Nancy Fugett

Nancy Fugett has been working in the Vardaman Elementary School Cafeteria for 13 years. The Peanut Butter Bar recipe she is sharing is from the cafeteria from several years back that she broke down to make one 9×13 pan full.

Nacho Grande, chicken strips or nuggets, and pizza are the favorites of the school children, she says.
Nancy could not cook when she married, and says she and husband, Sonny, learned to cook together. She did learn to make tater tot casserole from her grandmother’s recipe, but has tweaked it since then, and says she did burn him out on that. It is now a family favorite.

She has never mastered frying chicken, something that she grew up with her mother cooking. They love to garden and she cooks a lot of vegetables in the summer, but says this year they only planted tomatoes.
She tends to stick to recipes of favorites of her and her family, like the crockpot pork chops, which she fixes all the time. The sandwich recipe is from her son, Nathan. Nancy makes it a lot, and says the recipe can be halved to serve 4-5 people. She has two other children, Jonathan and Laci Jo, and four grandchildren, Grant, Lyla, Evan and Ethan. She usually always cooks Sunday supper for the family, and some of them join her for more meals than that.

Grandson Grant says his favorites she cooks are homemade chicken strips and oatmeal cookies, and that Poppy’s (Sonny) is whole catfish. Nancy usually pre-fixes some meals to freeze for their annual summer beach vacation like spaghetti and BBQ pork roast.
She says she does more cooking during the holidays than any other time, since she cooks every day during the school year. She also loves to bake during the holidays–especially brownies or cobbler for when all the kids come over.

For Christmas at her brother’s, they have crockpot dishes, and she usually takes vegetable soup, potato soup and chili with Mexican cornbread. She cooks a traditional meal at her house on Christmas night.
Her favorite food is grilled pork chops and grilled chicken wings, and they grill a lot in the summer–burgers or deer, and chicken wings, which they like to marinade in worcestershire, creole and Dale’s seasoning overnight.?And whatever is grilled, she wants it “well done!”

Peanut Butter Bars
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla flavor
2/3 cup peanut butter
Cream these ingredients until smooth. Add 1 3/4 cups flour to mixture and mix well. Add 1 3/4 cups quick oats. Stir into mixture until moistened. Spread in 9×13 greased pan. Pat out until smooth. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. (Do not overbake.) Cool before icing.
Icing: 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
Blend until smooth. Spread over top of baked dough. Cut into bars.

Easy Crockpot Pork Chops
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cans cream of golden mushroom soup
4-6 boneless pork chops
Salt and pepper to taste
Place onions in bottom of crockpot. Top with pork chops, salt and pepper. Pour soup over chops. Cook on low 6-8 hours until chops are tender. Serve over rice.

Tater Tot Casserole
2 lbs. ground beef (extra lean)
1 large onion, chopped
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of golden mushroom soup
8 oz. sour cream
1 Tbsp. season salt
2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
2 lbs. Ore-Ida tater tots
Brown ground beef and onion together. Drain. Mix  soups, sour cream, and season salt together in bowl. Layer in large casserole dish: ground beef, onion mixture, soup mixture, Mexican blend shredded cheese. Top with tater tots. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 40-45 minutes or until tater tots are golden brown.

Potato Soup
5 lbs. potatoes (cut in medium size cubes)
2 cans chicken broth
1 cup water
1 large onion, chopped
1 stick butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Place in large crockpot. Cook on low for six hours. Add: 8 oz. cream cheese (softened); 4 oz. sour cream; 16 oz. Velveeta cheese (cut in small cubes); 2 ham steaks (cut in bite size pieces.) Cook for another half hour. Serve with Mexican cornbread.

Hawaiian Roll Sandwiches
2 pkgs. Hawaiian rolls
1 pkg. sliced ham
1 pkg. sliced roast beef
1 pkg. sliced turkey
1 pkg. Swiss cheese
Slice rolls in half with bread knife (do not pull roll apart). Place bottom half of rolls in two 9×13 dishes. Layer ham, roast beef, turkey and cheese. Place top portion of rolls on top of this. Set aside.
Mix: 2 sticks butter, melted
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
3 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. dried minced onion
2 Tbsp. poppy seed
Spoon topping mixture over top of rolls. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 15 minutes or until heated and cheese is melted.