Donna and Rick Hegwood

By Published On: September 3, 2014

“When Rick retired (in 2009) he started cooking,” said Donna Hegwood of Pittsboro, adding that prior to then he had only cooked a little, except for grilling.

As the oldest of six children, and mother of four, Donna has always done a lot of cooking. But now, using the internet to find recipes, Rick plans meals for each night of the week, and has put the recipes on the computer to make it easier for him.
Growing up in Biloxi, his family always had red beans and rice on Mondays, fish on Fridays, and hamburgers on Saturdays, so that’s how he started. In addition, Tuesday is Mexican: tacos or taco salad; Wednesday is soup–vegetable or gumbo, and Thursday is chicken.

For Friday fish, they like parmesan crusted tilapia or blackened redfish, and Sunday lunch might include beef tips, or hamburger hash served with cornbread, fried okra and purple hull peas.
Rick first made red beans and rice from a recipe he found on-line. Then he made adjustments to the recipe for their taste  and to try and get it as close to the taste of his mother’s as possible.

“He’s had some bad days, but he continues to try,” Donna said about his cooking, adding that her favorite dish that he makes is the redfish with sweet potato hash.
Steak is a favorite food of hers and their daughter, Kidron’s. Rick likes Donna’s pot roast with rice, gravy and potatoes, but she says, “put gravy on anything and he’s happy.” He says he likes all food except liver.
Gumbo is a family favorite and a dish that they have served every Christmas at lunch for the past 20 years. Hamburger hash, red beans and rice, and split chicken are also family favorites. And they also enjoy having a big seafood meal with boiled shrimp.

Donna makes hummus and serves it with pita bread or fresh vegetables, and Rick makes olive spread for muffaletta sandwiches. He also has been making focaccia bread, and they like that recipe. He has just started baking some, but has never been one to do much measuring, and says, “You have to know what you’re doing to bake.”
The Hegwoods have always gardened, and recently added artichokes and fava beans. They had to put a fence around their garden because the deer stripped some of the artichokes.

They like to cut the artichokes before they mature and fry or boil them, and also like to mix them with beets, red onion, tomato, and lemon vinagrette, which makes a “nice cold salad,” Rick said.
They have also started bay and tea trees, Goji berries, lemongrass and stevia, just trying to see what is hardy enough to grow here and hoping to add some things to the Farmer’s Market.

Hamburger Hash
1 lb. lean hamburger
1 medium onion
2 lbs. potatoes
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
Worcestershire sauce to taste
1 cup water
Brown hamburger;  add onions, diced potatoes, worcestershire, water, salt, pepper. Stir and cover. Cook until potatoes are tender and water absorbed.

Blackened Redfish w/sweet potato hash
1/2 lb. bacon
1 large onion
1 large sweet potato
1/2 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp. creole mustard
1 large shallot
5 cloves garlic
1 stick butter
1/4 cup blackening spice
2/3 cup white wine
1 Tbsp. capers
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup whipping cream
Hash: cube sweet potatoes into small dice. Place in ice water. Chop bacon and cook ‘til crisp. Remove bacon and drain. Dice onion and saute until caramelized on low heat 15 minutes. Leave onions in skillet and set aside. Put canola oil into sauce pot on high heat. Add potatoes, cook two minutes. Remove and drain. Reheat onion on medium heat. Add bacon and stir. Add sweet potato, and set aside on warmer.
Creole Mustard Burre Blanc: Mince shallots and garlic. Heat 1/4 stick butter in sauce pan. Add white wine and stir. Add capers, garlic and shallots, salt and pepper to taste. Stir in creole mustard and whipping cream. Set aside until fish is finished, then warm and stir in 1 Tbsp. butter.
Blackened Redfish: Batter side opposite skinside. Heat in skillet 1 Tbsp. canola oil. Sear filet. Ready when it gets 1/2” white rind. Flip over and deglaze with wine. Put into 350° oven five minutes. Heat hash. Place filet on hash. Smother with sauce. Garnish with lemon.

Red Beans & Rice
2 onions, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 Tbsp. rendered bacon fat
1 lb. dried red kidney beans
2 smoked ham hocks
3 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
3 green onions, chopped
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Tabasco
3 cups cooked white rice
Sweat onions, bell peppers and celery in bacon fat in heavy soup pot over medium-high heat. Once onions become translucent, add kidney beans, ham hocks, bay leaves and cayenne. Add water to cover by 2”. Increase heat and bring water to boil. Cover pot. Reduce heat to low and allow beans to slowly simmer two hours. Periodically stir beans to make sure they don’t scorch on bottom of pot, adding water if necessary. Always keep beans covered by inch or more of water. Continue cooking beans until they are creamy and beginning to fall apart when they’re stirred. Remove ham hock meat from bones, roughly chop it, and add it back to pot of beans. Stir in green onions and season with salt, black pepper and Tabasco. Serve with white rice.

Momma’s Sweet Potato Bread
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup sweet potatoes, mashed
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour, self-rising
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup raisins, optional
1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 300°. Stir together all ingredients (except raisins and nuts) until well blended. Then add raisins and nuts. Stir until well mixed. Spray two loaf pans with Pam. Divide batter evenly between two pans and bake about one hour at 300°.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
4 tilapia fillets (about 1 lb. total)
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Preheat oven to 400°. In shallow dish, combine cheese with paprika and parsley, and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle fish with olive oil and dredge in the cheese mixture. Place on foil-lined baking sheet and bake until fish is opaque in the thickest part, 10-12 minutes. Serve the fish with lemon wedges.

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