Tuna Salad

Tuna Salad
Dorcas Annette Walker

My husband loved to fish- something I never became enamored with. Hiking through tall weeds to get to a fishing site, fighting hungry misquotes, or wading up an ice cold creek was never my idea of fun- not to mention having to touch and hook squirmy worms that to my mind belonged in the garden. Before our daughter, Dawn, attended grade school and then later on our son, Dwight, all valiantly followed their father on his summer fishing trips. I stayed home waiting for the sun burnt worn out fishermen to arrive exhausted late in the afternoon triumphantly holding up their day’s catch. While Dana gutted and cleaned the fish I got my iron skillet hot and ready to fry up the fish for supper. There is nothing tastier than a mess of fresh fish fried crispy golden brown with homemade hush puppies and tartar sauce on a summer evening. To my husband’s chagrin once he taught Dawn and Dwight how to fish, they always managed to out catch their dad. Competitions ran high each summer bringing home an abundance of fish that I was able to freeze. Now that both kids are grown, Dana’s fishing equipment lies neglected in his workshop and I miss having fresh fish each summer to fry up. Thankfully today one can buy frozen or canned fish year round.

We are all urged to add more fish in our diets and for awhile tuna was the rage until someone decided that tuna contained high amounts of mercury causing a health scare about eating tuna. Further studies have concluded that the benefits of eating tuna in moderation outweigh the dangers. Lately I’ve been seeing advertisements about the jellyfish’s ability to give a person a better memory. Next thing someone else will decide that jellyfish are a health danger. It never ceases to amaze me what idea or notion shows up. Since I don’t live by the ocean I have no worries that one of the fishermen in my family will catch and bring a jellyfish to my house. While I know how to fry fish and use tuna in the kitchen, I’d have no earthly idea how to prepare a jellyfish. So I’ll just leave the jellyfish eating to the experts.

Since I always keep a couple cans of tuna handy in my pantry it only takes me a couple of minutes to make up a batch of my Tuna Salad. My favorite way of eating Tuna Salad is in a sandwich with lettuce and sliced tomatoes along with chips. Tuna Salad can also be layered in a soft tortilla to make a wrap or placed on top of a tossed salad for a different twist. However you serve your Tuna Salad you will have a filling and healthy addition to any meal. Preparation time for the Tuna Salad is ten minutes and this recipe serves five to six.

Tuna Salad

2 (12 oz) cans of tuna- your choice
1 hardboiled egg diced
1 heaping tb of dried onion or 1 small fresh onion minced
1 c mayonnaise
salt & pepper

Drain the tuna and dump into a small bowl with the egg and onion. Stir in the mayonnaise adding salt and pepper to taste until well mixed. Chill and serve!

Weekly tip: To save freeze fresh fish in lidded containers completely covered with water. To use frozen fish thaw, roll in a mixture of cornmeal and flour, and then deep fry!

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

Homemade Root Beer Floats

Homemade Root Beer Float
Dorcas Annette Walker

Even though summer doesn’t officially begin until June, I’ve always considered the Memorial Day weekend as the kickoff for summertime. School is usually out or almost finished and as any mother will tell you summer begins when the school year ends no matter what the calendar says. Here in the South on the mountain Memorial Day weekend means grave decorations and family reunions. I love seeing hillside cemeteries covered in floral arrangements. It always brings back memories of my past. I called my daughter and asked her what she remembered most about her grandmother. To my surprise not only did Dawn remember my mother, but also my grandmother on a rare visit to her house one summer when she was a little girl. Dawn enchanted all my Yankee relatives with her southern accent. I remember Dawn asking me one evening when I tucked her into bed why they all talked so funny. Her best memory was of my grandmother, Dawn’s great grandmother, making Homemade Root Beer Floats. Then my mind when down memory lane of when I was a girl having root beer floats (sometimes my grandmother used cream soda) at my grandmother’s house on a hot summer day listening to the adults talk about when my mother was a small girl and how they made homemade root beer. They would mix up a batch of root beer, put it in bottles with corks, and place the bottles up on the tin roof. When the corks begin to pop and the liquid fizzed they knew the root beer was ready to drink. This Memorial weekend I’m going to make sure that my grandchildren (the fifth generation) have Homemade Root Beer Floats to keep our family tradition going.

Root beer is a carbonated sweet beverage made primarily from the sassafras root or bark. Today homemade root beer is usually made from a concentrate. Charles Hires, a Philadelphian pharmacist, was the first to introduce root beer to the public in 1876 that became an instant hit. By 1893 his family began manufacturing and distributing bottled root beer. A & W, the number one selling Root Beer Company in the world, founded by Roy Allen, began marketing root beer in 1919. Root beer floats is also called “black” or “brown cow” in some areas substituting chocolate ice cream for vanilla or cola instead of root beer. Although there is no congressional record or presidential proclamations, August 6th is celebrated by many as National Root Beer Float Day. I discovered recipes for root beer cake, root beer cupcakes, liqueurs, etc.

Nothing hits the spot more on a hot summer day than a Homemade Root Beer Float. Not only is making your own floats more cost effective, but you can create your own family recipe by experimenting with different flavors of ice cream and soda. You can add toppings of whipped cream, maraschino cherries, or candy sprinkles for decoration if desired. Instead of stopping at the nearest ice cream parlor for cold treats, start your own family tradition at home or at a family reunion with Homemade Root Beer Floats.

Homemade Root Beer Float

vanilla ice cream
root beer soda

Place a couple scoops of ice cream in a tall glass and pour in the root beer until it foams up to the top of the glass. Serve with a straw or spoon!

Weekly tip: To frost a glass to keep your beverage cold longer this summer simply place the glass in the freezer. For a complete coating first rinse the glass inside and out in cold water and then place in the freezer. Caution: Don’t freeze beverages in a glass as it will break. Also be careful when handling a frosted glass as it is more slippery!

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

Brown Floured Wax Beans

Brown Floured Wax Beans
Dorcas Annette Walker

This month as we honor mothers, I decided to share a favorite recipe of my mother that she used to make frequently while I was growing up. I didn’t have any idea of how original her Brown Floured Wax Bean recipe was until I started looking around. Recipes for wax beans are scare even in cookbooks. On the internet I found recipes to make sweet and sour wax beans, fried onions and bacon with wax beans in a sauce, mustard and pickled wax beans, and wax beans made in white gravy. Especially down here in the south you don’t see wax beans served very often as few stores even carry the item. So this year I decided to plant wax beans in order to can and keep a supply of my own yellow beans on hand. I think the main reason that wax beans are not more of a southern cuisine is because wax or yellow beans tend to have a milder- what some might consider a boring- taste compared to green beans. My mother’s brown flour gravy adds a delicate flavor to the wax beans that turns yellow beans into a gourmet dish. Little did our family realize or appreciate what an awesome cook we had living in our own home. Between the influence of my mother and grandmother is there any wonder that I ended up loving to experiment with food and cook?

Wax or yellow beans, also called by some “butter beans” originated in the tropics of Central and South America and got their name due to the waxy texture and feel of their skin giving them a different flavor and texture when cooked from green beans. Wax beans vary from light to a deep yellow color, are a slender and long bean, covered with a thinner and more velvety skin. Their peak growing season is late July to September. Wax beans are canned, frozen, boiled, fried, steamed, used in soups, stews, and casseroles, and are popular cooked fresh today in stir-fries. Yellow wax beans provide a great source of vitamin C, iron, and immune boosting folate. Preparation time for my Brown Floured Wax Beans is fifteen minutes and this recipe serves two to three.

Brown Floured Wax Beans

1 tb margarine
1 heaping tb self-rising flour
1 (14.5 oz) can of wax beans
salt & pepper

In a small saucepan melt the margarine, add flour, and brown. Then pour in the juice of the beans adding salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil stirring with a Wisk until thickened. Fold in the wax beans and simmer for five minutes before serving. Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika!

Weekly tip: Cooking with salt intensifies natural flavor and brings several blended flavors into perfection!

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

Chicken Salad

Chicken Salad
Dorcas Annette Walker

So far the month of May this year has acted like March with sudden weather changes. Last week I was outside in my garden tucking my six-inch green bean plants and tomatoes in straw to keep them from freezing during a sudden temperature plunge into the low thirties while this week here on the mountain the temperature is reaching nearly ninety degrees. I doubled checked my calendar the other day hanging beside my computer to make sure that this was indeed the month of May. Thankfully all my dear plants survived the frost. The month started out with all kinds of storms and lots of rain causing flooding in the low areas, but the hot humid weather this week has quickly dried out the ground until now all my plants could use a good shower. From what the weather forecasters are predicting rain is on the way. Despite the crazy weather pattern all the spring flowers have been gorgeous this year lasting until the next bunch starts blooming. Everything is green and growing here on the mountain. Right now my iris’ dazzle the eye with an array of colorful hues. While the plants are handling the heat my dogs act lethargic each finding a cool spot in the shade to flop their furry bodies down at. Even the chickens settle down in a dusty spot in their pen until the hottest part of the day is over.

When it is hot, I don’t feel like doing a lot of cooking or eating. So this week I made up some Chicken Salad and wrote the recipe down to pass along. My Chicken Salad makes a perfect lunch or a cold supper on a hot day. You can substitute turkey for the chicken, add grapes, nuts, olives, celery, chopped cucumber, boiled eggs, tomatoes, or even dried fruit. This Chicken Salad is a basic recipe that I start with and add or mix in other ingredients depending on my mood, what I have on hand, or what is growing in my garden at the time. Speaking of which, I can’t wait until I can begin picking fresh veggies from my garden this year. I’ve already started harvesting some of my herbs. Preparation time for my Chicken Salad is ten minutes and this recipe serves eight.

Chicken Salad

2 c chopped cooked chicken
1 tb dried onion or one small fresh onion minced
1 tb sweet pickle relish
salt and pepper
1½ c mayonnaise

In a small bowl mix together the chicken, onion, and pickle relish adding salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the mayonnaise and mix thoroughly. Chill the Chicken Salad and then serve in a sandwich, on a lettuce leaf, or in a cucumber cup!

Weekly tip: To make a cucumber cup take a long straight cucumber and cut into three pieces with a sharp knife. Cut off the two ends so that each cucumber piece stands up straight. Then cut a zigzag pattern along the top edge. Scoop out the flesh with a spoon leaving ¼ of an inch of cucumber at the bottom. Fill with a salad and serve!

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

Lemon Raspberry Cream Cake

Lemon Raspberry Cream Cake
Dorcas Annette Walker

Whether motherhood comes by physically giving birth, adoption, or becoming a stepmother, one’s life will never be the same again. Motherhood challenges one’s mental, physical, and emotional state and once you become a mother you will always be a mother. I never could understand the phenomenon of how my mother every time we visited her, as an adult and mother myself, would revert back to my childhood days by asking me before we left to go anywhere, “ Dorcas did you remember to brush your teeth? Or Honey, you need to wear a coat it’s chilly outside.” Today I vex my own adult children with the same questions and advice whenever they are around. Little did I comprehend the first time I held my own tiny helpless infant in my arms how much my entire life would change. During the demanding days of toddlerhood, cheerleading early school days, and trying to keep up with the whirlwind teen years my own personality became merged with my children. When they are happy I am happy. Any upheavals in their world affect mine. Is it any wonder that mother’s tend to have a meltdown (labeled the empty nest syndrome) when their children take the first leap into the adult world? And yet I would have it no other way. I’ll never forget the look of awe in my daughter’s face as she held our first granddaughter close in the hospital and tried to explain her new feelings of motherhood to me- the exact same feelings I had for her as a newborn years ago- as Dawn said, “Mommy, I would do anything for Annette even if it meant having to give my own life.” I can’t comprehend women, who will neglect their children, abuse, or let them become abused. I’m glad once a year in the endless round of daily tasks we are given the chance to stop, celebrate, and take a moment to contemplate the precious gift given us- motherhood.

I decided this year to make a special dessert, Lemon Raspberry Cream Cake, for Mother’s Day. I can’t remember where I first got the idea for this cake, but it is something that brings out the creative side of me each time I make it. My Lemon Raspberry Cream Cake is a combination of some of my favorite ingredients that to me embodies springtime. I’m not the only one in my household wild over this cake. Last night when I gave my husband a small piece he told me, “You’d better put this under lock and key it’s so good.” Preparation time for my Lemon Raspberry Cream Cake is around thirty minutes (not counting the baking or cooling time) and this recipe serves sixteen- that is if you can stop with eating one piece.

Lemon Raspberry Cream Cake

1 lemon cake mix
1 c raspberries
1 c sugar
½ c water
¼ c cornstarch

Prepare the cake mix as directed using a bunt cake pan. Cool and cut in half. In a small saucepan combine the raspberries, sugar, water, and cornstarch. Bring to a boil, cook until thickened, and cool. Spread over the first cake layer and top with the second layer of cake.

Frosting:

2 c powdered sugar
2 tb shortening
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ c milk
2 c sweetened cocoanut flakes

Beat powdered sugar, shortening, extract, and milk until smooth with a Wisk. Spread over the entire cake. Sprinkle on the cocoanut. May garnish with fresh raspberries and mint leaves!

Weekly tip: While flowers, cards, and phone calls brighten a mother’s heart the best gift you can give your mother is time with yourself!

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

Veggie Ham Casserole

Veggie Ham Casserole
Dorcas Annette Walker

The one thing I always enjoy after cooking a large meal for a holiday or company is the leftovers. While traveling around the United States I’ve actually run into some people who throw their leftovers into the garbage. Can you imagine? They would rather spend money going out to eat instead of eating nutritious leftovers. It never made a lick of sense to me. Living on the road for years with my husband traveling and having to eat out in restaurants day after day, I quickly became tired of restaurant food. I’d rather prepare and eat a homemade meal any day than go to a restaurant to eat. Especially with the high cost of food these days (not to mention all the people starving around the world, who would give anything for one good meal) saving and the utilization of leftovers makes good economic sense. Here in America we have been richly blessed with an abundance of food that I’m afraid is too often taken for granted. Being raised by a Pennsylvania Dutch father in a poor family food was not something that was wasted. Frozen leftovers can quickly be heated up in the microwave for a later or used as a base to make a brand new meal. Some leftovers actually taste better the second time around giving the ingredients a chance to marinate and become more favorable. After spending hours in a kitchen cooking up a big meal, I always look forward to using leftovers the next few days giving me a chance for relaxation away from time cooking in the kitchen.

Our family tradition over the years has been that I always cook up a big turkey for Thanksgiving and then a large ham for Easter. I freeze the larger leftover slices of ham for another meal and then use the small pieces of meat for something like in my Veggie Ham Casserole. Since I usually make up a batch of cheese and macaroni with a big meal along with a couple kinds of vegetables making a Veggie Ham Casserole is a snap afterwards and uses up a couple different leftovers at the same time presented in a different manner. You can substitute the vegetables or use scalloped potatoes in place of cheese and macaroni, replace the yogurt with milk, bake the ingredients, and top with a bread or cracker crumb topping for a nifty casserole. No matter how you make up a Veggie Ham Casserole it will be a tasty, filling, colorful, quick, and nutritious meal. Preparation time for my Veggie Ham Casserole is ten to fifteen minutes and this recipe serves five.

Veggie Ham Casserole

3 c prepared cheese and macaroni
1 c cooked mixed vegetables drained
1 c chopped cooked ham
½ c plain yogurt
¼ c parmesan cheese

Mix the cheese and macaroni, vegetables, and ham with the yogurt in a microwavable dish. Sprinkle with cheese and microwave on high for five minutes or so until thoroughly heated through. Serve hot with a tossed salad!

Weekly tip: Crusty bread or cracker toppings can be made by crumbling the bread or crackers into small pieces, layering on top of the casserole, and then pouring a stick of melted margarine over them before baking. You can also substitute a stuffing mix for the bread!

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