Sybil’s Ranch Cookbook

When Don and I married June 20, 1955, we led a charmed life at The Don Hanna Jr. Ranch in The Nebraska Sandhills.  I was contracted to be their schoolteacher and Don was contracted to be one of their ranch cowboys. Every day I drove away to my school early in the morning and Don joined the other ranch hands at noon to eat at the cookhouse.  Cooking was about the last thing on my mind, and supper time found us eating hamburgers and chocolate cake most nights as that was the only thing I knew - although I did serve it up in style on a starched, fancy tablecloth. 

By the end of my 1-year teaching contract we were expecting our first child, so I did not renew. Imagine my shock, when Junior Hanna announced Virginia, the ranch cook was leaving and appointed me to take her place! Suddenly, OUR house was the cookhouse, and I was the Ranch Cook responsible to feed six to ten men at six-twelve-six, three times a day. Thankfully, my three best friends and fabulous ranch wives, Claire Hanna, Lorraine Wiese, and Myra Keller came to my rescue! 

Ranch Cook Resume: 2 years at the Hanna Ranch, 25 years at the Dan Hill Ranch south of Gordon, NE cooking for our own Malmberg Cattle Company, 3 years at our first Malmberg-owned ranch south of Newcastle, WY, and 11 years at the Three-Quarter Circle, Malmberg Cattle Company Twin Creek Ranch, Don’s ‘garden-of-Eden’, south of Lander, WY, where ranch-experience guests from around the world joined my table. . . I established a pretty good reputation for my daily ranch meals, saddle lunches, and sit-down dinners out in the open for roundups, cattle drives, brandings, and the hayfield. 

For years after retiring from ranch cooking, I continued making magic in my kitchen for holiday gatherings, family, friends, and visitors.

My first granddaughter, K.D. Malmberg inspired this collection of recipes and menus, when she requested “my ranch cookbook” upon marrying Rhett Abernathy, a rancher, too.  (June 25, 2011)