This week we travel together to Conway, South Carolina. I’ve never even been to South Carolina! I honestly think I picked this cookbook up at an estate sale. Anywho, here’s a little bit of a history lesson.
The British began settling in what is now South Carolina in 1670. The timber industry quickly became a way of life for folks in Horry (O-Rry) county. I wonder how many times a day they have to correct out of towners on THAT pronunciation🤔.
Fire destroyed the town and it was rebuilt in the early 1900’s. Since then it has thrived and become a popular tourist stop with its close proximity to Myrtle Beach.
Today’s selection comes to you from Seasoned Love: Conway Christian Church. Wahoo! Southern Fried Apples😍 DELICIOUS!!! One thing… Sorry Linda Roundtree, there’s no way this will feed 12 people😆 And I added whipped cream…because who doesn’t like that?!
“Creative Cooking: Cookin’ Is A Lotta Fun” by The Outhouse Cooking Team
Don’t let the name of this cookbook fool you…they don’t actually cook in an outhouse…or maybe they did. I can’t actually find any info on the group other than the short paragraph in the front of the book.
Originating in 1988, The Outhouse Cooking Team started out cooking catfish. They then expanded and started doing fundraisers for fire houses, churches and other community events. I can only assume they’ve disbanded. I’m kinda sad about this news.
Just the county over, Dardanelle once was the heart of Arkansas River traffic between Fort Smith and Little Rock. Dardanelle is also home to Dardanelle Rock, an overlook used by Native Americans and Confederate soldiers.
Today, folks can visit Mt. Nebo State park, home of the switchbacks. I wouldn’t suggest making that drive on a full stomach🤢. And how could we look over the fact that Dardanelle is home of the Free State Of Yell Fest. They even have a YELLING contest!!! I feel like I know some folks that could win that competition🤔. Charles Portis even based his book, “True Grit” off of the Dardanelle area and it was later made into a movie.
This week I made Wagon Trail Beans. The only thing I’d add is to drain the northern and red beans. Seemed like it had too much liquid. Other than that, they were superb!! These were cooking in a crockpot, but I bet you could easily cook them campground style over an open fire. Yaaassssss!! Enjoy❤️❤️❤️
This year I decided to take my community cookbooks and put them to work. I love picking up community/church cookbooks from all over. We’ll go on vacation and I’m gathering spiral bound pieces of history. Fundraisers come around and I’ve gotta have some local flavor. There are so many recipes in these books that have been forgotten over the years.
So my goal for the year is to cook one recipe per week from a different community cookbook, share the recipe with you and take a photo of what it’s supposed to look like. I’ll also share the cookbook I took it from and a little about the community that put the cookbook together. Voila! Cooking Without Photos has been born! Here it goes!
Cooking Without Photos Week 1 I’m starting 2023 off with my home of Harmony, AR. These days Harmony is a sleepy community on Hwy 10 with not even one store (although Williams Junction should be opening back up this year).
At one time, Harmony had its own grist mill, saw mill, a cotton gin, school and post office. Several of the founding families are still keeping the community alive today. My family has been in the area for several generations, but some have lived there from the very beginning.
One of the first structures built in the area was a church. Harmony Baptist Church started out as a log cabin in 1872 and then rebuilt into the brick building that stands there today.
This week my recipe comes from, “Feeding The Flock: Harmony Baptist Church and Friends”. I’d never heard of “McDonald” biscuits before. Three ingredients and that’s it🤷🏻♀️ When I read the recipe, all I could think of was, this must be one of those recipes you make when you just don’t have a lot of anything. I gave ‘er a whirl.
Y’all, these are the fluffiest biscuits I’ve ever tasted! Not a biscuit you could easily put a piece of sausage on, because they are just puffs of cotton! For sure a biscuit you could pinch up for gravy.
Suggestion: I made them twice trying to make them better. Make sure you mix the sour cream and bisquick together before adding in the sprite. You’ll need less than 1/4 cup. Like literally a splash and you should be able to cut the biscuits out. I put too much both times so I spooned them out. 😆 practice! I’ll for sure make them again and I don’t even like bisquick.
Too much Sprite.
The recipe doesn’t say anything about spraying the pan. I tested one spot not sprayed and they stuck like crazy. Spray dat pan! Also not listed, they need to cook about 12-15 minutes.
Still too much Sprite, but we’re getting there!Whew! Much better and this was with about 3 tablespoons of Sprite.
This recipe totally takes me back to my high school days. The lunch ladies made these and I never knew the name of them until after I graduated. I just called them “peanut butter things”. They probably thought I was crazy, but gave me one anyway. Enjoy!
When I was growing up, there were 5 of us kids running around eating everything in sight. I know now that my mom did everything in her power to have a balanced yet quick and easy meal or snack.
This recipe combines snack and vegetables. Perfect!!
Ingredients
1 box Kraft Cheese and Macaroni- make according to package
1 can Veg-All
After making Mac and cheese, stir in veg-all. Add salt and pepper. Voila!
It’s summertime and with that comes gifts from the garden! One of my very favorite meals to have in the summer is Green Beans and New Potatoes. Nom, Nom, Nom…I’m drooling right now just typing this. It’s basically a one pot meal that takes very little time. Hooray! Who wants to cook in the blazing heat anyway? Not me! Here’s a simple recipe to tickle your taste buds. You’re Welcome:)
Green Beans and New Potatoes
Baby Red Potatoes (about 3 lbs)
Ham Pieces (about 2 lbs)
A “mess” of Green Beans (about 1 1/2 lb)
Medium onion (chopped)
Salt to taste
Combine all ingredients, except salt, into a large pot and cover with water. Boil for about an hour or until green beans and potatoes are fork tender. Before serving, test and see if salt is needed. Sometimes the ham is extremely salty so no additional salt is needed. Voila!
So, I’ve been under the fog that everyone knew what a Hobo Skillet was. Apparently, it was only a “thing” at my house growing up. Surely, there’s another name for this yummy goodness of a meal but a Hobo Skillet is what my family called it. I mean no disrespect to real hobos. They can call it a Trinity Skillet for all I care:) Wanna hear it? Here it go.
Hobo Skillet
Ingredients:
3 Tbs Oil
28 oz package Ore-Ida Potatoes O’Brien with peppers and onions
9.6 oz package Jimmy Dean precooked turkey sausage
7-9 eggs
Salt to taste
1. In a large skillet, heat oil on medium heat.
2. Add potatoes and cook until halfway done. (about 7 minutes)
3. Pour in sausage and stir.
4. Make wells for eggs
5. Crack eggs into said wells
6. Cover and reduce heat to somewhere between simmer and medium heat. I’m going to call it “smedium”.
7. Cook 12-15 or until eggs are done to your liking.
8. Add salt
P.S. This is a dumbed down version of what my Mom made. If you want a “non box” recipe, you’d substitute the Potatoes O’Brien package for about 6-8 small peeled and cubed red potatoes, one small onion, 1/4 green bell pepper and 1/4 red bell pepper. Then, substitute the precooked sausage with a package of breakfast sausage.
Anyone that knows me knows how much I love Taco Bell. You cut me and I bleed mild sauce. …not literally but you get the idea. What is my favorite thing at Taco Bell? Chicken Enchiritos. With my recent discovery of bottled Taco Bell Mild sauce, I decided to try and recreate the enchirito. Is this recipe exact? No. Do I know their secrets? Not really. Do I feel like Plankton, on Spongebob, trying to find out the secret formula? Completely. So, here it is. It’s pretty close but not exact. Another day, Mr Crabs! Another day…
Fake Chicken Enchiritos
Family size package of grilled chicken breast (pre cooked)
1 medium sized onion – diced
1 can refried beans
Large tortillas
Shredded cheese (2 cups)
Taco Bell mild sauce
In a large skillet, saute onion until tender and add chicken. The chicken has to basically warm up so do that until everything is sizzling. In a microwave safe bowl, heat the refried beans for 3 minutes.
Once everything is warm, place a tortilla on a microwave safe plate. Place a few pieces of chicken, some onions and 3 tablespoons of the refried beans on the tortilla and roll it up. Pour mild sauce over the top and add shredded cheese. Microwave for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Eat IT! Yummy:) Nom Nom Nom!
This recipe comes to you straight out of my childhood home. It was one of my favorite things that my mom used to make for us and one of the very first things I cooked on my own. My mom taught me to cut up a whole chicken when I was about 11. My parents had a house full, so I’m sure any help we could give was much appreciated. Little did I know that years later I’d be using the very same recipe and skills to cook for my own family. If you haven’t tried this before, I hope you enjoy it and if you’ve had it and it brings back some memories…then you’re welcome:)
1. Preheat oven to 350. Cut up your chicken. I didn’t attempt to show you how to do this because I tried to teach someone once and it didn’t really turn out so great… If you don’t know how, you could always buy one already cut up.
2. Crush the cornflakes. This is where my kiddos come in handy. You could always take out some aggression this way too:)
3. Crack your eggs (I use a pie plate) scramble them and add the milk. Whip the two ingredients together.
4. Put the crushed cornflakes into another pie plate.
5. Dip the chicken into the egg mixture and roll in the cornflakes. Place chicken into a 9 x 13 pan.
I’ve been perusing Pinterest lately and came across a few recipes for breakfast pizza. It got me thinking about the breakfast pizza in our cafeteria when I was in grade school. It probably isn’t served anymore…don’t get me started… Anyway, I found a few recipes and decided to give it a go. I gave it my own twist to pay homage to the cafeteria ladies of yore. And here we go!
Breakfast Pizza
Ingredients:
Crescent Rolls (2 tubes)
6-8 Pieces of bacon (cooked and crumbled)
1 C Cheddar shredded
6 Eggs
1 Can Country Gravy
1. Start by preheating the oven to 400°. Take the crescent rolls out and put them on a non stick jellyroll pan. Lay them close together and press the seams so they make one continuous piece of dough. You could probably use one can but we do like our bread so I used two. Also, I used a store brand and the quality wasn’t so great. I’d probably use the more expensive brand next time. It sounds like Pills-Berry. Anyway, bake the crust about 5-7 minutes,
2. Fry your bacon. I used really cheap bacon because I knew it was sliced thin. I wanted to crumble my bacon all over the top, so using the cheaper stuff was the way to go. Once you are done frying, create a shout out to your Mom and then crumble your bacon into tiny little bits.
3. When the crust comes out, spread the gravy over the top, leaving about an inch edge around the perimeter. Top with cheese, bacon and eggs. Bake for 12-14 minutes.
I ended up baking ours longer trying to get the middles done…because someone, who shall remain nameless, in our house doesn’t like runny middles! What?! I know… Next time I think I’ll scramble the eggs and see how that turns out. I hope the lunch ladies would be proud:)
And there you have it! Ta Da! *Twirls and throws glitter*
The Plot Twisted 