Donna Bennett
Donna Faison Bennett first tried her hand at making fried pies about five years ago and has been making them ever since. Her mother, Thelma Hallman, was her guinea pig.
The “Pie Lady” makes peach, apple, pecan, strawberry, lemon, chocolate, coconut, cherry and blueberry pies–any kind of canned fruit, but gets more requests for peach, apple and pecan.
Her great grandmother, Nettie Kimbrell, always made fried pies, and that’s where Donna says she gets her passion for cooking, but she uses a pie recipe of the late Tula Reid Vance.
Nettie always made dried apple or peach pies, and squirrel dumplings. “She and Elsie Simpson cooked for Ellard School,” she said. “And people came to Concord singing for Nettie’s chicken and peas,” said Donna’s husband, Larry.
“If you’re a Kimbrell you’ve gotta cook,” she said, adding that she also was influenced by her grandmother Ruby Thomas and her Aunt Bill (Bera Miller.)
Taco Salad is a favorite of her family, and meatloaf made with Manwich. She doesn’t use a lot of lettuce in the taco salad and they like it served with Scoops chips. Her children–Michelle, Dawn and Dewayne, and all the grands, eat chicken and dumplings, adding that lots of people want cornbread with theirs.
“Dawn and Dewayne will devour the tuna casserole, and Michelle won’t touch it. The two of them can eat a cake pan full of it.”
As for the seasonings for the casserole, she said, “I just doctor it up.” About the crunch recipe, Larry’s favorite is strawberry and hers is blueberry.
She cooked a lot of Hamburger Helper when her kids were growing up but she likes to cook “old time stuff” now –fried taters with onions, peas, butterbeans–fresh vegetables. Seafood is her favorite food and she enjoys cooking it, too.
For Christmas, she has made as many as four chocolate pies for the family gathering, but by request, all of them won’t have meringue.
Donna looks at recipes some on Facebook and almost always automatically makes changes.
“I don’t usually measure–it’s just a dash of this and a dash of that,” she said, because that’s the way she learned from her grandmother.
Tuna Casserole
Cook bag of egg noodles (sometimes uses No Yolks). Cook and add some butter. For the sauce: 3 heaping Tbsp. self-rising flour and two cups water, heat until thickening. Add juice from can of LeSueur English peas, some butter and “a lot of Velveeta” cut into chunks. Let it melt. Add evaporated milk, but the sauce needs to be thick. Drain two cans of tuna, and mix together with the sauce, drained noodles, peas, some salt and pepper, seasoning salt, and Mrs. Dash. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Optional: Include sauteed onions.
Chicken & Dumplings
2 1/2-3 cups Pioneer biscuit mix
A little Crisco
Enough milk to make consistency of biscuit dough
Roll out thin on self-rising flour and cut into strips. In a Dutch oven, bring strained broth from boiled chicken to a rolling boil and drop in dough. Do not stir. Take spatula and push them down, lowering heat if necessary. Simmer on low. Add butter as desired, salt and pepper, evaporated milk and chicken. Still do not stir. (Dumplings will be big and fluffy if you don’t stir.)
Layered Taco Salad
2 lbs. ground chuck, browned well, not drained
2 pkgs. taco seasoning (McCormick or Mrs. Dash)
Add the mix and a little water to the meat. Simmer. Drain well, smashing with a spatula. Line pan with meat. Mix large sour cream, Mrs. Dash, seasoning salt, lemon pepper, garlic salt or powder and if desired, smashed ripe avocado. Spread mixture over cooled meat. Pour jar of salsa of choice and spread. Add some torn lettuce pieces and fresh chopped tomatoes. Top with freshly grated cheese. (Among the layers refried beans, green or black olives may be added.) Refrigerate and serve with Scoops chips or any of your choice.
Blueberry Crunch
Graham cracker crust or shortbread crust
(Mix graham cracker crumbs with a little sugar and melted butter OR mix cup of flour, softened butter, then add pecans if you want. Bake in cake pan until browned. Let cool.)
2 blocks Philadelphia cream cheese
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 Tbsp. softened butter
Mix and spread on crust with wet spatula if necessary. Take a can of blueberry (or any fruit filling) OR chocolate pudding (prepared a little thicker) and add to cream cheese. Top with Cool Whip. Crushed pecan topping is optional. Refrigerate and cut into squares.
Peanut Butter Cookies
One cup sugar
One cup peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
One egg
1 Tbsp. butter, softened
Mix all ingredients. Drop on parchment paper. Bake on 350° until lightly brown, about 12 minutes.
Manwich Meatloaf
Hamburger meat
Onion
Some mustard
A little flour
Salt and pepper
1 or 2 eggs
1/2 can Manwich
Mix all ingredients together. Form loaf and pour remaining Manwich on top. Bake at 350° until done. (I sometimes have to pour grease off and finish baking.)
