Country Cooking from a Redneck Kitchen: A Cookbook

Once your lifelong dream has been fulfilled, what do you do next? That’s the question that kept running through my mind after I wrote my first cookbook, Blue Ribbon Baking from a Redneck Kitchen. After a whirlwind book tour, I suddenly had a bestseller on my hands. Then I got the call that gave me the answer. My editor asked, Are you ready to write another cookbook? Of course! So here we are, doing it all again, lifelong dream round two, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Many of you know that I am a proud national pie champion who cherishes every blue (and pink and red…) ribbon I have ever won. But most people don’t know that my first foray into the cooking competition circuit, at age sixteen, featured a savory dish—an apricot-stuffed pork loin—that won first place in its category. After that I was hooked and started experimenting with all of the classic Southern recipes I had grown up with. I tweaked and tinkered until I had something that tasted even better than the original—or until I proved that the original was, indeed, the best recipe ever.

While my friends wanted to be doctors and lawyers when they grew up, I hoped to become Julia Child or June Cleaver. My life revolves around food and always has. I come from a long line of Irish people who hold family in the highest regard. And if you really want to show someone you love them, there’s no better way to do so than by cooking for them. That’s what I learned from the women in my family. My nana (Mama’s mom) put the bee in my cooking bonnet. She taught me how to make my first pie crust at the age of four and let me climb up on a chair in her kitchen to stir the green beans for Sunday dinner. My granny (Daddy’s mom) was the mac-and-cheese maker. We had a standing date every Saturday. We would ride the bus into downtown Greenville and head to Tanner’s Big Orange for orange juice and a chaser of little gold-wrapped coffee candies. Back in the 1970s, before malls and superstores, downtown was the place to be for the best restaurants, bakeries, and shops. Granny would tell me stories of where I came from, how life during the Depression was, and how I am so much like my daddy that I should have been a boy. This all happened over food.

My mother and grandmothers never had a stand mixer between them, but that didn’t stop them from baking and cooking up a storm. We thickened our casseroles the old-fashioned way: by cooking butter and flour together to make a roux. While the term roux may sound fancy, a roux couldn’t be simpler to make. I watched those ladies stretch a dollar ’til it squeaked, as my mama said, and make something from nothing. I was also taught how to use canned goods that were on sale to make a dinner that didn’t taste like it came from a can, and to whip up meals using the staples in our pantry between grocery store visits. Whenever we could, we grew our own food because we had the space in the yard and the vegetables we harvested were plentiful and cheap. Cooking what’s local and in season has become a trendy thing, but every redneck knows it’s the cheapest way to feed your family well! When you stop to think about it, hunting and fishing are organic minus the packing house and all the fancy labels.

The recipes in this book are the ones that we Southerners go to when company shows up, when there’s a dinner on the ground, or when the preacher is coming to visit. I was taught how to make great food that sticks with you and meals that get you through a day of hard work. It’s not the fancy stuff served up with three sprigs of whatnot and a spoon of sauce artfully drawn on a plate, all to make you forget the food ain’t that good—or plentiful. No, the recipes in this book are Southern through and through, the ones people have been asking me for years to share. You’ll find Daddy’s church chili, the Roberts family’s best fried chicken, the meatloaf Nana taught me to cook so I would be a proper housewife (and believe me my husband is thankful she did;), and the holiday dressing I have spent years perfecting—to the point that it is requested at every family function, no matter the time of year. Of course, I’m also offering up some of my very best baked goods, including an upside-down apple bacon pie (yes, you read that right;) that is sure to make you the talk of the town—in a good way.

I want to make you the hero of your kitchen, serving Southern food with pride. I hope that this book makes y’all as happy as my first book did and that you can turn to it even more often—not just when you want something sweet. So gather your family around the table, have everyone check their screens at the screen door, and get ready for lots of full-belly good-food moans, smiles, and compliments.

Dips, salads, and finger foods that everyone will love

One of the phrases we love most here in the South is: Company’s coming, which is always followed up with: Cha eat yet? Feeding people is what we do, forever offering up something to munch on. We love to be social and so we don’t hesitate to drop in on one another. Sometimes you have a warning, sometimes you don’t…. If you aren’t serving a whole meal, you’re going to at least make sure guests leave with something in their bellies. That’s what this chapter is all about—being prepared with that little something to serve.

COCONUT PARTY DIP

CHILI CHEESE DIP

Garden Dip

DEVILED HAM DIP

MOST-REQUESTED SPINACH DIP

Watergate Salad: Nana’s Must-Have

PICNIC TABLE CUCUMBER SALAD

AUNT FANNY’S BUTTERMILK SALAD

Old-Fashioned Squash Relish

CORNBREAD SALAD

GRITS AND BACON FRITTERS

Green ’Mater Chow Chow

Mama used to make this dip—even when it was cold outside. It’s always made me feel like I was sitting out on a deck with waves splashing, a breeze in the air, and palm trees rustling. She served it with fruit or crackers as a simple treat or for entertaining. I think it makes a sweet and creamy starter for a tropical theme party or picnic.

MAKES ABOUT 5 CUPS

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow creme (I like Fluff)

1 (3.4-ounce) box coconut instant pudding mix

1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple

1 (8-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes, toasted

Fruit, graham crackers, vanilla wafers, and/or pretzel sticks, for serving

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cream cheese until smooth. Add the marshmallow creme and pudding mix and whip until the mixture is light and fluffy and the pudding mix dissolves and is no longer gritty, about 3 minutes.

2. Drain the crushed pineapple in a fine-mesh sieve. Don’t hesitate to use your hands to squeeze down on the pineapple until most of the juice is drained off. Add the crushed pineapple to the cream cheese mixture and whisk until just combined. Fold in the whipped topping.

3. Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.

4. Top with the toasted coconut and serve with fruit, graham crackers, vanilla wafers, and/or pretzel sticks, for dipping.

Now who doesn’t love chili and cheese on cold days? This one is meaty, loaded with gooey cheese, and guaranteed to warm you right up. I like to serve it on game day with those sturdy little bowl-shaped tortilla chips for easy scooping.

MAKES ABOUT 4 CUPS

1 pound 90% lean ground beef

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 (8-ounce) can RO*TEL diced tomatoes (you can use the ones with chiles, for extra bite)

1 habanero pepper, seeded and finely diced

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons chili powder

Hot sauce (I use Texas Pete)

Tortilla chips, for serving

1. In a deep skillet over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef, breaking it up with a spoon, until browned and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

2. Drain the fat off and then return the pan to the stove over low heat. Add the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, habanero, sugar, chili powder, and hot sauce to taste. Stir until well blended.

3. Serve warm with tortilla chips.

This creamy vegetable dip has a ranch dressing flavor but isn’t quite so ranch-y (is that a word?). When I was pregnant with my daughter, ranch dressing was my number one craving and I just could not get enough. This recipe was a good choice for satisfying that craving and is nice whenever you need a little taste of something much better than any of the premade dips found at the store.

MAKES ABOUT 3 CUPS

1 cup sour cream

½ cup mayonnaise (I use Duke’s)

½ cup finely diced red bell pepper

½ cup finely diced yellow bell pepper

¼ cup finely diced green onions

¼ cup chopped radishes

1½ tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Salt and black pepper

Carrot and celery sticks, or chips, for serving

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the sour cream, mayonnaise, bell peppers, green onions, radishes, sugar, and Worcestershire sauce; season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days to allow the flavors to mingle.

2. Serve with carrots and celery or your chip of choice.

I don’t know where deviled ham came from, or where eating something called deviled became acceptable, but boy do we love it! Mama used to have this dip made up at all times in case the preacher might drop by (which is pretty funny, when you think about it) or for when I had friends over. It’s still one of the things I make on a moment’s notice to serve when company shows up. It’s meaty and smooth, with bold flavor and a good bite at the end because of the horseradish.

MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS

½ pound thinly sliced deli ham, chopped

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

2 tablespoons mayonnaise (I use Duke’s)

1½ tablespoons prepared horseradish

1 tablespoon grated onion

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Pinch of black pepper

Toasted bread or crackers, for serving

1. In a blender, combine the ham, cream cheese, mayonnaise, horseradish, onion, garlic powder, and pepper and blend until smooth. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.

2. Serve this spread on little pieces of toasted bread or buttery crackers.

I have an awesome girlfriend named Charlie who loves this flavorful spinach dip more than life itself. In fact, she and my husband, Mark, share that opinion, so this recipe is a must at every function we share as a group. There’s something addictive about the light texture combined with the rich and earthy big flavor. Mark has gone so far as to hide the dip and to growl at anyone who finds it and takes a bite. As a result, I often double this recipe, to make sure we have enough to go around, and serve it in a scooped-out bread bowl.

MAKES ABOUT 3 CUPS

1 (12-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach

12 ounces sour cream

½ cup mayonnaise (I use Duke’s)

1 tablespoon Montreal steak seasoning

2½ tablespoons dried onion

1 (0.9-ounce) package Knorr Spring Vegetable Recipe Mix (it has to be Knorr)

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon sugar

Wheat Thins, for serving

1. Put the spinach in a microwavable bowl and microwave