Twyla Nichols

By Published On: September 28, 2016

Twyla Reason Nichols of Bruce calls herself a “cookbook junkie” but she does like to use Facebook for some recipe searching. Bobby  Flay and Trisha Yearwood are her Food Network favorites.
She cooks mostly what she calls country food and tries to cook in moderation. “I just cook. I don’t use recipes much,” she said.
She learned to cook from watching her mother’s sister, Aunt Myrtle, who did “good down home country cooking.”
And Nanny (Maude Reason) taught her to make butter roll and chicken and dressing.

twyla-nichols“Every time the kids come over we make crack dip,” she said. She uses six blocks of cream cheese, one pound of hot sausage, one pound of mild sausage, one pound of  hamburger meat, one can medium Rotel and one can mild Rotel, served with three different kinds of chips–Scoops, Santitas and Tostito Bites–to please everyone.
She makes cookie sheets full of little pizzas: a Ritz cracker topped with three drops of ketchup, a pepperoni slice and slice of mozzarella, and also the banana pudding.

All seven of her grandchildren, ages 7-16, like to help her in the kitchen.
Son Justin loves chocolate, especially Death By Chocolate; son Jason, haystacks; son-in-law Cody-squash casserole, and daughter Ashley, twice baked potatoes.
Twyla is here more after traveling with her work for 10 years. Now she works from home and cooks for Justin and his family on Friday nights and Ashley and her family on Wednesday. She tries to do their favorites on those nights. Jason and his family live in Jackson.

“I now use onion powder instead of onions in many of my recipes. This allows everyone to enjoy the onion flavor, which is more pronounced, without the texture of the onion itself. Yes, some of mine are picky eaters,” she said. This was noted on her squash casserole recipe.
She does like to do things that are different and find things that her family likes. They have a traditional Thanksgiving meal, then find something “outside the box” for Christmas, like for breakfast/brunch. Typically it will be breakfast casserole, monkey bread, waffles, bacon, sausage, ham, eggs and biscuits.
For football game gatherings, it is “junkfood heaven” consisting of sausage balls, roasted pecans, haystacks, crack dip, bacon cheese Ranch dip with veggies or chips, Chinese BBQ pork, deviled eggs, and pigs in a blanket.

Cody’s Squash Casserole
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 stick butter
3 cups cooked squash, drained really well
1 cup crushed Ritz crackers, plus some for topping
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
Black pepper to taste
Kosher salt to taste
Preheat oven to 350°. Butter a casserole dish. Saute onion in butter for five minutes and remove from pan and put in mixing bowl with remaining ingredients. Mix ingredients thoroughly and pour into buttered casserole dish. Bake 15-20 minutes and remove from oven. Top with crushed Ritz crackers and put back into oven for 15 minutes to brown the top.

Mama’s Twice Baked Potatoes
4 large baking potatoes
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 cup bacon bits
Black pepper
Kosher salt
Olive oil
Wash and dry potatoes thoroughly. Rub outside of potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake unwrapped potatoes at 325° until done. (You should be able to squeeze them with your hand.) Remove potatoes from oven and slice in half while still hot. I recommend using a pot holder to handle the potatoes. In mixing bowl, using spoon, scrape the inside of the potatoes into the bowl and combine with the butter, sour cream, cheddar cheese and bacon bits. Salt and pepper to taste. Refill the potato skins with the mixture and place back into the oven until the cheese is bubbly and the top has a slightly brown crust. Remove from the oven and place on a serving dish and watch them disappear!

NaNa’s Punch Bowl Banana Pudding
2 pkgs. white chocolate instant pudding mix
2 pkgs. banana cream instant pudding mix
6 cups whole milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 pints whipping cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1 box Vanilla Wafers
4 bananas
Combine the first four ingredients in extra large bowl. Using a whisk, mix thoroughly and place in refrigerator to chill. Combine whipping cream, vanilla extract and powdered sugar in mixing bowl and whip until cream forms stiff peaks. Remove pudding mix from refrigerator when set and fold in whipped cream mixture until thoroughly combined. Using punch bowl, layer ingredients as follows: vanilla wafers, sliced bananas and pudding mixture. Repeat layers until all of the mixture is used. Chill and enjoy.

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