Kristy Tindall

Kristy Tindall of Calhoun City hosted four Christmas parties at her house–CCMS school staff, cheerleaders, husband Clint’s family and the church youth.
For the first three events, she served pork loin with a honey, brown sugar, mustard and ketchup sauce, along with baked potatoes and baked sweet potatoes, bundled green beans, corn dip, banana pudding and strawberry cake.
The youth meal was part of a progressive dinner for which she served the main course of macaroni and cheese, and chicken strips.
Her corn dip is a favorite wherever she serves it. The banana cream pudding, a recipe of her grandmother’s, was a hit recently at Calhoun City First Baptist Church, especially with Hal Reese.

Kristy began making cakes and cupcakes for her kids’ birthdays. Now she makes cupcakes and takes to school.
“I would just as soon cook for 20 as five. I like to cook for people.” And she made 100 cupcakes for an Easter egg hunt at church.
She takes a lot of food to school–breakfast casserole, cakes and cupcakes for the school kids and football team, and donuts for everybody. “I like doing stuff for the kids,” she said.
School staff favorites also include corn dip and cupcakes. She takes food for events like Boss’s Day, and they feed the Veterans after the annual Veterans’ Day Program at the school.

Kristy says most of the things she cooks are simple, but she can’t tell you measurements for a lot of what she makes. She is a “taster” when she cooks.
Most times, too, she just uses a recipe as a guide, which she got from her mother, and she’s always cooked that way.
The Tindalls’ children, Connor, 13; Emma, 12; Baylor, 8, like cornbread this time of year and she makes two pans–one regular and one Mexican. Husband Clint and Emma like Mexican.
Sometimes when making the Mexican cornbread, she will pour in part of the batter, then lay on slices of Pepper Jack cheese instead of corn, then the rest of the batter.

She cooked a lot more when the kids were younger and before 2010, when she started teaching full-time.
Now she might prepare a meal of potato soup and cornbread, which is one of the first things she learned to cook when she was young.
Sloppy Joes or a deep dish pizza casserole recipe from a Cooking Light 5-ingredient 15-minute cookbook are among other choices.
The cookbooks she uses most are from churches or organizations. Paula Deen recipes are the ones she uses more from Google, like the strawberry cake.
“Paula Deen’s recipes are easy to follow and I usually have the ingredients on hand,” she said.

Banana Cream Pudding

1 box butterscotch pudding (instant)
1 box French vanilla (instant)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup cold milk
8 oz. Cool Whip (extra for layering)
2 ripe bananas
Bag vanilla wafers
Mix puddings and both milks. Add Cool Whip and stir in 20 crushed wafers and two cut up bananas. Use extra Cool Whip and wafers for layering.

Corn Dip

2 cans white shoepeg corn
2 Tbsp. chopped jalapenos
1 stick butter
1 pkg. cream cheese
Place all in pan in oven. Cook on 375° until bubbly, stirring occasionally.

Breakfast Casserole

(Sharon Tindall)
1 roll sausage
12 slices bread
10 eggs
1/2 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups cheddar cheese
Brown sausage and drain. Spray 9×13 pan. Place six slices of bread in bottom of pan. Spread sausage over bread, then cheese, then six slices of bread. Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour evenly over top layer of bread. Bake at 350° for 20-30 minutes until golden.

Glazed Potato Donuts

(Neva Hemphill)
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup milk, scalded
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup mashed potatoes (instant may be used)
2 eggs
5-6 cups sifted flour
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Combine milk, shortening, sugar and salt. Cool until lukewarm. Stir in yeast, potatoes and eggs. Gradually add enough flour to make soft dough. Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth and satiny. Place in lightly greased bowl and turn over to oil top. Cover and let rise in warm place until it doubles in size, about 1 1/2 hours (can wait overnight). Roll dough to 1/2” thickness. Cut with doughnut cutter. Cover and let rise until double (30 minutes). Glaze: Stir 1 pound powdered sugar, 6 Tbsp. water and 1 Tbsp. vanilla. Mixture will look like very thick cream. Fry doughnuts in deep fat. Drain. Drop hot doughnut into glaze and place on cooling rack until glaze is set. Yields 3 1/2 dozen.