Bobbie Blount

Bobbie Blount, 85, of Pittsboro writes her favorite recipes down in two notebooks, making them easier for her to find.
Among those recipes are her grandmother’s (Lela Lovelace) gingerbread dated 1945, and her mother’s (Mattie Bray) coffee cake, but she says she hasn’t made either of them in a while.
“I can’t remember when I didn’t cook,” said Mrs. Bobbie, who learned from her mother, who was a good cook. But she also got a lot from her grandmother when she stayed with her in the summer, who would let her do things her mother wouldn’t.

She has a “wonderful” buttermilk pound cake recipe she got years ago from Calhoun Home Agent Nola Morgan. It is a recipe that she has used a lot. “Everybody is crazy about the pound cake.”
Mrs. Bobbie knew Nola from the dry cleaners in Calhoun City and got a lot of recipes from her, saying they shared recipes for over 40 years.

Mrs. Bobbie always makes the dressing and potato salad for the family Thanksgiving and Christmas, and said she might make cornbread cake, a new recipe of hers. She says it’s an easy recipe and everybody that tries it has liked it so far.

In her dressing she uses celery, boiled eggs, hen, and sage, but only a little. “I skimp on the sage. I don’t like my dressing ‘sagey,’ ” she said. She wrote down her dressing recipe to share with the family this year at Thanksgiving.
For Christmas, she will make the dressing and potato salad, too, but “will wait and see what dessert they want this year,” she said.

She has her holiday meals with her son, A.D. and Linda Blount, and granddaughter Alison and Justin Nichols and their children, at their cabin.
Granddaughter Alison usually bakes a dump cake for their Thanksgiving dessert. Mrs. Bobbie shares a lot of recipes with Alison, who she says is a good cook.

The meatloaf recipe is one she got from a magazine that she describes as “tasty and pretty” that has used quite a bit. She likes it the best of the meatloaf recipes she has tried.
She loves sweet potatoes and cooks them a lot especially pie or casserole. She adds pecans, marshmallows and raisins to the casserole and  “they say I add to and make it like I want to, and that makes it different.”
Mother’s Coffee Cake
(Mattie Bray)
2 sticks oleo
2 eggs
2 cups cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sour cream
Cream oleo and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well. Add flour, salt and baking powder to cream mixture alternately with sour cream. Add vanilla. Pour half of mixture into greased and floured tube pan. Mix half cup pecans, 2 tsp. sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Sprinkle on top of batter. Add remaining batter and bake at 350°.

Mrs. Bobbie’s notebooks

Cornbread Cake
4 large eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups sifted self-rising flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts
Mix white and brown sugar in mixer bowl. Add canola oil and mix. Add eggs. Beat in flour. Stir in vanilla and nuts. Pour into greased and floured long pan and bake at 350° around 30-40 minutes.

Buttermilk Pound Cake
    (Nola Morgan)
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups Crisco
5 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
3 1/2 cups cake or plain flour
1/4 tsp. soda
2 tsp. flavoring
Cream sugar and Crisco. In separate bowl beat all five eggs until thick. Add eggs to shortening and sugar. Put soda in bottom of cup. Add buttermilk. Add this and cake flour to egg mixture a little at a time beating after each. Put in tube pan. Hold pan a little above cabinet top and drop a few times to eliminate bubbles. Put in cold oven at 300° for one hour and 15 minutes. Do not open the door!

Ma Lovelace’s Gingerbread
(Lela Lovelace 1945)
1 cup molasses
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup buttermilk
3 cups flour (cake or plain)
3 eggs (separated)  and beat whites
1 1/2 tsp. soda
1 Tbsp. ginger
1 tsp. each–nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, cloves
Mix shortening, sugar, molasses and egg yolks. Add soda, then flour and buttermilk alternately. Add spices. Fold in beaten egg whites last. Pour in 9×13 cake pan and bake at 350°.

Meatloaf
1/2 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 cups Rice Krispies
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 small green or red sweet pepper, chopped
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 lbs. ground beef
Preheat oven to 350°. In small bowl mix chili sauce and ketchup. In large bowl combine Rice Krispies, onion, green pepper, cheese, egg, salt and pepper. Stir in half of the chili sauce mixture. Add beef mix. Transfer beef mixture to  ungreased 9×5” loaf pan. Make a shallow indention down center of loaf. Spread remaining chili sauce mixture over meatloaf, being sure to fill indention. Bake 60-70 minutes or until done.