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Lemon Chicken
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 frying chicken (2½ to 3 pounds)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons Crisco
1 chicken bouillon cube
¼ cup green onion, sliced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1½ teaspoons lemon peel, grated
chopped parsley for garnish
In paper or plastic bag, combine flour, salt, and paprika. Brush the cut-up chicken with lemon juice. Add 2 to 3 pieces of chicken at a time to the bag and shake well. In a large skillet, brown chicken in hot Crisco. Dissolve bouillon cube in ¾cup boiling water; pour over chicken. Stir in onion, brown sugar, lemon peel, and remaining lemon juice. Cover, reduce heat, and cook chicken over low heat until tender, 40 to 50 minutes. Garnish with chopped parsley.
Serves 4.
Goldie’s Cook’s Notes
Sally is a real doll for sharing this recipe with me. She says she found it in an old cookbook of her mother’s and that nothing but nothing her mother ever cooked came out bad. One taste of this recipe and you’ll be a believer in old cookbooks too!
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Texas Hash
1 pound ground beef
3 small onions or one large onion, sliced
1 green pepper, chopped
1 can (16 ounce) tomatoes
½ cup uncooked rice
2 teaspoons salt
1 to 2 teaspoons chili powder
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Preheat oven to 350. In a large skillet, brown meat, onion, and green pepper. Drain off fat. Stir in tomatoes, rice, salt, chili powder, and pepper; heat through. Cover and bake 1 hour in skillet or 2-quart casserole.
Serves 4–6.
Lizzie’s Cook’s Notes
For busy wives/mothers/grandmothers and otherwise working gals like me, this recipe is easy and filling. Try it and you will quickly see why it is one of my husband’s favorites!
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Southern Pecan Pie
1/3 cup Crisco
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
½ cup whole milk
3 eggs
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped or halved pecans
pie crust
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cream Crisco and sugars. Add remaining ingredients and blend. Pour into unbaked pie shell and then place in the oven. Bake 10 minutes, then turn heat back to 350. Bake another 25 minutes. Let cool.
Goldie’s Cook’s Notes
When I told Mama about the cookbook I saw, she pulled out her mother’s pecan pie recipe and said that Grandmother’s didn’t call for corn syrup like so many others do but she couldn’t ever remember her mother’s recipe coming out bad.
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Italian Casserole
1 pound ground beef
½ cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 (15 ounce) can tomato
sauce
1 (4 ounce) can mushrooms
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon basil
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ cup sour cream
2 cups Bisquick
¼ cup milk
1 egg
8 slices American cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease 9-by-9 casserole dish; set aside.
In a 10-inch skillet, brown ground beef, onion, and garlic powder, then drain. Stir in tomato sauce, mushrooms, sugar, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper into the beef mixture. Heat to boiling while stirring constantly. Reduce heat, simmer, and occasionally stir (about 10 minutes). Remove skillet from heat and fold in sour cream. In separate bowl, mix Bisquick, milk, and egg. Divide the dough in half and press first half into bottom of the pre-greased casserole dish. Pour contents of skillet over dough then top meat mixture with 4 cheese slices. Sprinkle slices with Parmesan cheese. Next, drop spoonfuls of the remaining dough on top of the cheese, like biscuits. Bake uncovered until light brown for 20 minutes. While dish cools, top with remaining cheese slices.
Serves 6.
Vonnie’s Cook’s Notes
I love Bisquick. It’s been one of my best kitchen friends. You don’t think I made everything for Fred from scratch, do you? But that can be our little secret.
Petit Fours with Glaze Icing
1 cup butter, softened
3 cups white sugar
7 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-by-13 pan. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add in and beat the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix until all the flour is absorbed. Stir in the sour cream. Mix for 1 or 2 minutes. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 45 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake completely before cutting with petit four designed cutters. (You can use petit four molds, if you desire.)
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SUGAR GLAZE
½ cup confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons warm water
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Sift sugar into a small bowl. Sprinkle warm water and vanilla over the sugar and stir until smooth. If the glaze seems stiff, add more water, drop by drop, until it reaches drizzling consistency.
To use the glaze: drizzle over cooled petit fours with a fork. Alternatively, scrape the glaze into a sturdy plastic bag, snip off a tiny portion of the corner, and use the bag to pipe the glaze decoratively on cakes. The glaze should be made shortly before using, since it hardens quickly on contact with air.
Decorate the tops of the cakes with little flowers or designs made from colored icing.
Evangeline’s Cook’s Notes
“Petit four” is a fancy way of saying “little desserts,” and is a term that Lisa Leann likes to throw around a lot. I think it makes her feel more . . . chichi, as she puts it. These little cakes are bite size, served at “low tea” (according to one of my new books on the subject), and almost too pretty to eat. Here’s a recipe I managed to wrangle out of Lisa Leann for the ones she served to Beverly Jackson and, subsequently, to us.
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Eggs Florentine
1 10-ounce package chopped frozen spinach
pinch of nutmeg
1 to 2 tablespoons water
3 eggs
salt and pepper (to taste)
3 tablespoons grated cheese
cream
Let spinach thaw then spread into bottom of large skillet. Season spinach with nutmeg and add water. Cook over medium heat till spinach is hot. Crack eggs
onto spinach. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, turn heat down, and top skillet with lid. A few minutes later, the eggs will be steam-cooked.
When the eggs are almost done, top with cheese. Return lid to pan until cheese is melted. Drizzle cream over dish and serve.
Serves up to 3 people.
Donna’s Cook’s Notes
This is a lot for one person to eat by herself, but sometimes I do the “brunch thing.” This goes down great before a long, cold night shift too. And really, it’s not that much fuss to make.
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Thyme Roasted Chicken
4 large chicken breasts
1 cup olive oil
½ cup vinegar
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
zest of 1 lemon, slivered (outermost part of rind)
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Rinse chicken breasts then pat dry with paper towels. Place chicken flat in a baking dish. In a small bowl, combine oil, vinegar, garlic, lemon zest, thyme, salt, and pepper. In dish, pour marinade over chicken, coating each side. Cover dish and refrigerate chicken for at least one hour or overnight.
Heat oven to 425. Season the chicken with pepper and salt. Roast chicken until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 375. Continue to roast until the chicken is thoroughly cooked (about 40 minutes more). Top chicken with pan juices before serving.
Serves 4.
Lisa Leann’s Cook’s Notes
I got this recipe from the chef at the resort. Henry loves it, but then so do I. I know it has an oil coating, but olive oil is really good for you, so no worries.
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Cream of Potato Soup
8 potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 carrots, diced
2 green onions, sliced thin
2 stalks celery, diced
1 onion, diced
1 cup diced ham
5 cups water
4 chicken bouillon cubes
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon chives
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dill
½ teaspoon pepper
½ cup margarine
1 (13 ounce) can evaporated milk
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
¼ cup sour cream
Add everything except milk, cheese, and sour cream to Crock-Pot. Cook soup on high for 5 to 6 hours. Add milk, cheese, and sour cream half an hour before serving. Stir well to blend.
Vonnie’s Cook’s Notes
If you make this early enough, you can run errands all morning, then come home to a hot bowl of rich, satisfying soup.
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Apple Rolls
4 cups apples, diced
1 cup pecans, coarsely broken
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon allspice (the secret ingredient!)
1 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
Mix apples, nuts, and sugar; let stand, stirring often until juicy, about 1 hour. Sift flour, soda, salt, and spices. Add apple mixture and stir well. Stir in butter, vanilla, and eggs. Pour in 2 loaf pans. Bake in preheated 325 degree oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Test with cake tester inserted in center. Cool on wire rack. Serve hot or cold.
Lizzie’s Cook’s Notes
I have no idea why these are called apple “rolls,” but that’s what Mom always called them. Apple rolls will forever remain a memory of comfort and joy for my family and me. Now that I know the truth about my mother and father’s love for them, they are even more special. And that, I believe, is the true secret ingredient!
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Bread Pudding
4 cups milk
2 cups bread crumbs (not toast)
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup raisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scald the milk and allow to cool. Soak bread in milk. Beat the eggs. Add sugar, melted butter, vanilla, nutmeg, and raisins to beaten eggs. Add this to the milk and bread mixture. Pour into a buttered 9-inch baking dish. Set in a pan of hot water and bake about 40 minutes, or until firm. Serve hot or cold, with or without cream. Nuts may be added. Yield: 6–8 servings.
The Secret's in the Sauce Page 29