Dot Fleming

“If it’s a vegetable, I’m just about going to eat it,” said Dot Fleming of Vardaman. She really likes vegetables and trying different recipes for them, and she makes the green bean and the cabbage dishes quite a bit.

She and husband, Rocky, garden most every year–peas, butterbeans, corn, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, okra and squash. “We love fresh vegetables,” saying she grew up on peas and cornbread, and she freezes a lot tomatoes and vegetable soup.
Her favorite recipe searches are in cookbooks and magazines. But she also enjoys recipes from Taste of Home, Cake Mix Doctor and a Chocolate Cake Mix cookbook.
She uses the Cake Mix Doctor book a lot, and has started her own cookbook of their favorite family recipes.

Dot says she enjoys cooking, and granddaughter, Ella Grace, 4, loves to help her, so they do a lot of cookie baking together. Ella Grace wants everything pink, so Dot has to keep pink sprinkles and red food coloring on hand, so whatever they’re baking will be pink.?They have even made a pink pound cake.
Dot and sisters, Sarah Moore and Pam Moore used to get together more often than they do now to make candy for Christmas, but that is always a good time for them. She also likes anything with rice, and makes stir fry, fajitas, and says she and Rocky also grill a lot.

She started cooking out of high school and was pretty much self-taught. Growing up, she mostly helped with outside chores while her mother did the cooking.
She did watch her grandmother, the late Lula Carter cook, and she loves making “Ma” Carter’s chicken pie. The first time she made the pie it was a success, and she was so proud it turned out to taste like her grandmother’s.

For it, she boils chicken breasts, tears it off bone, and puts half the chicken in a pan. Make biscuit dough, put strips of dough over chicken adding black pepper and up to one stick of butter cut in pats; make another layer of chicken, and put a solid piece of dough over the top.
Poke holes in the dough and pour chicken broth over, also using black pepper and up to one stick of butter cut in pats. Bake on 400° until golden brown. Remove from oven, pour 2-3 cups whole milk over and bake 10 more minutes.

Ma Carter also made sour dough biscuits and egg custard that all the grandchildren liked, but were not favorites of Dot’s like the chicken pie.
Her all-time favorite dessert is the peach delight, so it, the chicken pie, and cornbread salad are three dishes she makes pretty often for church dinners.

Sweet &?Sour Green Beans
4 slices bacon, fried
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp. sugar
5 Tbsp. vinegar
1 onion, sliced
2 cans cut green beans, drained
Fry bacon and remove to paper towel. Add water, sugar, vinegar, onion, and green beans to skillet where bacon was fried. Cook approximately 15 minutes. Pour beans into serving dish, crumble bacon over top, and serve immediately.

Crunchy Sausage Casserole
1-6 oz. pkg. long grain and wild rice
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. pork sausage
1 large onion, chopped
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained
Crumble and cook beef and sausage with onion; drain. In another pan cook rice according to package directions. Mix all ingredients and let stand overnight in refrigerator. Bake in 2 qt. casserole dish at 350° for about 50 minutes. May sprinkle sliced almonds on top if desired.

Smothered Cabbage
1 medium cabbage, shredded
6-8 slices bacon
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 Tbsp. sugar
Salt to taste
1/4 cup water
In deep skillet, fry bacon until crisp. Remove from skillet leaving bacon drippings. Saute green onions in bacon drippings about five minutes. Add cabbage, salt, sugar and water. Cover and simmer on low heat (stirring often) until cabbage is tender. Crumble bacon and place on top of cabbage when ready to serve.

Apple Dumplings
2 large Granny Smith apples
2 cans crescent rolls
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks margarine
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla flavoring
16 oz. Mountain Dew
Peel apples; cut each apple into 8 pieces. Wrap a crescent roll around each apple piece. Place in a 9×13” baking dish. In small mixing bowl, mix sugar, margarine, cinnamon and vanilla flavoring. Melt  to gravy consistency and pour over wrapped apples, then pour Mountain Drew over top. Bake at 350° for 35-45 minutes, until golden brown. Serve while warm. Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.

Peach Delight
2 cans crescent rolls
1-8 oz. block cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
1 can peach pie filling
1 stick margarine, melted
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 Tbsp. milk
Spread one can of crescent rolls in 9×13” casserole dish. Mix together cream cheese and sugar. Spread on top of rolls. Spread pie filling on top of that. Layer second can of rolls on top of all. Drizzle melted margarine on top. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Combine powdered sugar and milk and drizzle on top while still warm.

Cornbread Salad
1 pan cooked cornbread
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 large ripe tomato, chopped
1/2 cup chopped or diced green bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion (purple will give more color)
1 can pinto beans, drained
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (reserve 1/4 cup)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup mayonnaise
Cook one skillet cornbread. Cool, then break into bite size pieces in large bowl. Add all other ingredients and mix well. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Place in refrigerator and chill until time to serve. Variation: May substitute two cups cooked, chopped ham for bacon.