Nikki Powell

“I come from a cooking family,” said Nikki Powell of Bruce, who always makes recipes her own.
Following a recipe “is something I don’t do. You know you want to switch up and make it different,” she said.
All of her recipes are ones that she made her own. She watched her cousin, Barbara Hych, cooked fried cabbage at  church, but then she put her own touch with her own ingredients to it.
Nikki learned to cook about age 16. She worked at The Magnolia Restaurant when it was under the ownership of the Tutors, and her mother, Minnie Evans, cooked there.

“I learned soul food and seafood cooking from Minnie there,” she said. “The Magnolia was my starting point,” she said.
Meatloaf is the first thing she learned to cook and she has changed it up since then, too. “I don’t like dry meatloaf.”
She also helped Minnie and her team when it was their turn to cook at Lighthouse Church. Minnie introduced her to a lot of seasonings and passes things along she has tried. “She keeps us updated,” on recipes and the changes she made to them. She also got help from her grandmother, Ida ‘Topsy’ Armstrong.

Nikki has three children Demetris Evans, 23; Dontae Armstrong, 22, and Niakeela Powell, 11. “Demetris might cook breakfast, and Dontae is trying a little to cook,” she said. Niakeela likes to make sweets like chocolate chip cookies, and she cooked breakfast on her birthday Monday.
She loves spaghetti, either the baked recipe or plain. Her kids’ favorites include lasagna, fried chicken, loaded baked potatoes and strawberry cake. “They are not picky eaters,” she said.

“We were raised on country food–fresh garden food like peas, greens, cabbage, with cornbread. Daddy (Walter) does the garden, I just cook it,” she said.
“I love purple hull peas with my cornbread and turnip greens. I could eat them all day,” she said.
“I cannot get her (Minnie’s) caramel cake together,” she said. And when Nikki says “I can’t” to her mother, who instilled in them, “I  can do all things through God who gives me strength,” Minnie “spits that scripture out!”
But about that caramel cake, Nikki still says, “I can’t do it.”

Mozzarella Baked Spaghetti
Uncooked spaghetti
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. sliced Italian sausage
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup green pepper, chopped
1 jar meatless spaghetti sauce
1-8 oz. can tomato sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Preheat oven to 350°. Cook spaghetti. In large bowl beat egg, milk and salt. Drain cooked spaghetti and add to bowl.
In large skillet, cook beef, sausage, onion and peppers until done, then add to mixture with ingredients in bowl. Add spaghetti sauce and tomato sauce. Stir well.
Transfer to greased baking dish. Bake 20 minutes, then add cheese and bake 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Fried Cabbage
1 head cabbage, cleaned and sliced
1/2 cup sliced green pepper
1/2 cup sliced yellow pepper
1/2 cup sliced orange pepper
1/2 cup sliced red pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. olive oil
In large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil, then add cabbage, peppers, onion, garlic salt and black pepper. Stir constantly until cabbage is tender.

Four Cheese Chicken Alfredo
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup Classico Four Cheese Alfredo pasta sauce
2 Tbsp. Kraft Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. parsley flakes
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 pkg. uncooked fettucine
1 pkg. boneless chicken breasts
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Heat oven to 400°. Bring milk and alfredo sauce to boil in large saucepan on medium heat. Stir occasionally.
Mix Parmesan, parsley and garlic powder until blended. Separate fettucine and  add sauce. Stir to evenly coat.
Transfer to baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Top with chicken, Parmesan cheese and mozzarella. Bake 30 minutes or until chicken is done.