Jackie Boland

“If my sister lived closer to me than Louisiana, we would do catering together!” said Jackie Boland of Calhoun City, who has “always cooked all the time.”
She worked at the Calhoun City School cafeteria for 28 years. “It was a good crew to work with. It was a good, fun time,” she said of her work there.
Once when blueberries were sent to them in bulk and she wasn’t sure what to do with them, she put them in a cake mix and it turned the cake blue. So she just dusted it with powdered sugar and the students loved the “Smurf Cake.”

When Calhoun City had its Centennial celebration, Jackie made three big sheet cakes and decorated them using the artwork students created for the event. They were served the night of the celebration on the square.
She “tries out new stuff out” at the library and bank in Calhoun City,  because “they’ll eat anything!” she said. She also takes things to J.R. Denton at Chandler’s, and he often pulls recipes to give her to make, and “some I do, and some I don’t.”
She uses a lot of new recipes and is about to try one for a fresh apple cake, she said. “Always measure,” is what she remembers from home ec teacher Rose Chandler.

Jackie follows a recipe to the letter the first time, but after that “there’s no telling what I might do to it!” She says she is a plain cook, nothing fancy, and added “I’m a ‘dab’ cook.”
She has cookbooks from everywhere, and one she specifically mentioned was from a fundraiser in Grenada for a class to go to the Macy’s parade. She likes to watch Pioneer Woman and look at her recipes online.

An all-time favorite of their family is her mother’s favorite brownie recipe. “Cook them raw,” her son Rob used to tell her because he wanted them “gooey and chewy in the middle,” she said. Her mother, Pearl Eakin, made him a pan of brownies every week to take back to college.
She makes Lillian Young’s chicken pot pie pretty often and says you can add mixed vegetables if you want to. The blueberry banana bread is really good, too, she said.

The Bolands are not big sweet eaters, but she says if something is bothering herd, she just goes in the house and bakes a cake. They always have a garden and they like to share with their neighbors. “When I make booboos, like if a cake falls, my neighbors love it!”
Yeast rolls and cinnamon rolls are two things she sometimes makes to take to others and she uses Karlene Robertson’s yeast roll recipe in making both.
Her mother made wonderful Divinity, but Jackie won’t try it, and she said she hasn’t quite mastered fried pies yet. “Lots of foods” are her favorites, but she did name fried chicken as one.
Melt in your Mouth Chicken Pie
(Lillian Young)
1 whole chicken
2 cups chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 stick oleo, melted
1 cup self-rising flour
Black pepper to taste
4 boiled eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
Cook chicken. Reserve two cups broth. Remove chicken from bone, and cut in small pieces. Place in 9×12” pan. Place boiled eggs on top of chicken. In saucepan, mix broth and cream of chicken soup. Bring to a boil, then pour over chicken. In bowl, mix oleo, pepper, flour and buttermilk to form batter. Spoon over casserole. Bake at 425° for 30-35 minutes. Do not use salt!

Brownies
(Pearl Eakin)
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
4 eggs
2 scant cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup chopped nuts
1 tsp. vanilla
Melt butter, mix with sugar. Sift flour and cocoa together. Add alternately with eggs to above mixture. Beat well after each addition. Add nuts and vanilla and bake in large pan or cookie sheet in 350° oven until firm. Let cool and cut in squares.

Fresh Blackberry Pie
(Pearl Eakin)
1 pint blackberries
1 cup sugar
5 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup water
2 pie crusts
Dredge berries in flour. Spread them in bottom crust. Sprinkle one cup sugar over them. Put butter next and then water. Place top crust on and bake at 325° until crust is brown.

5-Flavoring Pound Cake
(Mary Helen Roy)
4 cups plain flour, sifted and measured
1 cup margarine
1 cup shortening
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. rum
1 tsp. coconut
1 tsp. orange flavoring
1/2 tsp. lemon flavoring
1/2 tsp. almond flavoring
3/4 cup milk
Cream margarine, shortening and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add flavoring. Mix well. Add flour, alternating with milk, mixing slowly. Pour into greased 10” tube pan. Bake at 325° for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300° and bake one hour and 30 minutes.

Blueberry Banana Bread
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 medium ripe bananas
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Combine dry ingredients. In large mixing bowl, cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs and mix well. Beat in bananas and vanilla. Gradually add dry ingredients mixing just until combined. Fold in blueberries. Pour in three mini loaf pans or one large loaf pan. Bake at 350° until done when tested with toothpick.