Sandy and Charles Smith

Before their garden came in, Charles and Sandy Smith were regular participants in the new Bruce Farmer’s Market. They took homemade honey wheat bread, fried apple and peach pies, salsa, homemade jelly, squash pickles and even teacakes.

The bread recipe came from a Mennonite friend from Virginia they met on a cruise. She told Sandy it was a “no-fail recipe” that had been passed down for generations. “She was right,” Sandy said, “it has not once failed me.”
When she makes it, she claims to “stump her toe,” putting in more honey than is called for in the recipe. Her pies are made from biscuits she freezes, saying they stay together better. “The frozen ones are perfect,” and she learned this by trial and error. The salsa recipe is one of many made up by Charles.

The Smiths have always had a garden, and she began to can when they started running out of freezer space. When asked how he kept deer out of his peas, Charles said he set a radio on 105.5 talk radio station (with a garbage can over it to protect from rain) and let it play 24 hours a day.
“The coons won’t get in the corn and the deer won’t get in the peas,” he said.

Sandy freezes measured grape and scuppernong juice for whenever she gets ready to make jelly.
They cook every day and they cook “old-fashioned”–cornbread, vegetables, spaghetti with homemade sauce, saying both were raised in the country.

Charles when he turned about 15, his mother went to work and would tell him what to cook and how to cook it for supper–basics like peas and cornbread.
Sandy’s grandmother taught her to cook around age 10, and she said Charles had also taught her a lot over the years about putting things together to make them good.

The beef roast and one-pot dish are also creations of Charles. “When he dies and goes to heaven, making beef roast will be his job,” Linda Taylor once told him.
When a meal is coming up at Mt. Moriah Church, Sandy says the ladies always ask, “What’cha gonna bring, Charles?” He says he usually takes something Cajun, but more recently had been taking the one-pot dish.

Charles uses a lot of spices when he cooks, and from the different areas he has lived, like Louisiana and Texas, he has picked up different things to cook. He learned in Texas to put cumin in his pinto beans. “It makes them so good,” they said, along with onion, pepper and chili powder.
Sandy’s favorite food is Italian– pasta, she said, and prime rib. Charles favors Cajun, especially crawfish, and he makes a lot of crawfish dishes.

“There’s not much we don’t make!” said Sandy.

One Pot Meal
3 pints of frozen green beans
1 package of Hillshire Farm Polish Kielbasa sliced 3/8 to ½ pieces
4 or 5 red potatoes peeled and quartered
4 or 5 carrots peeled and cut in 1” long pieces
1 large onion sliced
¼ cup vegetable oil
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
1/8 cup vinegar
3 Tablespoons sugar
In a 6 quart pot, place oil in pot. Add sausage and brown. Place onion on sausage and put lid on pot. When sausage begins to brown, add potatoes and carrots first, then green beans, and enough water to cover green beans. Add vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. DO NOT STIR. Cover and bring to boil. Reduce to medium heat and cook ‘til water is cooked out…..never stirring.

Honey Wheat Bread
(Shared by Mennonite Friend Joyce Horst)
2 ½ Tablespoons dry yeast
3 cups warm water
½ teaspoon sugar
Combine above and set until bubbly
1/3 cup shortening
1 Tablespoon salt
½ cup honey
Combine these 3 and add to yeast mixture
2 cups whole wheat flour
5 cups of bread flour
Thoroughly mix flours together and add yeast/honey mixture. Stir until well blended, dough will be soft. Let rise 10 minutes. Knead well. Let rise until doubled in size. Punch down. Let rise again. Shape into three loaves. Let rise again. Bake at 350 about 30 minutes.

Beef Roast
1 Rump Roast
1 can golden mushroom soup
1 can cream celery soup
1 can cream of onion soup
4 soup cans water
4 or 5 potatoes quartered
4 or 5 carrots cut in 2 inch long pieces
1 onion sliced
Salt
Pepper
Tony Chachere Seasoning
½ teaspoon chopped garlic (optional)
Preheat oven 400. Rub roast good with salt, pepper and Tony Chachere seasoning. Melt one stick butter in black skillet, braise entire roast on low heat being careful not to scorch butter. Using a heavy roasting pan, mix soup, water and bring to boil while roast braising. Put roast in center of pot, add potatoes, carrots and onion. Put lid on pot, place in oven bake for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 300°.  Bake three hours.

Salsa
1 gallon tomatoes, peeled, cored and chopped
4 onions
4 cloves garlic, pressed or chopped
¼ cup salt (canning)
½ cup vinegar
¾ cup sugar
4 to 6 jalapeno peppers
4 green bell peppers
1 bunch cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
Chop all vegetables, mix all ingredients and bring to boil. Boil 20-30 minutes on medium heat. Can in small jars.

Fried Cabbage
1 head cabbage
1 small onion
2 Tbs Crisco shortening
1 cup water
Chop cabbage and onion. Add oil to skillet. Combine remaining ingredients in cast iron skillet. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer about 30 minutes. Uncover, turn up heat, stir and brown. Season with salt and pepper.

Squash Pickles
8 cups sliced squash
2 large onions chopped
4 cups chopped green peppers
8 chopped jalapeno peppers (optional for taste)
2 cups cauliflower florets
1½ cups sliced carrots
1½ cups sliced celery
1-2 oz. jar pimento
½ cup salt
Combine above ingredients and sprinkle with salt. Let stand 3 hours. Rinse in cold water, drain and pack in jars.
4½ cups sugar
3 cups white vinegar
3 Tbs. pickling salt
1 Tbs. celery seed
1 Tbs. mustard seed
1½ tsp. turmeric
Combine, boil 1 minute, pour over vegetables. Seal and process 15 minutes in hot water bath.