Mama's Cornbread

2 cups of yellow corn meal
1 cup of self rising flour
1 cup of milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons shortening

Mix cornmeal, flour, egg and milk. Heat shortening in iron skillet until melted. Pour into batter and beat until well mixed. Light sprinkle dry cornmeal into hot skillet and then pour batter into skillet. Bake at 350 degrees until knife comes out clean.

Mama's Butter Cake

2 cups self rising flour
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup milk

Cream the butter and blend in the white sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk. Stir until just blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees about 50 to 55 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.

Mama's Homemade Chocolate Frosting

2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, sift together the sugar and cocoa, and set aside.  In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with milk. Add vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.

Mama's Divinity

2 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup whole pecans

Cook sugar, corn syrup, and water in a pot over low heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is completely dissolved. (On humid days, use 1 tablespoon less water.) Cook, without stirring until it reaches the hard ball stage, (Or until it registers 260 degrees on candy thermometer).
Beat egg whites in a metal bowl until stiff peaks form. Continue to beat while pouring hot syrup in a thin stream into egg whites. Add vanilla; beat until mixture holds its shape and becomes slightly dull. (Mixture may become too stiff for electric mixer especially in high humidity). Fold in chopped nuts.
Drop from buttered spoon onto waxed paper. Press one whole pecan onto the top of each spoonful. Let stand at room temperature until outside of candy is firm. Usually takes at least 12 hours to set up.

Mama's Biscuits

2 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup self rising flour (for shaping)
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup milk

Put flour in mixing bowl, create a hollow in flour add shortening. Mix flour, shortening and milk into thick dough with your hands. Pinch off palm full of dough and coat dough ball with flour and shape into biscuits. Place in greased pan and bake at 400 degrees about 20 minutes or until done.

Mama's Dressing

2 pans of Mama's Cornbread
1 small pan of Mama's biscuits (half the recipe)
2 large bell peppers chopped fine
1 bunch celery chopped fine
2 bunches of green onions chopped fine
2 large white onions chopped fine
3 boiled eggs chopped
turkey or chicken broth
1/2 ounce container of poultry seasoning
salt to taste
pepper to taste


Crumble cornbread and biscuits into roasting pan while still hot. Mix in chopped vegetables, eggs, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix in enough broth to make everything completely wet but not liquidy. Bake at 350 degrees until top is golden brown.

Hershey Kiss Pull Apart Bread

Ingredients:

Canned biscuits
Hershey kisses
cinnamon
sugar
butter

Freeze the kisses. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together. Coat your hands lightly with butter. Wrap the kiss into 1/2 of a biscuit and roll into a ball. Coat the ball with the cinnamon and sugar. Place in pan as tightly as you can. Make sure each roll touches the next so that they bake together on the edges.

Bake at 375 til the biscuits are done.

Turn out onto a plate or platter so that the bottom of the bread is facing up. The butter, cinnamon and sugar make a nice glaze that oozes down onto everything.

When its done you just pull off one (or as many as ya want) of the rolls and enjoy. Best eaten while the kisses are still good and warm.

Million Dollar Pie

We went to a cook out with some friends we met online and we brought this pie with. It was a huge hit.
We make it every holiday and it is always the first thing finished.

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can crush pineapple - drained well
juice from 1 lemon
7 oz bag of shredded coconut
2 graham cracker pie crust
1 cup of chopped pecans
16 oz cool whip

In a large mixing bowl, mix sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice, mix completely. Add pineapple, coconut, pecans and mix well. Fold in cool whip. Fill pie shells and refrigerate for 2-4 hours or until set.

Ginger Pork Chops

My daughter loves to get into the kitchen and experiment. Especially if I get her a new ingredient. One shopping trip I was able to get fresh ginger at a really good price and this was her first attempt to incorporate ginger into her cooking. It was awesome!

1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic
2 tbs fresh grated ginger
½ C vinegar
½ C oil
4 large pork chops

Marinade pork chops in vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and ginger for 2 hours. Sear pork chops on top of stove then place in oven until pork chops are done.

Swiss Bechemel Sauce

This is a great sauce that can be modified for many things. The swiss cheese can be substituted for almost any kind of cheese to create a ton of different sauces. One of the variations we use alot is substituting the swiss for cheddar and changing the parmesan out with garlic powder.


8 oz shredded swiss cheese
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
2 Cups milk
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons butter
salt to taste
pepper to taste


In a saucepan melt butter, add cornstarch and mix well before adding the milk. Add milk slowly. (This process is the same as making most any type of gravy.) Stir  until sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat and add shredded swiss, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

Chicken Asparagus Rolls

This recipe can be made for as few as 2 or as many as you need. Its easy and tastes great. My daughter came up with this a few years ago as a way to keep chicken breasts from being so dry.

Chicken Breasts
4 Asparagus spears per breast
salt
pepper
butter

If using fresh asparagus boil or steam spears until almost done, if using canned skip to next step. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Split breast in half the pound chicken until 1/4 inch thick. Put 2 asparagus spears on 1/3 of chicken then roll up. Put toothpick in to hold it closed. Butter baking pan and place chicken rolls in pan. Bake at 350 degrees until chicken is done. Top with swiss bechamel sauce.

Devin's Cheesy Noodles

My 11 year old son, Devin, came up with this and it was absolutely deliscious!


1 pkg egg noodles
1 C mozzarella cheese
1C Velveeta cheese
1 pkg vegetables Normandy (broccoli, cauliflower and carrots)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
garlic to taste
1 can mushrooms
4 tbs oil
4 pork cutlets

Cube pork cutlets and season with salt, pepper and garlic. Fry in oil until golden brown. Boil noodles until done. Mix noodles, meat, cheeses, and mushrooms together.

Oven Stir Fry

1 lb beef stew meat
½ C Worcestershire sauce
½ C soy sauce
1 t minced garlic
1/4 C olive oil
1/4 C Teriyaki sauce
1/4 C Balsamic Vinegar
4 large carrots
1 medium red bell pepper
1 medium yellow bell pepper
1 medium green bell pepper
4 medium potatoes
2 large onions quartered

Mix everything except veggies & marinate for 2 hours. Cut potatoes and carrots into 1 inch pieces. Coat veggies with oil & mix with marinade. Pour onto baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 20-30 mins.

Ham & Broccoli Casserole

2 Cups chopped ham
1 pkg frozen broccoli
1 pkg macaroni noodles
1/4 block Velveeta cheese
1 onion diced
1 t salt
1 t pepper
1 t garlic

Saute onion. Fry ham. Boil macaroni and broccoli. Cube Velveeta. Mix everything together with seasonings. Put in casserole dish. Place in oven at 350 until cheese is browned.

Vegetables Normandy with Swiss Bechemel Sauce

2 Cups broccoli flowerettes
2 Cups cauliflower flowerettes
2 Cups carrots sliced
8 oz shredded swiss cheese
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
2 Cups milk
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons butter
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Boil or steam vegetables to preferred tenderness. In a saucepan melt butter, add cornstarch and mix well before adding the milk. Add milk slowly. (This process is the same as making most any type of gravy.) Stir  until sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat and add shredded swiss, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.  Mix vegetables with sauce until all are covered well.

This is another of our family's holiday favorites.

Cheesy Bacon Cabbage

This is one of our favorites. Its made it onto our holiday menu for many years now.


1 large head of cabbage
1 lb bacon
2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt to taste
pepper to taste


Fry bacon and set aside. Save the drippings in the skillet. Chop cabbage into roughly 1 inch pieces. Fry the cabbage in the bacon drippings until desired doneness. Once removed from the pan salt and pepper to taste and toss cabbage to mix salt and pepper. Do not salt and pepper before cabbage is removed from the pan. This will cause moisture to be drawn from the cabbage and it wont fry well.

Sprinkle the shredded cheddar on top of the cabbage. Crumble bacon and sprinkle on top of the cheese. Serve while hot.