Ouida Moore

Ouida Moore, of Calhoun City, believes almost every recipe can be tweaked for taste and convenience, so even the pass-along recipes she uses are uniquely hers.

Moore, an RN at Calhoun Health Services in Calhoun City, said she frequently cooks for her co-workers at the hospital, but not as much as she did when she was a ward clerk there. Moore works 12 hour night shifts now, but still cooks birthday meals for co-workers.
“Before I was an RN, I would cook a full meal for every shift at Christmas,” she said. “Now when I cook, it’s just for my shift. But when the next shift comes in, they are usually looking for any leftovers.”

Moore learned to cook when she got married, although she made earlier attempts at her mother’s direction.
“Mother would be in the garden, and I was supposed to be cooking supper. But I would get caught up in a book I was reading, and supper would burn.”
She cooked fried chicken for her husband Larry when they first married.
“It was so pretty, a beautiful golden brown” she said. “But when he cut into it, it was bloody raw. I just didn’t cook it long enough.”

But Moore’s cooking skills have developed over the years. She said now she cooks simpler meals during the week for her and Larry and more on the weekend for her son and his wife and their three children.
She said her grandchildren are big fans of her cooking with one telling her she was “better than Throwdown,” referring to Food Network star Bobby Flay.
Moore said despite the early chicken disaster, she cooks a lot of chicken now, using it in Taco Soup. She always pairs her soups with broccoli or Mexican cornbread.

She said her Pasta Salad, which is solely her own, is probably her most requested recipe, but most of her co-workers have her Tomato Cup recipe.
Moore said she cups a lot of recipes out of newspapers and collects cook books, picking them up at yard sales. But she always tweaks the recipes, unless they are baked goods.
She says pecan pie is her favorite and that’s the only pie she takes the time to make a home-made crust for. The Peanut Butter Ice Cream is a Paula Deen recipe that she adapted to make it easier and “revved it up” with the Butterfingers and Cool Whip.
Moore said her Pasta Salad can easily be adapted to individual taste by adding other vegetables.

Pasta Salad
1 lb. garden rotini tri-colored pasta
2 pks. dry Italian dressing mix
2 16 oz. Italian zesty salad dressing
1 bunch green onions– thinly sliced
1 can black olives– sliced, drained
1 can sliced mushrooms, drained
tomatoes
1 cucumber thinly sliced
broccoli florets
1 lb. shredded cheddar cheese
real bacon bits
Cook pasta in boiling, salted water until tender. Drain and immediately sprinkle with dry Italian mix and one bottle of salad dressing. Stir well and cool to room temperature. Add green onion and black olives and refrigerate. Prior to serving, add fresh veggies, other salad dressing, cheese and bacon bits. (I use fat free dressing, because oily or lite give oily texture to pasta salad.)

Chicken Casserole
Chicken breast, 4-5  lbs.
1 pk wide egg noodles
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can Rotel
1 can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 lb. Velveeta cheese
Boil chicken breast in salted water until tender. Remove from water and cook egg noodles in broth. Drain and add soups, Rotel, mushrooms and Velveeta. Stir until cheese melts. Debone and chop chicken and add to noodle mixture. Add black pepper to taste. Pour into baking dish. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese and heat in 350 degree oven until cheese is melted.

Potato Soup
3 cups diced potatoes (I use?Russet)
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup evaporated milk
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup cream of chicken soup
1 stick margarine
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
White ground pepper to taste,
Cook potatoes and onion in broth until tender. Add other ingredients and stir. Does well in crock pot. Serve topped with extra cheese, green onions, real bacon bits.

Broccoli Cornbread
10 oz. pk. frozen broccoli, thawed and drained
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
1 stick oleo, melted
4 eggs, well beaten
1 small onion, chopped
1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix
salt and pepper
Mix all ingredients except muffin mix together. Add muffin mix. Bake 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream
2 quarts half and half
1 cup peanut butter (crunchy if you like nuts)
1-1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla flavoring
1 pk. Butterfinger candy bars, crushed
8 oz. Cool Whip (optional)
Mix peanut butter and sugar together before adding half and half. Mix other ingredients, pour into ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions.

Tomato Cups
1 can Grands butter-flavored flaky biscuits
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 can Rotel tomatoes, drained
1 tsp basil
3/4 cup real bacon bits
Divide each biscuit into three layers and press into miniature muffin tins sprayed with cooking spray. Mix all other ingredients together and fill biscuits. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.