Read Home Cooking With Trisha Yearwood: Stories and Recipes to Share With Family and Friends Online
Authors: Trisha Yearwood
Tags: #food.cookbooks
Home Cooking With Trisha Yearwood: Stories and Recipes to Share With Family and Friends (8 page)
My uncle Marshall Edward Paulk was a truck driver.
salad
Everybody loves the basic, tried-and-true chicken salad recipe that I make, but I had this chunky chicken salad at the Paulk family reunion in Willacoochee, Georgia, this past spring and I fell in love with it. The recipe comes from
Lindsey Rundorff, who is the great-granddaughter of my great-aunt
Cora Paulk, my mama’s aunt. Draw that one on your family tree! Aunt Cora was all of four feet eleven inches tall, one of the sweetest ladies you could ever know, and a real pistol. She lived to be ninety-six years old. She’d be tickled pink to know she ended up in a cookbook!
SERVES 12
2½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
4 cups seedless grapes, halved
2 cups slivered almonds
2 cups mayonnaise
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 tablespoons dried dill
Boil the chicken in a large pot filled with water until done, about 45 minutes. Drain the chicken and set aside to cool. Once the chicken is cooled, dice into small pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the celery, grapes, almonds, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, poppy seeds, and dill. Mix until the salad is fully combined. Store in the refrigerator.
I add mandarin oranges if I have them in the pantry, just for fun.
salad
This is a favorite of my mom’s. Grandma Yearwood served this at the first meal my mom had with the Yearwood family after she met my dad. Daddy was an only child, so it must have been pretty intimidating to sit with just Mrs. Elizabeth and Mr. Bo for dinner! The fact that my mom is a really good cook, too, was an icebreaker for them, and I think it was the first thing they liked about her—besides the fact that Daddy was obviously crazy about her!
SERVES 10
1 3-ounce package lime-flavored gelatin
1 cup boiling water
⅔ cup evaporated milk
1 9-ounce can crushed pineapple with juice
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 12-ounce container cottage cheese
½ cup finely chopped celery
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup finely chopped pecans
10 lettuce leaves
10 lime slices, for garnish
In a medium bowl, stir the gelatin into the boiling water. When the gelatin is completely dissolved, stir in the evaporated milk, pineapple, lemon juice, cottage cheese, celery, mayonnaise, and pecans. Pour the mixture into a 1½-quart square clear glass dish. Chill overnight, or until firm. Cut the chilled salad into squares and serve on lettuce leaves. Garnish with twisted lime slices.
Elizabeth Winslett Yearwood, 1950s.
pork
I am a meat-and-potatoes girl!
I adhere to the latest recommendations that say we
should
eat lean red meat, just not every day of the week. I think that’s all the more reason to make sure that when you do eat red meat, it’s something special. You can choose lean meats for all of these recipes and they will still taste rich and hearty!
I grew up loving pork. You can definitely tell in this collection of recipes that I love bacon! I tend to avoid ribs because they’re usually so hard to eat, but my cousin
Fred’s Barbecued Pork Ribs
are fall-off-the-bone good.
Uncle Wilson’s Stuffed Bell Peppers
stuffed bell peppers
My uncle Wilson is just one of those people. You know, the guy who always has a smile and a kind word for you. I have so many memories of him, throughout my life, laughing, smiling, and cooking great food. He made his debut in our first cookbook, and the Vidalia Onion Association even put him on their Web site. I’m not sure if he’s too famous now to take my calls, but I’m sure glad he’s still sharing recipes, like this one, with me. These peppers are one of his specialties. I do love his cooking, almost as much as I love him!
SERVES 6
6 large red or green bell peppers
2½ cups long-grain white rice (or rice of your choice)
2 pounds lean ground beef
½ medium-size sweet onion, such as Vidalia, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, with their juices
1 10-ounce can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilies
16 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (about 4 cups)
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Cut the bell peppers in half, top to bottom. Remove the seeds and the ribs. Set aside. In a medium saucepan, cook the rice according to package directions. In a medium skillet, brown the ground beef, onion, and garlic. Drain the meat. In a medium saucepan, bring the tomatoes to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, rice, tomatoes, pepper, and salt and mix until blended.
In a 9 × 13 × 2-inch pan, place the bell peppers skin side down. Evenly divide the beef mixture among the pepper halves. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle the cheese on the top. Return the pan to the oven, uncovered, for about 5 minutes, until the cheese melts.
A Fourth of July “must-have” at the annual gathering of family and friends. The secret? Aunt Beth helps him!
FROM GWEN:
Before using, wilt the pepper halves in boiling water for about 5 minutes. This will reduce the cooking time from 40 minutes to 15.
cabbage rolls
My mother always told me it’s a no-win situation to try to cook things for your husband “just like his mama used to make.” I agree with her, but I also believe taste is a strong sense that can evoke wonderful memories. This dish was among Garth’s family’s favorites made by his mother, Colleen. I doubt that my version, taken from her handwritten recipe, is as good as hers, but I think it makes Garth smile and remember his mom when I make it. Colleen always said the secret to this dish was the cinnamon!
SERVES 6
½ pound lean ground beef
1 cup long-grain white rice, cooked
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 8-ounce can stewed tomatoes
2 heads green cabbage
9 cups water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 bay leaves
1 12-ounce can tomato juice
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, mix the beef, rice, salt, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and tomatoes. Set aside.
Wash and core the cabbage. Bring a large stockpot filled with 8 cups of the water, the sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, and bay leaves to a boil. Blanch the cabbage in the boiling mixture for 5 minutes, or just until softened. Drain the cabbage, let it cool, then carefully peel 12 leaves from the cabbage.
Place ¼ cup of the beef and rice mixture onto each leaf. Fold in the sides of the leaf and wrap into a roll, enclosing all the filling. Place the cabbage rolls, seam side down, closely together in a 9 × 13 × 2-inch shallow baking pan.