Alison Nichols

By Published On: July 29, 2015

When Alison Nichols’ grandmother, Bobbie Blount, tries a new dish and likes it, she goes ahead and makes Alison a copy of the recipe. “My grandmother is the best cook on the planet, and she still cooks a lot–full meals,” she said. Not only does Alison get all of the new recipes, but she also has all of Mrs. Bobbie’s old cookbooks. And every Christmas, her grandmother gives her a new one.
The squash puffs, banana cake and millionaire pie are three of her favorites of her grandmother’s recipes. And she says she pretty much always uses her grandmother’s recipes when cooking since they have all been tried.  One thing Alison wants to learn is to make dressing like her grandmother.
She started cooking while in college by using whatever was there. “That’s how I learned to make casseroles.”
Husband Justin says she can grab anything and make something good out of it.

Alison Nichols

Alison Nichols

Her favorite food is anything pasta, but doesn’t cook much of it except spaghetti, which she says is the best thing she makes that her family likes. She usually takes it for church pot luck dinners or other gatherings. Their children, Bella, 11; Abby, 8, and Dawson, 6, only like the noodles, and to them, they add butter. They skip the sauce, to which Alison always adds a cup of sugar, “the key ingredient,” she says. “Mom (Linda Blount) always put it in her spaghetti and her chili.”

The kids do like her peach cobbler, “they tear it up,” she said, but she usually only makes desserts for holidays or church dinners.
Alison and Justin always cook a meal for their parents’ birthdays as their gift to them, and she loves to cook, but not clean up, but says she doesn’t do as much cooking during the summer.

The girls like to help her with any of the mixing in the kitchen. And they like to make chocolate chip or colored pancakes, Dawson-green; Abby-pink and Bella blue.
Alison says the one thing they fix, “all the time, for every family birthday party, holiday sports gathering, whatever… we always have crack dip!”
   Squash Puffs
2 cups cooked squash
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups meal
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 large onion chopped fine
Mix all together and drop a spoonful at a time into hot oil. Brown like hush puppies. Drain on paper towels.

Banana Nut Cake
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup shortening
3 eggs
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 large bananas
Pink of salt
1 cup pecans
1 1/2 cups flour
Bake at 350°.

Million Dollar Pie
1/3 cup crushed pineapple
1/3 cup pecans, chopped
1/3 cup chopped cherries
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 can Eagle Brand milk
Cool Whip
Mix, can put in graham crust and chill.

Crack Dip
1 package breakfast sausage, browned and drained
2 pkgs. cream cheese
1 can Rotel tomatoes
Mix all together and serve with a mixture of Tostitos and Scoops chips.

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