Laura Edwards and Shirley Bratton
Laura Bratton Edwards and her mother Shirley Bratton of Calhoun City say their family “looks for reasons to eat,” and “it’s always potluck.” They have family get-togethers for everybody’s birthdays, and “we give ‘not nice’” birthday cards.”
Looking back, they got together every month last year except February, May and July for a meal. At all their family gatherings, they start with peas, butterbeans, cornbread, sweet tea, green beans and potatoes and build the menu from there.
If it’s a birthday, they add the family member or members’ favorites, which for Laura might be pecan pie, sister Leigh chess squares, and brother, Scott, anything but cabbage. If potato salad is on the menu, Shirley makes two bowls –?“one with only the yellows of the eggs” for Laura and niece Alison Childs, and one with “the yellows and whites” for everybody else. Shirley does a lot of “typical country” cooking, which remains Larry’s favorite, maybe with potatoes, and a crockpot of deer steak,” said Shirley.
“All the kids (Laura, Leigh and Scott) are good cooks. They had no choice – they had to learn as I did?(from her mother, Mary Jessie Boland),” said Shirley.
Laura’s husband and son, Mike and Mitchell, and Leigh’s husband and son, Shane and Eric, are the family’s grillers. “Everybody cooks but Larry,” they said.
The family eats a lot of duck and deer, and they usually use salt or vinegar water to soak the duck.
Laura says she “grew up eating duck dressing, because Daddy hunted duck. It was a staple in the winter time,” she said, and “we always have it on Christmas eve,” said Shirley.
They always have turkey for Thanksgiving, and their Christmas staple for the past 35-40 years has been Cornish hens. Shirley rubs them with oil, then rubs them down with Jane’s Do-All seasoning mix, and puts salt and pepper in the cavity.
She says cook them in an electric skillet and/or oven at 350° an hour or until the juice runs clear. She prepared 18 this year and laughed, “the kids will learn how to make them next year.”
Shirley has also been making Christmas candy for over 15 years–red velvet cake balls, oreo truffle, coconut macaroons, Butterfinger bites, chocolate and strawberry meringues, chess squares, pecan bark, oreo fudge and toasted pecans.
Laura enjoys making her own spaghetti sauce and vegetable soup, chicken stir fry with vegetables, and chocolate chip pound cake. She began cooking, and learned to can at a young age, from her mom and Mimi Boland. Laura and Leigh can make biscuits like Ma (the late Joyce) Bratton, but Shirley cannot. She said her first ones looked so good, but you couldn’t bite them. Larry threw them out in the yard and the dog buried them. She cried and said it broke her heart, and she hasn’t tried again. Laura’s biscuit tip is White Lily flour, and they like Blackburn syrup. The final tip they offered was, “iron skillets are staples for our cooking.”
Sweet Potato Cream Cheese Pie
(Shirley Bratton)
1-8 oz. cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar or Splenda
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 unbaked deep dish pie crust
1 1/2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
1 1/2 cups sugar or Splenda
1 stick margarine
1 Tbsp. flour
2 eggs
3 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth (measurements listed above pie crust), then spread on bottom of pie crust. Mix sweet potatoes, sugar and margarine until well blended. Add flour and rest of ingredients and mix well. Pour over cream mixture. Bake approximately one hour at 350° on a cookie sheet.
Baked Deer Steak
(Laura Bratton Edwards)
Deer steak (amount sufficient for crowd), thoroughly washed, soaked and tenderized
1 large onion
1 stick butter
1 large bottle Italian dressing
1 large bell pepper (if desired)
Salt
Pepper–lots
Prepare a 13×9 dish with non-stick spray. Preheat oven to 350° and melt butter in dish while it’s preheating. Take deer meat that has been rinsed and soaked, place in bottom of dish, cut up onion and bell pepper, spreading evenly over deer. Salt and pepper to taste and pour Italian dressing over the mixture. Baked 45-60 minutes, covered, depending on amount of deer. Meat will be tender and tasty! Can be served with rice and salad for a complete meal. (This is also good to substitute 3-5 lbs. shrimp, but reduce cooking time.)
Wild Duck Dressing
(Shirley Bratton)
1/2 to 1 cup celery, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 stick butter, melted
2 wild ducks, cooked and deboned (I use four duck breasts cut up fine)
1 skillet of cornbread, crumbled (recipe: 2 cups cornmeal, 1 egg, 1 1/2 cups buttermilk. Preheat oven to 420°. Pour enough oil in black skillet to cover.?Mix ingredients then pour into hot skillet. Bake 25 minutes.)
1 can cream of chicken soup
Salt and pepper to taste
4-5 eggs
Sage to taste
Duck broth or chicken broth
Saute celery and onion in melted butter until tender or cook in microwave for about five minutes. Combine this mixture with remaining ingredients, adding enough duck broth to reach desired consistency. (Dressing should be soupy.) Pour mixture into large baking dish. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes to one hour.
Smokey Hollow Stove-Top Casserole
(Laura Bratton Edwards)
1 pkg. Smokey Hollow smoked sausage, cut into slices
1 large onion, cut up
1 large bell pepper, cut up
1-2 carrots (if desired) sliced
1 qt. green beans (or two 10-14 oz. cans) drained
4-6 medium potatoes, chunked
Salt and pepper to taste
In Dutch oven (or extra large pot), place sausage, onion, bell pepper, carrots, potatoes, and green beans. Cover with water and lid (I sometimes drop a beef or chicken bouillon cube in) and let cook down on medium high for about 30-45 minutes depending on potatoes and amount. Check occasionally to make sure water hasn’t cooked out to avoid scorching. This is a one-pot meal–easy to fix and great for hands free healthy eating!
