Do you love Chicken and Dumplings? We do! And, we have just the recipe for you if your answer is “yes.” It is Ethyl’s Chicken and Dumplings submitted by Earl King in First Presbyterian Church of Apopka’s Treasures and Pleasures. I will remove the vegetables for straining the ingredients in order to discard the skin and bones of the chicken, and I will put them right back in along with the chicken. I think they are not only good for you but beautiful on the plate! And, I will chill the broth and discard the fat that floats to the top.
Mrs. Smith’s Senator Russell’s sweet potato casserole looks heavenly. Our friends in Plains, Georgia, shared this recipe in their Plains Pot Pourri.
Brewster Bray’s Blackeyed Peas from First Presbyterian Church of Apopka’s Treasures and Pleasures are wonderful. This dish would also be improved with a pan of hot cornbread!
Sally Jaffe shares her Vermont Johnnycake, that she makes with corn meal and flour. As kitchen tales have it, this flatbread is known as hoecake in the South, although the hoecake recipe we have (see below) has no leavening; it is a true flatbread.
We have a hoecake recipe from Floy Bagwell for you that sounds quite simple. There is no leavening in this recipe. The history on hoecake is that folks working in the fields carried with them a little bag of cornmeal with some salt mixed in and a jar of water. When it came time for their mid-day meal, they mixed the cornmeal mixture with the water, formed a cake, and baked the hoecake over the fire on their pre-heated hoes. Maybe they did. We will go ahead and use our “modern-day” cast-iron skillet and pancake turner!
Paths of Sunshine has great recipes. Their recipe for Key Lime Pie looks very simple, and I, being a lover of key lime pie, just might try this recipe.
EARL KING’S ETHYL’S
CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS
Recipe from First Presbyterian Church of Punta Gorda,
A Taste of Heaven
1 chicken
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 quarts water
1 onion, quartered
1 medium carrot, cut in 1/2-inch slices
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
Put chicken, salt, and water in Dutch oven. Add onion, carrot, celery, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to boil; reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer gently until chicken is done. Meat will fall from bones in about 1-1/2 hours. Strain, removing veggies; reserve broth. Remove bones and skin from chicken. Cut meat into bite-size pieces. Set aside.
DUMPLINGS:
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg-size piece of Crisco
Self-rising flour
Mix egg, buttermilk, broth, salt and Crisco. Add flour to liquid mixture until dough is stiff and pulls away from side of bowl without sticking. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface or floured wax paper and knead. Pat to 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thick. Cut in strips 1 x 3 inches. Take a sample of dough and drop into boiling broth to check for firmness. If not firm enough, add a little more flour and knead dough, then recheck. (If you put cut dumplings on a floured cookie sheet, tops dusted with flour, you can stack dumplings so they can be added to the broth faster.) Add dumplings one at a time, keeping apart to avoid sticking together. Add chicken on top of dumplings, cover and turn off heat. Let set for about 20 minutes.
MRS. RITCHIE SMITH’S
SENATOR RUSSELL
SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE
Recipe from Food Favorites of Plains, Georgia
Plains Pot Pourri
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
Combine above ingredients and place in casserole dish.
Topping:
1/3 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup butter
1 cup chopped pecans
Combine flour, brown sugar, and butter. Cut butter in to make coarse mixture. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle mixture over sweet potato mixture for topping. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
BREWSTER BRAY’S
BLACKEYED PEAS
Recipe from First Presbyterian Church of Apopka,
Treasures and Pleasures
1 pound dried blackeyed peas
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
2 whole cloves
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1-1/2 cups ham, cubed
1 smoked pork ham hock (seasoning size)
4 tablespoons bacon drippings
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pick over beans. Wash and then soak overnight. Drain. Saute the onions and garlic in bacon grease until just tender. Place beans in pot and cover with water about 1/2 inch above level of peas. Add the onions, garlic, and the rest of the ingredients. Simmer about two hours or until beans are tender. Remove bay leaf and bones. Better if chilled overnight and reheated the next day. Serves eight.
SALLY JAFFE’S
VERMONT JOHNNYCAKE
Recipe from Apopka Citizen Police Alumni Association,
Sharing Our Finest Cookbook
2 cups sifted flour
4-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup corn meal
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1/2 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup melted shortening
Sift first three ingredients together. Add corn meal and mix thoroughly. Combine remaining ingredients, stirring only enough to dampen the flour. Pour into greased pan and bake in hot oven (400 degrees) for 30 minutes. Serves 8.
FLOY BAGWELL’S
OLD-FASHIONED HOECAKE
Recipe from Food Favorites of Plains, Georgia Plains Pot Pourri
Plain cornmeal
Water
Salt
Grease
Mix 1/2 to 3/4 cup plain cornmeal with enough water to make a soupy mixture. Add a dash of salt and mix well. Have a cast-iron skillet on top of stove, well greased and hot. Stir cornmeal mixture before pouring onto hot skillet. When bottom becomes brown, turn hoecake with a plate and cook other side. Make sure skillet is greased well again before cooking another hoecake. Always stir cornmeal mixture before pouring onto hot skillet.
Note: The recipe does say to “turn hoecake with a plate.”
KEY LIME PIE
Recipe from Florida Federation
of Garden Clubs
Paths of Sunshine Cookbook
2 (14 ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
4 whole eggs
1 cup key lime juice, fresh or frozen
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
2 graham cracker crust pie shells
Beat the first three ingredients together. Fold cold whipped cream into first mixture. Pour into the two pie shells. Chill for several hours or overnight. Yields two pies.
