Alison Armstrong

Alison Armstrong of Bruce learned to cook from her grandmother, the late Estelle Edwards, and her mother, Jennifer Glass, and has been cooking since she was seven.

“Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, I would be right there in the kitchen with them. I wanted to taste everything, so I helped.”
She likes to look at Pinterest and food blogs for recipes, and also uses her grandmother’s cookbooks.

Alison loves to cook in the winter, especially chili and loaded potato soup. The basic chili she makes includes the chili Rotel, medium and original McCormick mix, chili powder, Ragu meat sauce, and Bush’s hot chili beans.
Her kids–Makaiya, 10, Amaiya, 8, and M.J., 2, like to mix Fritos with theirs and make chili pie.

She and husband, Melvin, like their food spicy, so sometimes she adds hot sauce to the chili. In addition to spicy, she likes her food well-seasoned, so she “puts Accent on everything.”
She got the Crack Burger recipe from a Plain Chicken Blog and says they are good, and moist.

The hummingbird cake “takes a lot of patience and time,” but they make it every Christmas, and Alison likes the?Swiss Chicken recipe.

She and her mother do the cooking for their holiday meals. For Thanksgiving they are planning to serve ham with brown sugar, pineapple and Sprite poured over it; turkey with one Creole and one butter injection, that has been stuffed with apples, bell peppers and onion; chicken and dressing, ribs, mustard or turnip greens cooked with the turkey neck and sugar, Mrs. Dash, Accent, salt and pepper; sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows, brown sugar and pecans; macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, lima beans, pecan pie and lemon pound cake.

Crack Burger
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
3 tsp. sour cream
2 tsp. Ranch dressing mix
1/2 cup cooked and crumbled bacon
1 cup shredded cheese
Combine all ingredients and form into four hamburger patties. Grill to desired temperature. (I use George Foreman grill.) Burgers will be very moist, so be very careful when you flip them!

Swiss Chicken
8 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
8 slices Swiss cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup milk
3 cups Stove Top chicken stuffing mix
1/4 cup of butter
1 tsp. kickin’ chicken seasoning
1 tsp. lemon pepper
1 tsp. Accent
1/2 tsp. seasoning salt
1/2 tsp. Tony’s seasoning
1/2 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
1/2 tsp. meat tenderizer

Preheat oven to 350°. Arrange chicken in greased 12x8x2 baking dish. Sprinkle all seasonings on both sides, then top with cheese.
Combine soup and milk, and stir well. Spoon mixture over chicken and sprinkle with stuffing mix. Drizzle butter over crumbs. Cover and bake at 350° for 50 minutes.

Hummingbird Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg (optional)
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1-8 oz. crushed pineapple with juice
2 cups mashed bananas (about 3/4)
1 cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease and flour 9” round cake pans. In large bowl, mix together dry ingredients. In separate bowl, whisk canola oil and eggs together.
Stir in pineapple, bananas, vanilla and one cup of pecans into egg and mix. Do not beat. Using wooden spoon/spatula, fold moist ingredients until combined. Don’t overmix. Pour batter into three prepared cake pans, taking care to divide evenly.
Bake on center racks of oven for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick or knife inserted in center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool while preparing frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 lb. cream cheese, softened
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 lbs. (32 oz.) confectioner’s sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup roughly chopped pecans

Cream softened butter and cream cheese in large bowl with electric mixer. With mixer on slow speed, add confectioner’s sugar in small amounts, then add vanilla and beat until frosting is light and fluffy.
Place on layer, top down, on a large plate/cake stand. Spread frosting evenly over first layer, then repeat. Then frost sides.
Sprinkle top completely with remaining cup of chopped pecans. Store cake in fridge, then remove one hour before serving.