Sugared Nuts

From Bessie Bridges

2 Tbsp. water
1 slightly beaten egg white
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. cloves

Mix well with nuts (usually pecans which grew in Mo Bootheel).  Turn flat side down on greased cookie sheet. Bake 1 hour at 250 degrees.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Brownie

Have cookie sheet greased before you start.

2 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
3/4 cup milk
1/4 lb. butter

Boil 2 2/1 minutes over low flame.

3/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 quart oatmeal (4 cups)

Mix fast & put in pan and cut immediately.


Nowadays we call these No-Bake cookies and drop on a sheetpan by the spoonful.

Grandma with Jill & Lora in 2004 (timestamp on photo is wrong).

Chicken Pie

Source: Ella Jane Allen ( the mother of Grandma's father, Sam)
Who likes it: Everybody

1 stewing hen
1 onion
1 rib celery
salt, pepper & sage to taste
approx 3 qts water

Cook above ingredients until tender. Remove chicken, onion, celery. De-bone chicken. Make a roux with butter and 1 cup flour. Add to rich broth. Gently stir in boned chicken. Pour into crust-lined large cake pan. Bake at 400 degrees until crust is brown.

Grandma Allen's crust recipe

4 cups flour
2 cups shortening
1 cup cold water
1 tsp. salt

Fruit Cobbler

I only recently learned that the cobbler that I grew up eating was really just rectangular pie, made with a rolled crust.  Actual cobbler has a soft dough crust more like this. 

P.S.  Melt the margarine.

Flour Tortillas

Grandma got this recipe from Maggie Acevedo in Oxnard, CA.

Aunt Lora's Zucchini Cake

2 cups grated zucchini
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour, regular
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
3 tsp. vanilla
1 cup ground pecans, optional

Beat eggs until fluffy, add sugar & vanilla, then oil.  Stir in zucchini.  Stir in flour & spices.  Beat until well mixed.
Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees.

P.S.  Use same recipe for zucchini bread only use 3 cups flour & 2/3 cup oil.

{The recipe was originally for zucchini bread and the changes were made by Grandma.  I held the paper up to light and the amounts changed match the post script.}

Chicken and Dumplings

For broth:
     Stew one whole chicken in a large pot of water.  Reserve bag of giblets for gravy.  (This assumes that you are making dumplings for a large holiday or family gathering and would need gravy. Anyway, save for another use.)  Season pot with salt and pepper and stew at a strong simmer until meat is falling off the bone.  Strain meat and bones out of broth and pick off meat.  Set aside.

For dumplings:
1 cup rich broth
1 egg
all purpose flour

     Add enough flour the the broth and egg to make a soft dough.  Take care not to work it any more than necessary to form dough (to avoid tough dumplings).  Roll out thin and cut into 3" x 1" strips.
     Bring broth to a rolling boil.. Gently drop in dumplings a few at a time to maintain a low boil.  Don't stir, but carefully  press dumplings down a few times to cook them evenly.  Keep checking dumplings until they are done.  This could be from 10-30 minutes depending on how tough your dumplings were to start with.  Add as much meat back in as you like.
    
Pictures are of Grandma giving Mark a dumpling-making lesson and then eating them with Valerie.  The date on the pictures is wrong because Val brought McKenna with them.

Mix the dough.

Roll it out thin.

Drop a few at a time.

Yum!