Hot Potato Salad

Hot Potato Salad
Dorcas Annette Walker

Here is a brand new recipe that I tried out for the first time and had to share. All the Hot Potato Salads that I had previously tasted throughout the years were okay, but were nothing real special that stood out to me. Now I’d be the first one to admit that everyone’s taste buds and what they like are often different so don’t take my opinion personally if you have a favorite Hot Potato Salad recipe that you love. While browsing through cookbooks I came across a Hot Potato Salad recipe that intrigued me and I thought, why not try it? After all I encourage you all to try new stuff and the worst thing that could happen would be that I and my fellows wouldn’t like it. So one cold snowy day while I was in my kitchen baking, I made up a batch of the Hot Potato Salad giving the recipe only a few tweaks. The next meal my guys immediately recognized a new dish. Dana lifted an eyebrow in my direction and asked, “Is this another one of your experiments?” I just grinned and said, “Try it”. True to his nature (hopefully with faith in my ability as a cook and the fact that I have yet to poison him), Dana dug out a good portion of my Hot Potato Salad onto his plate. Now my son, Dwight, is pickier eater. He tentatively put a small spoonful on his plate with a doubtful expression on his face. After a small bite though, Dwight looked up in surprise and said, “Hey this is good!” He finished up his small portion and got another big helping with my husband following close behind him. In one meal we nearly ate up the entire Hot Potato Salad. Now don’t take my word for it. Try it for yourself.

The potato has fed civilizations, yet it is often has the reputation as junk food. The potato itself is a healthy food. It is the way it is prepared. We can blame Thomas Jefferson, who first introduced French fries to America. Potato chips soon followed and thus came the downfall of a main staple. One serving of a medium-sized potato though with the peel left on is a good source of fiber, protein, potassium, vitamin C, contains no fat, and is low in calories.

My Hot Potato Salad is a mild potato salad-style casserole wrapped in a cheesy sauce that makes an awesome combination giving a warm summer taste on a cold winter day. Preparation time for the Hot Potato Salad is twenty-five minutes (not counting baking time) and this recipe serves eight.

Hot Potato Salad

8 medium-sized potatoes
1 c mayonnaise
1 c milk
½ stick of margarine
½ lb block cheese spread cubed
1 tb dried chopped onion
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp dried crushed celery leaves
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Cook, cool in water, and cube potatoes. In a microwave bowl combine the rest of the ingredients and microwave until the cheese is melted stirring frequently. Butter a 2 qt baking dish, place the potatoes in it, and pour over the dressing. Sprinkle with paprika and bake at 350º for 1 hr until browned, and bubbly. Serve hot!

Weekly tip: Red potatoes are especially good for salads because they don’t absorb the dressing or break apart easily, and due to their thin skin they don’t need to be peeled thus adding color!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Apple Salad

Apple Salad
Dorcas Annette Walker

Every day in our lunchbox there was an apple, sandwich, and cookies. In fact I grew very tired of the sight of the ever present apple, but whenever I complained I was told, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. My mother did all kinds of things to tempt me to eat my apple. She quartered and cored it and even reluctantly peeled the apple to try and get me to eat my apple instead of bringing it back home. On rare occasions we got a banana or an orange. In those days there were no kid’s vitamins. My mother was trying to keep us healthy and instill healthy eating practices. Thanks to my mother’s persistence somewhere along the way I began to like eating apples. So guess what I packed in my kid’s lunches when I became a mother, and found myself doing when my daughter complained that she didn’t like apples? Unfortunately today, children are not sent off to school with a packed lunch and healthy apple. So here is a recipe to add apples to your diet and help your family stay healthy this winter.

In Greek mythology, apples were associated with the healing god Apollo. During medieval times physicians used cooked apples for bowel disturbances and apple juice was prescribed as an antidepressant. The apple is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits and is in the rose species. Not only are apple delicious, makes a great snack, are low in calories, and is a natural mouth freshener, but they are a great source of fiber, especially the skin. To store apples and keep them crisp place them in the bottom of your refrigerator as apples ripen fast at room temperature. Always wash apples before eating or using.

My Apple Salad is a healthy colorful crunchy salad made up of different fruits enfolded in a mild sweet creamy dressing. You can add sliced grapes, flaked coconut, or other fruits and substitute the chopped nuts with walnuts, almonds, or peanuts- mix-matching items to create your own individual salad. Preparation time for my Apple Salad is about twenty minutes (not counting the cooling time) and this recipe serves around fifteen.

Apple Salad

4 c red apples diced
1 c raisins
1 banana sliced
½ c minced celery
½ c chopped pecans
1 c water
½ c sugar
2 tb self-rising flour
1 egg
½ (8 oz) container of cool whip

Mix together the apples, raisins, banana, celery, and pecans in a medium-sized bowl. In a small saucepan bring to a boil stirring constantly with a Wisk the water, sugar, flour, and egg until thickened. Let cool. Stir in the cool whip and fold over the fruit until thoroughly covered. Let chill before serving. Can garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon!

Weekly tip: A pinch of salt intensifies something sweet. That is why people sprinkle salt on raw fruits such as apples, cantaloupes, and watermelons!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Oatmeal Cake

Oatmeal Cake
Dorcas Annette Walker

Here is another recipe from scratch, which reminds me of the story about a newlywed, who asked the storekeeper where he kept the “scratch” because that’s what her husband said his mother made everything from. This Oatmeal Cake recipe is as old as the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I got this recipe from a young hill mother. We were from opposite ways of life, but became close friends. Mae had a daughter close to the same time as mine, but instead of a ruffled bassinet her baby bed was a plastic wash basket on the floor beside their bed. Her husband, Wade, came from a family of sixteen- it took a five gallon bucket of potatoes every meal. When we met them they already had eight children. With my first child I hemorrhaged, had to spend time in the hospital, was given blood, went down to ninety pounds, and it took me a full year to recover while Mae had babies every other year like she was fixing up a pan of cornbread.

Wade and Mae moved from a two-bedroom trailer to a small house perched on the side of a hill with rickety narrow wooden planks over a stream halfway to their house that I was scared to drive across. One morning partway across the “bridge” to get Mae to take her to the store carrying my nine-month-old daughter and a large diaper bag, I looked down to see a snake stretched out right under my feet. I screamed, took one flying leap, and ran the rest of the way up the hill not stopping until I reached the front porch where I collapsed. The kids were quite enthralled and spent the morning trying to find the snake while I endeavored to get my shattered nerves under control. We never did make it to the store that day.

After moving they bought a jersey cow for milk. One day Wade called. The cow had eaten some kind of weed and the vet said that it would probably go dry. Nothing daunted, my husband prayed over the cow reminding the Lord how much Wade and Mae needed milk for all their young’uns and how they shared their milk with us. The Lord answered prayer and instead of going dry the cow doubled its output to four gallons a day. Despite abject poverty the cow and young’uns thrived and the last we heard several years after moving from the area was that Wade and Mae’s children numbered eleven.

This Oatmeal Cake is a filling dessert ideal as a snack with a hot beverage. I added applesauce to the original recipe and you could add raisins as well. The cooked frosting sets this plain cake off. Preparation time for the Oatmeal Cake is forty-five minutes (not counting baking time) and this recipe serves twelve.

Oatmeal Cake

In a large bowl mix together, cover, and le set for twenty minutes: 1¼ c boiling water and 1 c quick oatmeal.

Then add:
1 c br sugar
1 c sugar
1 c applesauce
½ c shortening
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Stir in and beat thoroughly:
2 c self-rising flour
¾ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg

Pour into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake at 350º for 35 minutes.

Cooked Frosting:

1 c br sugar
1 stick margarine
1 c cocoanut
3 tb milk
½ c chopped pecans

Bring to a rolling boil in a small saucepan, let simmer for ten minutes, and then spread over the warm cake!

Weekly tip: When needing to measure shortening or thick liquids, first spray the measuring cup with a cooking spray, measure the ingredient, and then pour out!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Sausage Pie

Sausage Pie
Dorcas Annette Walker

Another New Year with blank pages spread out before us; a time of making new resolutions as we evaluate the past. Little did I realize four years ago when I wrote a cooking column at a local editor’s request that it would evolve into a regular column and blog where I would get to meet folk via the internet not only around the United States, but Canada and Britain. One sweet fellow up in Ohio invited me to appear on his televised weekly cooking show. I nicely declined as I’m not into the new fangled ways of cooking with strange pots and pans in front of an audience. My greatest inspiration that draws me to my kitchen each week is the emails and phone calls from you local folk here in Tennessee that tell me that my column is the first thing read in the Friday edition. I figured I’d have run out of recipes long before now. Instead this past week I began filling another notebook with some more old recipes to redo along with new ideas to try out. I’ve found cooking to be a grand adventure that time doesn’t diminish.

This week I’m featuring an oldie my fellows love evolved on the spur of the moment many years ago one afternoon when I was baking in kitchen and realized I hadn’t planned anything for supper. I found leftover carrots and peas and since I was making pies I decided to add potatoes, some sausage, and turn it into a pie. Nothing fancy, but I figured it would be filling. My husband loved it so much that he bragged about my Sausage Pie until I had to make another one for his friends. They acted like it was the best thing they had ever eaten. Since then I’ve made Sausage Pie for visitors and once on a mission trip out west- at my husband and friend’s request as to me a meat pie isn’t fancy company fare. For some reason a meat pie seems to be a man’s dish. I’ve never had a recipe for it so when I made up a Sausage Pie this week I measured and wrote things down.

My Sausage Pie is a colorful blend of vegetables, potatoes, and sausage wrapped together in a flaky pastry crust that makes a hearty meal. Leftovers can be frozen and reheated up for another time. Preparation time for the Sausage Pie is around 30 minutes (not counting baking time) and this recipe serves six.

Sausage Pie

2 pastries for a 10-inch pie
1 lb sausage (your choice) browned & crumbled
2 c potatoes peeled, diced, & cooked
2 c carrots peeled, sliced, & cooked
1 (15 oz) can of peas
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
1 tsp seasoned salt
salt & pepper

Drain vegetables and layer in the pie crust with the sausage. Sprinkle parsley flakes and seasoned salt adding regular salt & pepper to taste. Cover with a top crust and crimp the edges together. Bake at 350º for 1 hr until the crust is nicely browned. Serve hot!

Weekly tip: Using cold ingredients and not over-mixing or over-working the dough makes for a flakier pie crust while glass or dull metal pie pans brown the pastry best!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com

Hearty Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Hearty Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Dorcas Annette Walker

Wintertime not only brings snow days with chilling temperatures, but unfailingly all kinds of germs make their rounds as well. Already up here on the mountain colds and flu have begun their cycle. My pastor and his wife came down with a bad case of cold/flu symptoms close to Christmas. I was planning on sending some goodies their way so decided to also include a batch of homemade chicken soup. Marty called me that evening telling me between croaks how much they enjoyed my soup and homemade noodles asking me for the recipe. Guess what? I didn’t have one. I never thought a body needed a recipe for plain ole chicken soup. Then this week I came down with the sniffles and decided to make up a pot of my chicken soup. This time I stopped to measure my ingredients and wrote them down to share with the rest of you, who use recipes. My husband enjoyed my chicken soup so much that he ate three bowls before he stopped. What better way to start off the New Year with a Hearty Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup to help keep you healthy throughout the coming winter months?

My Hearty Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup is perfect for lunches or as a main meal- just include hot cornbread or muffins. You can substitute leftover turkey for the chicken, use chicken/turkey broth, saved potato or vegetable water, pureed squash or leftover celery, and you can even add diced vegetables if you prefer. Either way this Hearty Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup will hit the spot. Preparation time is around 35 minutes and this recipe makes close to one gallon of soup.

Hearty Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

3 c cooked chicken chopped in 1 inch pieces
12 c water
1 tb dried onion or 1 small onion diced
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
1 tsp salt
dash of garlic salt
pepper to taste
homemade noodles

In a large kettle bring to a rolling boil all the ingredients except the noodles. Break noodles into around one inch pieces dropping them in and covering them with the boiling liquid. Boil with a lid on for ten minutes and then let simmer on low until ready to eat. Serve hot and garnish with parsley flakes!

Weekly tip: Homemade noodles! In a small bowl work into a stiff ball: 2 c self-rising flour and 3 large eggs. Roll out very thin on a lightly floured surface. Let sit for 2 hrs. Fold the dough over a couple of times and cut into thin strips with a pizza cutter. Continue to dry until ready to use. To save make sure that the noodles are completely dry before storing in airtight container!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcasannettewalker@gmail.com For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.webs.com