We have a “Family Favorite” from 2009 edition of Southern Living’s All-Time Favorites. It is called Cornflake-Coated Pork Chops.
Evalene Whiddon shares her Baked Spaghetti in New Vision’s Feeding the Flock. It calls for a pound of ground beef, canned vegetables and soup, cheddar and parmesan cheese, fresh onion and peppers, and spaghetti.
And for all you okra lovers, Okra Creole is from Southern Living All-Time Favorites. Fry up some bacon, drain it, crumble it all up and set it aside. You use frozen okra for this recipe and combine canned diced tomatoes, corn, onions, and seasonings and cook it in the bacon drippings and a little water for 15 minutes or so. Serve this lovely stuff over rice and top it with crumbled bacon.
We have a recipe from reader Sally Benton for Pimento Cheese Spread. She said, “We are absolutely hooked on it over here in the Melbourne area.” Well, that’s a good enough recommendation for me to try it!
Mrs. Meggett says, “I learned how to make this pineapple dish at the Dodge House. But I made it my own by creating my own brown sugar crust, the real star of this dessert. Pineapple upside-down cakes can be found throughout the American South, but my cake is one of the lightest and perfectly sweet versions in South Carolina. If time is short, you can use a yellow cake mix instead of the cake batter.”
We have Mrs. Meggett’s, Whipped Cream instructions here, for you if you’d like to use it when serving. It is a wonderful all-around complement to many of your desserts.
CORNFLAKE-COATED
PORK CHOPS
Recipe from
Southern Living All-Time Favorites
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons milk
5 cups cornflake cereal, crushed (about 2 cups crushed)
6 boneless pork chops (about
3/4-inch thick)
2 teaspoons lemon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 large lemon, halved
Garnish: halved lemon slices
Stir together eggs and milk in a shallow dish. Place cornflake crumbs in a shallow dish. Sprinkle pork evenly with lemon pepper, salt, and garlic powder. Dip pork chops in egg mixture, and dredge in cornflake crumbs. Place chops on a lightly greased rack on a baking sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until done. Squeeze lemon juice evenly over chops, and garnish, if desired. Makes 6 servings.
EVALENE WHIDDON’S
BAKED SPAGHETTI
Recipe from
New Vision Community Church’s,
Feeding the Flock cookbook
1 cup green peppers, chopped
1 cup onion, chopped
1 tablespoon margarine
1 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes with liquid
1 4-ounce can mushrooms, stems and pieces cut up and drained
1 2-1/4 ounce can ripe olives, drained and sliced
2 taspoons dried oregano
1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
12 ounces spaghetti, cooked and drained
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded
cheddar cheese
1 10-3/4 ounce can cream of
mushroom soup, undiluted
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
In large skillet, sauté onion and pepper in margarine until tender. Add tomatoes, mushrooms, olives and oregano. Add ground beef; simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Place half of spaghetti in a greased large (9 x 13 x 2-inch) baking pan; top with half the vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with 1 cup cheddar cheese. Repeat layers. Mix soup and water until smooth; pour over casserole. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
OKRA CREOLE
Recipe from Southern Living
All-Time Favorites
3 bacon slices
1 (16-ounce) package frozen sliced okra
1 (14-1/2 ounce) can diced
tomatoes
1 cup frozen onion seasoning blend
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon Creole seasoning
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Hot cooked rice (optional)
Cook bacon in a Dutch oven until crisp; remove bacon, and drain on paper towels, reserving drippings. Crumble bacon, and set aside.
Cook okra and next 6 ingredients in hot drippings in Dutch oven over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Top with crumbled bacon. Serve over rice, if desired.
Makes 4 servings.
SALLY BENTON’S
PIMENTO CHEESE SPREAD
Recipe from Reader of The Apopka Chief and The Planter newspapers
16-ounce block sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 4-ounce jars diced pimentos, drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 ounces cream cheese
1) Drain juice from both jars of diced pimentos into a measuring cup. It will measure one half-cup. To simplify measuring the mayonnaise, add it to the measuring cup until it fills up to one full cup. 2) Pour mixture into a larger bowl. 3) Add three ounces room-temperature cream cheese to the mixture. Whip it up with a stick blender or hand mixer. 4) Add one jar of the drained pimentos and whip it in. 5) Gently fold in the grated block of cheese along with the other jar of diced pimentos.
It is a pretty wet mixture at first, but if you put the bowl in the refrigerator, the cheese will soak up the liquid after a few hours. It becomes a nicely spreadable concoction.
EMILY MEGGETT’S
PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE
Recipe from Gullah Geechee Home Cooking by Emily Meggett
For the crust:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 20-ounce can pineapple slices
1/2 10-ounce jar maraschino
cherries, drained
For the cake batter:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted
butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2-1/2 cups cake flour,
preferably Swans Down
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk, whole or 2-percent
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1) Preheat the oven to 350 deg Fahrenheit. 2) Make the crust: In a medium mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar and butter. Using a spoon, press the mixture into the bottom of a 10-inch round cake pan, ensuring that the bottom is fully covered. 3) Open the pineapple can. Drain the pineapple juice from pineapples, saving the pineapple juice. Place the pineapple rings on the brown sugar mixture in an arrangement of your liking. Place a cherry in the center of each pineapple ring. 4) Make the cake batter: In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat all the ingredients and 1/3-cup of the reserved pineapple juice together. Once combined, pour the mixture over the pineapple. 5) Bake the cake for 45 minutes, or until done – an inserted toothpick should be clean when removed. 6) Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely.
Once cooled, turn the cake upside down onto a cake plate. You will get to see your pineapple and cherries on the top. Slice and serve with whipped cream, if you’d like.
For serving:
See recipe for Sweetened Whipped Cream (below).
EMILY MEGGETT’S
SWEETENED WHIPPED CREAM
Recipe from Gullah Geechee Home Cooking by Emily Meggett
1 pint whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, beat the cream until peaks begin to form. While mixing, add the sugar. Continue to mix until stiff peaks form, 3 to 4 minutes total. Add a spoonful of this topping to each piece of pie before serving.
