

“I watched my mother cook, but during (World War II) she worked in a munitions factory, so I had to do the cooking,” she says. “I was 10 or 12 years old at the time. We were kind of poor, so we didn’t have a lot to eat. But we grew up on a small farm. We raised our own potatoes, sweet potatoes, food like that.”

As an adult, Charma worked as a stenographer for several years before marrying David, a career Air Force man. Home-cooked meals were a regular feature in their home, she says. As the family moved from town to town for David’s assignments, Charma gathered recipes from various sources such as magazines, newspapers and friends. In the past, she re-typed the recipes and organized them into binders (she also keeps them in a tabulated recipe box). Many of the dishes go back decades, she says, and come from as far away as Okinawa, Japan (where she and David lived with the kids for almost three years).

“My son was here helping me clean the other day, and he said, ‘Mom, you have to get rid of some of these books,’” she says.

Charma admits she likes to hang on to her recipes, however. In recent years, when she isn’t cooking for their seven grandchildren, Charma takes her desserts and other dishes to the Westerville Senior Center, where she volunteers several times a month.

“I like to try new things, so I take them out (to the Senior Center) to see if they’ll like them,” she says.

Charma says her recipe for Polynesian Ham, which she found while living in Japan, is a favorite from her vast collection. She shares it with Westerville Magazine readers.

Charma Kratzer’s Polynesian Ham
3 cups chopped ham, cooked
2 tablespoons margarine
2 small green peppers, cut into strips
1 (13-ounce) can of pineapple tidbits
½ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
½ cup vinegar
½ chicken bouillon
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 (4-ounce) can of sliced mushrooms
3 cups cooked rice

Brown the ham pieces in butter. Add green peppers and pineapple with syrup. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Mix the brown sugar and cornstarch. Add the vinegar, bouillon and soy sauce. Add to the ham mixture along with the mushrooms and stir until thickened. Serve over the hot cooked rice. Makes six servings.