Nida Weaver

Retired LPN Nida Weaver of Calhoun City will be 85 in August, and jokes that when she is, she is putting up a “Kitchen Closed” sign. She says she worked all her life, and has done more cooking since she retired from nursing in 1986 because she was home more. “People always brought food to Dr. Farmer’s office,” where she worked for over 20 years, and sometimes brought the recipe, too.

She learned about cooking “old timey” from her mother, Lavern Hubbard, even though her mother didn’t let anyone else do any cooking because she said they messed up the kitchen. “Times were hard when we were little,” she said, “but Mother could take anything and make something out of it.”

“She was good at cooking ‘soul food’” and “food was so much better cooked on a wood stove.” There were always blackberries, plums, apples or pears to make cobbler with, and her mother made a lot of banana, coconut or pineapple pudding, and teacakes. She also made homemade candy and fruitcake as teachers’ gifts. She noted that her mother was also creative in other areas–she could sew, and played piano and organ by ear.

Daughter Diane Harrison says Nida is a good cook who makes good desserts. She loves sweets and makes a lot of pound cakes, sheet cakes, pies, cobblers and boiled cookies. Diane says Nida is famous for her chocolate pie and egg custard, both of which she learned to make from her mother. “I like to do those for other people,” she said.

Her mother made a stacked jam cake, but Nida doesn’t like to make stacked cakes. She and Diane tried to make it once but couldn’t keep the layers together. They just went “kaflooey”, according to Nida. “We used toothpicks to try to hold it together, but it did taste good.” She and Diane cook together on holidays and always get together to fix the menu. Every Sunday morning before church, Nida cooks a full breakfast for her family, saying “it’s a good family time, and we are all food people.” One of the family’s favorites, also learned from her mother, is Biscuit Pudding.

She started canning a few years ago, “the old-timey way”, with vinegar, sugar, water, salt. She and Diane like to can green beans. She also makes a lot of jellies and jams–blueberry, plum, blackberry, pear preserves and more.

About her cookbook collection, she said, “Everybody that came in with a cookbook for sale, I’d buy it! There might be something in there we might like!”

Easy Sweet Potato Cobbler
1 stick butter
1 cup self-rising flour
2 cups sugar, divided
1 cup milk
2 cups cooked, but firm, sliced sweet potatoes
1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
Melt butter in baking dish. Combine flour, one cup sugar and milk. Pour into center of melted butter. Do not stir. Combine potatoes, one cup sugar, water, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour this into the center of the melted butter and batter. Do not stir. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until lightly browned.

Shoepeg Corn and Green Bean Casserole
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 can French style green beans, drained
1 cup sour cream
1 can shoepeg corn
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 can mushroom soup
1 stick oleo
1 stack Ritz crackers
Mix first eight ingredients and put in casserole, 8 1/2×13”. Crush Ritz crackers and mix with melted oleo. Cover top of casserole with cracker mixture. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

Hamburger and Rice Dish
1 lb. hamburger meat
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup whole kernel corn
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. creole seasoning
1 bell pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can golden mushroom soup
1-2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups instant white rice
Dash hot sauce
2-3 medium tomatoes
Cook meat and chopped onion until brown. Drain when done. Add water, soup, corn, salt, creole seasoning, chili powder, and hot sauce to meat. Bring to a boil and add rice. Cut the bell pepper in strips and quarter the tomatoes. Add these on top of your mixture. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Egg Custard Pie
1/3 stick oleo
5 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Nutmeg
1 cup sugar
Cream together oleo and sugar. Beat eggs and add to first mixture. Add milk and vanilla and pour into 9” unbaked pie shell. Sprinkle top with nutmeg (you may also add a small amount of nutmeg to pie mixture before pouring into pie shell.) Bake at 350° for 25 minutes.

Coconut Supreme Pound Cake
1 box Duncan Hines Supreme Coconut cake mix
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup Crisco vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1 tsp. almond flavoring
1 tsp. vanilla flavoring
Beat above ingredients for two minutes. Pour into greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Note:?you can substitute any flavor cake mix you like and use only the vanilla flavoring.

Squash Dressing
2 cups cooked squash, drained
2 cups crumbled cornbread
1 stick oleo, melted
1 egg, beaten
1 small onion, chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
Salt and pepper, to taste
Combine all of the above ingredients. Pour into casserole dish and bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes or until done.