Creamed peas and new potatoes

 Growing up, creamed peas or creamed new potatoes were a springtime treat.  We rarely grew green peas in the garden, but when we did they were well received.    We more often grew potatoes and new potatoes were considered quite special.    If we happened to have both at the same time, they were often fixed together as one dish and are so very good when done this way.   You can also add other vegetables, such as carrots or pearl onions.   In times past, creamed vegetables were a popular way to serve vegetables and old cookbooks have numerous recipes for making them, the main way was to cook the vegetables in water until tender, drain and add to a plain cream sauce.    I sometimes will use more than one vegetable when doing this dish, for example, green peas mixed with carrots and the potatoes.  If you want to switch things up a bit, you can add cheese to the cream sauce.   You can even make the creamed vegetables, put into a baking dish, top with cheese and bake until browned.    

4 tbsp. Butter

3 tbsp. Flour

2 cups milk or half and half

salt and pepper to taste

3-4 cups cooked peas

Heat the butter in a largish sauce pan and then add flour. Cook a minute or two, then whisk in the milk and simmer until it thickens. Add the cooked peas and simmer a couple more minutes over very low heat. Salt and pepper to taste, then serve.

If you wish to add the potatoes. Wash and peel, or leave unpeeled if you prefer. Simmer in water until tender. Drain very well, cover the pan and allow to sit for a few minutes while you prepare the white sauce and peas. Stir the potatoes into the finished creamed peas, taste for seasoning and serve.  Or just add the cooked potatoes to a cream sauce with out the peas.   

To make this a cheese sauce, add a cup to cup and a half of grated cheddar and a tablespoon or two of Parmesan to the hot cooked cheese sauce, stirring until the cheese has melted and fully incorporated into the sauce.   Use as above.    

Baked Apples

Baked apples are an old timey dessert that you don't often see anymore, a shame too, as they are very tasty and easy to make.   When I was a child, every so often mom would make them for my dad.  They were always well received.  I tend to make mine on the simpler side of things, as some use chopped nuts, raisins and other things in the filling.     They are good served as they are, topped with ice cream or even some plain unsweetened heavy cream over the top.    No matter how you eat them, they are good!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.   Wash, halve and core apples, about one apple per person and place in a shallow baking dish that will just fit the number of apple halves.   Sprinkle the apples with a good quality cinnamon, then put about a tablespoon of brown sugar on top of each half, then top each one with about a teaspoon of butter.   Put a little water in the bottom of the pan and put it in the oven.   Bake about 45 minutes or until the apples are very tender.    Allow the apples cool slightly before serving and serve warm.    Top each serving with some ice cream or plain heavy cream.      And as always, enjoy!   

Instead of apples, you can also use halved and cored ripe pears or halved pitted peaches or apricots.   The peaches and apricots may not take as long to cook, so start checking for tenderness after 30 minutes for those.  

Mulligan Stew

 My Grandma Casey was an old time farm wife and used to making do.  She was an incredible cook and could take a little bit of nothing and turn it into a feast.  Two things she made like this were in incredible were macaroni and tomatoes (I have that recipe elsewhere on this blog) and something she called Mulligan Stew, both were heavenly served with hot cornbread.  The Mulligan stew as I remember it, was made at the end of the summer garden and included tomatoes, cabbage, onion and green peppers.  The cabbage, onion and peppers were fried /browned in some bacon grease, then tomatoes were added and all simmered until tender.  I still make this every so often, with a pan of cornbread and remember those family dinners at Grandma’s and all the love we had with each bite.  

If you want to try making this, feel free to adapt the ingredients and amounts.  There really isn’t a set recipe, as it was made with what was on hand.  If you want a bit of heat, add a couple chopped hot peppers or some crushed red pepper.  

1 small head of cabbage, cleaned, cored and chopped

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

1-2 green peppers, cored and chopped

about a quart of peeled and diced tomatoes 

¼ cup or so of bacon grease or oil

Heat the bacon grease in a large pot and then brown the cabbage, onion and green peppers.  When nicely browned, add the tomatoes with their juice and simmer until everything is tender, adding water as needed to prevent sticking.   If you want to use the crushed red pepper, add when add the tomatoes.  Serve up with lots of cornbread.  Hot sauce on the side if you like more heat!

Homemade Caramel Corn with Sorghum

 When I was a small kid in southeast Missouri, we would sometimes go trick or treating out in the country around Fairdealing.  My Grandma's both lived there.   I loved going to the the houses in the country, because back then we would often get homemade treats like cookies or popcorn balls.  The popcorn balls were made pretty much like this caramel corn was, with sorghum, and I always loved the taste of sorghum.   This is pretty much the same thing, except it isn't made into balls, although you could easily do that.   When the corn comes out of the oven, allow to sit until cool enough to handle, then with lightly buttered hands, form it into balls.   

Homemade Caramel Corn

11/4 cup of unpopped popcorn, popped (about 12 cups or so)

1  cup butter

1 cup sorghum or molasses or corn syrup

1 cup brown sugar 

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup water

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

Put the popped corn in a very large bowl and set aside.

In a 2 quart saucepan melt the butter, then add the sorghum, water, sugars and salt. Bring the pan to a full boil,  stirring until the sugars are all melted and the butter is completely incorporated. Boil about 1 minute. 

Add the vanilla and stir well.   Pour the caramel

over the popped corn and mix very well.

Place the caramel corn into very large deep roaster or divided between two 9x13 inch

cake pans. Place the pan or pans in the oven and bake for an hour, stirring the corn

every 15-20 minutes. At the end of the hour allow to cool completely, then break

up into pieces and store in airtight containers.

Grandma Casey's Dried Peach Pie Filling

My Grandma Casey was an old timey Ozark farm wife.   She had little formal education, but she knew about making do with next to nothing.   She also knew her way around the kitchen.   Like most poor farm women of her era, she knew all about preserving foods.    She still dried apples apples in my time, but most of her foods were either canned in jars or frozen.   I loved her fruit butters and canned peaches.   We still enjoyed a lot of old time stuff, but she also had no trouble adapting to new ways of preserving them.    She no longer dried peaches, that I remember, but we all loved the old time fried dried peach pies.    Instead of cooking dried peaches, she would prepare this from fresh peaches and either can or freeze it for fried pies.   Good stuff, too.  She added no spices to it, so if you want to add cinnamon or a pinch of cloves, go right ahead. 

1 gallon sliced over ripe peaches with peel
1 cup cider vinegar
4 cups sugar

Mix together and allow to sit overnight.    Then simmer until cooked down very thick.   Either use at once or freeze or can.     Good stuff!

If you want spices, I would say 2 tsp high quality cinnamon,  if you like cloves, add about 1/4 tsp or less.   Cloves can easily overpower foods if you aren't careful. 

Mama's (and Grandma Casey's) Cornbread Dressing

I love good dressing.   My family never stuffed the turkey or chicken when roasting, the dressing was always either cooked in a separate pan or placed under the mostly cooked turkey.   I always preferred it in a separate pan, as I liked the crusty top, bottom and edges.   Mama's dressing was always done the same way and was very simple.   Stale cornbread, stale white bread, onions, eggs, celery, sage, black pepper, chicken/turkey broth and lots of fat, either butter or chicken/turkey fat.   It was always delicious.    I never asked my mom how she made it and it has taken me several years to figure out her secret.   The most important part is the correct balance of cornbread and white bread, which I learned (by trial and error) is 4 parts stale cornbread to 1 part stale white bread.  Here is what I came up with, this will make enough for a 9x13 inch pan of dressing.   Oh and the difference between stuffing and dressing?   It is the same stuff!   Stuffing is stuffed inside the turkey (well, duh!) and dressing is when it is baked separately. 

I bake a pan of cornbread the night before and after the oven has cooled off, just leave the pan in the oven overnight or until whenever the next day you are making the dressing.   An 8x8 inch pan of cornbread gives you just enough for this recipe.   As for the stale white bread, I often buy a bag of rolls from the discount shelf at the store.  They are usually just right for this recipe.

8 cups stale cornbread, crumbled
2 cups stale white bread, crumbled
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
about 1 1/2 cups celery, chopped (I like to use the inner core with the leafy greens)
2 eggs
1 tbsp. crumbled dried sage (finely chopped fresh sage if you happen to have some) or to taste
1/2 tsp. black pepper  or to taste
1/4 cup butter or chicken/turkey fat or mixture of the two
chicken or turkey broth, 3-6 cups, as you like

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.  

In a large dutch oven heat the butter or fat and then saute the onion and celery until lightly browned, do not allow to scorch.   While that is cooking, take a very large bowl and add the cornbread, white bread, sage and black pepper.   When the vegetables are done, add about a cup of the chicken broth to deglaze the pan, then pour it all into the breads and seasoning.   Add another 2 cups chicken broth and the eggs, then stir to mix well.   Add more broth until you get it to the correct consistency, this will depend on if you like a dryer or moister dressing.  I like mine very moist, so I add enough broth until it is very wet and slightly soupy.   Spoon or pour into your greased baking dish and smooth out the top.   Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or until it is well browned and crusty.   Allow to cool slightly before serving.

One thing I like to do for a main dish when I don't want to go to the trouble of roasting a chicken or cook a turkey, is to make chicken and dressing in one dish.   I will buy a deli roast chicken from the store, take the meat off the bone and reserve.   I put the bones and skin in a dutch oven and simmer with packaged chicken broth (about 2 quarts), an onion (washed and halved, but skin left on), a couple carrots and some celery.   After simmering for 45-60 minutes, strain and discard the solids.    I make up my dressing mixture, using the broth (saving back 2 cups for gravy) from the bones.   I put half of the dressing mixture in my baking dish, then top with the chicken meat, spreading it out evenly, then top with the rest of the dressing mixture.   Bake as before.   I then make some gravy with the reserved broth (3 tbsp. oil or butter heated, then adding 2 heaping tbsp. flour, make a roux, brown lightly, then whisk in the 2 cups chicken broth, cook until thick.)

Grandma Casey's Candied Sweet Potatoes

Thanksgiving is coming and I want to post some of my family's favorite things and things that I am usually asked to make for family gatherings.   One of them is candied sweet potatoes.   This is an old recipe, one my grandma used to make back in the Ozark hills.   It is very simple and easy to make.   The amounts vary, depending on how many you want to make.  I usually make about 1 sweet potato for each person that will be eating them.

5 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced

about 1 cup white sugar

2/3 cup butter, cut into bits

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.   Place the sweet potatoes in a 9x13 in. pan,  pour the sugar evenly over the potatoes, then dot with the butter.   Bake the pan of sweet potatoes about 45 minutes to an hour, stirring 2-3 times.   You want the potatoes to be very tender, the sugar will form a very thick syrup and the potatoes will be lightly browned around the edges.  If  some blacken a tiny bit around the edges, don’t worry about it.   That bit is especially tasty.  

Southern Style Green Beans

As I've said before, I come from a long line of country folks.   My family has been in southeast Missouri since the early 1800's.   My Grandma Casey was an awesome cook.   She did all kinds of those good ole southern foods...fried chicken, fried peach pies, chicken and dumplings, cornbread and biscuits.   Everything she did was good.  Vegetables were generally simmered for a long time and flavored with bacon fat or lots of butter.   One thing that was especially good were her green beans and new potatoes.  She would simmer fresh green beans for an hour or so, flavoring them with some bacon and onion, then adding halved and peeled new potatoes.   When done the potatoes would be very tender and the the green beans would be very wilted, soft and melt in your mouth.   They are very delicious too.   Now I rarely cook green beans like this, usually just steaming them until barely tender, but every so often I get a craving for Grandma's green beans.    This is how I make them.


a couple pounds of green beans, either fresh or frozen.   if fresh, stem and tail them, then break into pieces and wash well

2-3 slices of bacon, chopped (optional)
or 1 tbsp. bacon fat or olive oil
1 onion, peeled and sliced
6-8 medium sized new potatoes, peeled or well scrubbed, then halved or quartered

Heat a dutch oven over medium heat and add the chopped bacon if using.   Fry until crispy, then remove.   In the bacon fat or olive oil fry the onion until it is soft and beginning to brown.   Add the green beans and potatoes with enough water to barely come to the top of the vegetables.   Simmer over low heat about an hour or until the potatoes are tender and the green beans are limp and starting to fall apart.   Allow to nearly cook dry, but take care that they don't burn.   You may need to add small amounts of water.    Make a big pan of corn bread and enjoy!

Berry Pie

I love pies, especially fruit pies.   And the simpler, plainer they are, the better I like them.   When I make fruit pies I normally just use fruit, sugar and some kind of thickener.    If it is an apple or peach pie, I will use some kind of spice, normally just some cinnamon and maybe a touch of cloves with peaches.   Berry pies are an especial favorite, blackberry in particular, although blueberry is pretty good too.   With blueberry pies I sometimes add a little lemon juice, just to add a touch of acidity.   For thickening a berry pie, I like to use Minute Tapioca.   I just prefer the texture it gives for a berry pie.

1 double crust for a 9 inch pie
4 cups blackberries (or raspberries or blueberries or a mixture)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup Minute Tapioca
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. lemon juice (if using blueberries)

Mix the berries, sugar and tapioca (plus lemon juice if using) in a large bowl and allow to sit for about 15 minutes.    Then line your pie plate with the bottom crust, spoon in the fruit and the butter cut into small bits.   Cover with the top crust and seal the edges.   Cut a couple of slits in the top of the pie for steam vents.    Bake at 400 degrees about 45-50 minutes, until well browned and the juice is bubbly.   Remove from the oven and allow to cool and rest a couple of hours before cutting.   Enjoy!

Ham and beans

Growing up in southeast Missouri we ate lots of ham and beans.   Luckily, except for my younger sister, we all loved them.   My dad especially enjoyed them, so mama would make them all the time.   She would fix either Great Northern, commonly called "white beans" or pinto, also called "brown beans".   I love them both.   I fix them often too and because it is hard to make just a few beans, I have a couple of people I share them with when I cook them.   My brother-in-law, Gary, is the main one who gets some of my beans (he is even more crazy about them than I am!), but there are also a couple of people I work with who think my beans are among the best they've eaten.

Beans have to have a side of cornbread to eat with them.  I don't know why the two taste so good together, but they do.   I also like to eat a wedge of raw onion with a bowl of beans and some folks like pickled hot peppers or pepper vinegar with their beans as well.   One woman  I work with even has to have piccalilli with her beans.   

I do admit to being a bit picky about how I cook my beans and it is usually a two day affair for me.   I also find that I get the best results when I use my crockpot, as beans are something that can't be rushed and turn out the best when done very slowly.   Please note, that it is difficult to give exact proportions for this, as there are variables beyond control, but no matter what happens, you will rarely come up with beans that aren't tasty!   Just be sure to make a lot of cornbread to go with them!


4-6 good sized chunks of ham shank or
a good meaty ham bone
water to cover, about 1 1/2  quarts

Simmer the ham shanks or ham bone about 8 hrs. on high, until the meat is ready to fall off the bone.   Remove the shanks or bone and any meat from the broth and refrigerate.   Later the meat will be taken off the bone and shredded into bite sized chunks, with any bone, skin or fat discarded.   Chill the broth and when ready to cook the beans, remove any solidified fat and discard.

 2 pounds of beans, either Great Northern or Pinto or 1 pound of each

The night before cooking the beans, rinse and pick out any bad beans and then place in a deep bowl and add twice as much water as needed to cover them.   Allow to soak over night.   Then next day, rinse and drain the beans, then place in the crockpot with the defatted ham broth and simmer on high 6-8  hours.   You want the beans to be very soft, splitting and bean broth to turn milky and no longer clear.   The texture of the beans with be almost creamy.   In fact,  you will be concerned that they are overcooked.   Add the cooked ham meat you have removed from the bones.   Allow to sit a few minutes to heat the ham up. 

Now fill a bowl with your hot cornbread, crumbled into chunks, top with the beans and lots of the bean soup, either have a chunk of raw onion on the side or top the beans with chopped raw onion and dig in!   Some good eating here!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I grew up in the upper south, in southeast Missouri.   We ate all of those delicious traditional southern desserts like coconut cake, banana pudding, peach and blackberry cobblers, fried pies, etc.   One of my all time favorites though, was pineapple upside down cake.   I love the gooey brown sugar, the rich juicy pineapple and the tender buttery cake.   And when you got a mouthful of all three at once, it was heavenly!    They are really fairly easy to make too, the only real requirement is 10 inch cast iron skillet.   I've made them in regular pans and they come out very good, but I think the cast iron holds the heat better and gives a better crust, not to mention browning the brown sugar and pineapple topping better.   And although well drained canned pineapple is perfectly acceptable (and delicious) for this cake, I really do prefer using fresh pineapple, cut into bite sized bits.   But no matter what you use, you will love this!   Enjoy!

In a 10 inch cast iron skillet, melt 1/3 cup butter.  Remove from the heat and scatter 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar evenly over the melted butter, then evenly cover the brown sugar with drained pineapple rings or bits.   Set aside.   Now to make the cake batter.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Mix together:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Beat in 1/2 cup softened butter
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat until smooth, then pour on top of the pineapple, brown sugar and butter.   Bake 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.   When you take it out of the oven, run a knife around the edge of the pan, cover the top of the pan with your serving plate and carefully turn the pan upside down.    Allow the pan to remain in place for a few minutes, then gently remove.   If any bits of pineapple remain in the pan, take a spoon and gently replace on the cake.   Allow to cool before cutting.   Enjoy!

Variations:   some people like to decorate the top of the cake with maraschino cherries and chopped pecans, just place them on top of the brown sugar and butter mixture when add the pineapple bits.

Aunt Laura's Apple Cake

This is a recipe that I can remember my Grandma making all the time and it was always one of my favorite recipes.   I have the recipe in front of me on a piece of faded, stained and tattered paper.   I can barely make out Grandma's handwriting, but luckily I know the recipe well enough that I know what it calls for.   One thing about this cake.   It is a bit heavy and when first made a bit dry.  However, after sitting for a few hours or overnight, the moisture in the apples makes this a very moist and delicious cake.   I think you will enjoy it.

1 cup Wesson oil (other oils will work, this is just what the recipe calls for)
2 cup sugar (dark brown is the best but you can use white, too)
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups flour
3 cups, peeled and chopped apples
1 cup black walnuts (I leave them out because I don't care for them)

Beat together the oil, sugar eggs and vanilla, then add the apples and allow to sit for a few minute.      Then stir in the cinnamon, baking soda, salt and flour and mix until smooth.   Fold in the nuts if using.    The batter will be very stiff.    Spread in the bottom of a greased 9x13 inch cake pan.   Bake at 350 degrees 45 minutes to an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.   Allow to cool completely before cutting.   It is best made several hours ahead of time.    Enjoy!

Chicken and Dumplings

Like I've said many times, my Grandma Casey was an incredible cook.   She could make just about anything taste good.   An old timey favorite of the whole family was chicken and dumplings.   Grandma's dumplings were of the southern-style, rolled dumplings and not the high fluffy steamed biscuit type.    The dumplings floated in a thick rich chicken gravy, with falling off the bone moist chicken pieces in abundance.   I tried years and years to re-create Grandma's chicken and dumplings before coming up with a close approximation.   While this isn't exactly like Grandma's, it is close enough to satisfy the hunger for her good cooking.   Chicken and dumplings makes a meal in itself.   We always ate it ladled over mashed potatoes.   But no matter how you eat it, it is always good!

a roasting or stewing hen, if unable to find either, the largest fryer you can find.
giblets from the chicken
chopped onions and celery, about a cup to cup and a half each
sprinkle of poultry seasoning, maybe 1/2 tsp. or so
water to cover (about 2 quarts)

Simmer the chicken, vegetables and seasoning until the chicken is extremely tender.    You should have at least a quart to a quart and a half of broth.   If not that much either add some water or some canned chicken broth.   Allow to cool in the broth, then remove and take off the bone, discarding bones and skin.   Cut into bite size pieces and return to broth.   Leave giblets in the broth as well as the vegetables.  Skim as much fat off the broth as possible, reserving about 3 tbsp.    Bring back to a boil.

While the broth is coming back to a boil, make the dumpling dough.

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. chicken fat or used melted butter
3/4 cup buttermilk

Mix the flour, salt and baking soda together and then stir in the chicken fat or melted butter.   Mix well.   Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk.   Stir together quickly, making a soft dough.    Turn the dough out onto a well floured board and knead quickly 3-4 times.    Then roll out about 1/4 inch thick.   Cut into 2-3 inch squares.   Drop the dough squares into the boiling broth and stir after each addition.   Cover the pot and simmer about 10-15 minutes until the dumplings are done and tender.   The broth should thicken, but if not make a flour and butter roux (equal amounts of flour and butter cooked until it begins to brown a little bit) and stir into the broth, simmer about another minute or two until thick enough.    Enjoy!

Cornbread

I grew up eating cornbread on a regular basis.   Mama and grandma's cornbread was of the standard southern variety.   Always made of white cornmeal, usually flavored with bacon grease and always baked in a preheated cast iron skillet.   It was always crusty, a bit salty and delicious.  It is still my favorite way of making and eating cornbread.   Later, I learned of other ways of making cornbread, using part white flour and sugar, with melted butter instead of bacon grease.   While still preferring Mama's type of cornbread, every so often I'll make "Yankee" style cornbread just to be different.   Aaron likes both kinds.   There are some things that just cry out for a pan of hot, crusty cornbread...ham and beans, beef stew, macaroni and tomatoes.   Here are my two favorite cornbread recipes. 

Mama's Southern-style cornbread

2 cups white corn meal (either regular or self-rising)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder (omit if using self-rising meal)
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 tbsp. oil or melted bacon grease

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.   Grease a 9 inch cast iron skillet (or 8x8 inch square pan) and place in the preheated oven to heat.   Mix together the dry ingredients, then beat in the egg, buttermilk and oil/bacon grease.   Spoon into the preheated pan and bake about 20-25 minutes, or until well browned and crusty.   Cool a bit before removing from pan.   Enjoy!

Rich "Yankee" Cornbread

1/2 cup butter (or ¼ cup butter and ¼ cup oil)

2/3 cup white sugar (decrease if desired, I only used 1/2 cup and it
was plenty sweet)
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch square pan.
Melt butter. Remove from heat and pour in a large bowl, then stir in sugar. Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended. Combine buttermilk stir into mixture. Stir in cornmeal, flour, baking soda and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.   Enjoy!

What to do with canned tomatoes?

When I was growing up the family always had a big garden at my grandma's.   By the time I came along most garden produce was frozen, but Mama still canned a few things, mainly because the family preferred them canned as opposed to frozen.   Mama would can corn, peaches and tomatoes.   We ate a lot of Mama's canned tomatoes, especially in the winter months.    Mama would use them for making chili, vegetable soup, breaded tomatoes ands sometimes Daddy would just pour some in a bowl and eat them with a spoon.   To be honest, I still like eat canned tomatoes that way even today.   But my favorite way to eat Mama's home canned tomatoes was macaroni and tomatoes.    Mama is gone now, but after much trial and error I've finally recreated her recipe.   It makes a good side dish, but I'll often have it for the whole meal with a pan of crusty cornbread to go with it.

1 onion, peeled and chopped
2-3 tbsp. butter
3 14-oz. cans of tomatoes (I use no salt diced tomatoes)
4 cups cooked macaroni
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the butter and fry the onion until it starts to brown a bit, then add the tomatoes and bring to a boil.   Finally, add the cooked macaroni, salt and pepper to taste.   Allow to sit a few minutes before eating.   It calls out for a pan of cornbread to eat with it.

Breaded Tomatoes

4-6 slices of white bread, cut into cubes and dried in the oven until lightly brown
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 14-oz cans of tomatoes (no salt diced tomatoes is what I use)
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp. butter

Heat the butter and then fry the onion until it begins to brown.   Add the tomatoes and simmer a few minutes.   Just before serving, stir in the dried bread cubes, salt and pepper to taste.   Enjoy!

Grandma Casey's Sugar Cookies

For me, favorite foods are often strongly linked to childhood memories. These sugar cookies are one of those foods. My Grandma Casey was a good cook. She didn't do anything fancy, it was strictly down-home, southern country style cooking. She lived most of her life on a farm and had a large family to feed and next to no money to do it with. So foods were usually things they could grow or make themselves. I remember having a large garden every summer. I remember growing and butchering hogs and chickens. I remember milk cows and grandma making butter to sell, as well as clabbered milk for biscuits and thick cream for homemade ice cream. There were special foods that we had for family gatherings, whether it was just a weekend visit or for big holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Sugar cookies was one of the special things grandma would make when the kids were coming to visit. My second memory about making sugar cookies comes from my youngest nephew, Ethan, when he was small. He loved to come to my place and make cookies. He had special cookie cutters he liked to use and his favorite was in the shape of a bone. He'd strew flour everywhere and we'd laugh and have a great time. I can never make sugar cookies without thinking of both he and grandma. Although these cookies taste like the ones she made, there is still a certain savor that only a grandma's hand can give that is missing. Please note, this recipe makes a whole lot of cookies! Also, although you can substitute shortening or butter for the lard, it just won't have the right flavor. And one other thing, these cookies are best made one day and not eaten until a day or two later.

1/3 cup lard
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup cream or evaporated milk (grandma's recipe calls for "top milk")
1 tsp. vanilla
6 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Cream the lard and sugar until fluffy, then beat in the eggs, cream and vanilla. Next work in dry ingredients. It will make a very stiff dough and you may end up needing to use your hands to work it all in. Divide the dough into 3 parts. Roll out each part about 1/4 inch thick, sprinkle the top with sugar and pat it gently into the top of the dough. Cut into circles or any shape you like. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees until slightly puffed and just barely beginning to brown around the edges. Do not overbake. Cool slightly before removing to finish cooling.

Sometimes grandma would put a frosting on these cookies. Here is her recipe for that:

1/4 cup soft butter
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup top milk (cream)
3 cups powdered sugar

Mix all together, beating until smooth. If you want, you can add a drop or two of food coloring to make it pretty.