Tony Parker

Three things Tony Parker of Calhoun City has never gotten tired of eating are fresh peas, tomato sandwiches and fried chicken. The only thing he will not eat is celery, “a vile weed,” he calls it.
 He makes of all the recipes that he submitted. The Old Settlers Beans recipe is his mother-in-law’s, Peggy White, and he got the cake and squash soup recipes from Jean Lowery.
The soup is just as good cold as hot, he says, “and you can hurt yourself on this soup.” The apple skillet pie is from his grandmother, Alto Lucius, of Derma, and the squirrel pot pie is his own recipe.

His grandmother used to tell him he had “to taste something in your head before you start cooking.” He was too little to go to the field and so he stayed with her. She cooked two meals a day that she took to the field, along with tea and dessert, and he helped her in the kitchen.
Then she worked at the hospital from 3-11. “She never complained, she was tough. She was made out of pure steel and love,” he said.
Mrs. Alto made a lot of chicken and dumplings, and chicken and dressing, and Tony ate so much dressing then that he doesn’t care for it now. But his and Pam’s children, Katie and Luke, always want chicken and dumplings, and pinto beans when they come home.
Tony has cooked his whole life, and he has gardened all of his life. “I can everything, even deer meat.”
All of his recipes are in his head. He just throws stuff together when cooking but there are never any leftovers.

He saves his vegetable peelings and freezes them to later boil down and can for vegetable stock. He does the same thing with his crappie bones and seafood shells to use in gumbo, which he makes a lot of. “I don’t waste anything,” he said.
He cooked supper last Thursday night on the wood heater because their stove shorted out when he was canning some deer meat. He added water chestnuts to  green beans he had canned with crushed red pepper and fresh garlic, and he cooked yellow squash with onions, potatoes and mushrooms, brussels sprouts with carrots and mushrooms, and grilled duck breast with fresh orange juice, garlic, onion, red pepper and topped with bacon.
He does a lot of cooking on the grill year ‘round and would rather cook on the grill. He grills a lot of vegetables especially cabbage, brussels sprouts, squash.
Tony raises chickens, and would like to eventually be somewhere he could raise milk goats so he can make cheese, and also have honeybees.

Old Settlers Beans
(Peggy White)
1 1/2 lbs. ground chuck
1 large onion
Brown chuck and onion.
1 can Pork & Beans (2 cups)
1 can Pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can lima beans
1 can white beans
1/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup BBQ sauce
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. mustard
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
Simmer on low.

Blackberry Wine Bundt Cake
(Jean Lowery)
1 yellow cake mix (not with pudding)
4 eggs
1/2 cup Crisco oil
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 small box blackberry fusion Jello
1 cup blackberry wine
Mix until smooth. Pour into pan sprayed with Pam or Baker’s Joy. Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool. Drizzle with mixture of 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and 3/4 cup wine.

Iron Skillet Apple Pie
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 Pillsbury unroll and fill pie crusts
5 Granny Smith apples peeled and sliced thin
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350°. Melt butter in skillet. Stir in brown sugar until well blended. Place one pie crust on top of this mixture. Place half sugar and cinnamon mixed over the crust. Layer sliced apples over sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle half remaining sugar and cinnamon over apples. Place second pie crust on top of this mixture. Sprinkle remaining sugar/cinnamon over crust. Dot top with butter. Slit top for air. Cook until brown.

Squirrel Pot Pie
Four squirrels cooked off the bone. Save broth.
Cut into small cubes: one large onion, two medium potatoes and one carrot. Simmer vegetables in broth. Drain and mix with 1-2 cans cream of mushroom soup and one package of brown gravy mix. Put in deep dish pie crust and cover with another one. Bake until crust is brown. (Can use any kind of meat.)

Squash Soup
(Jean Lowery)
Coarsely chop in a Dutch oven eight or nine butternut squash and one large onion. Add a little water and stew until squash and onion are cooked and until most of the liquid is gone.
Stir in ONE of the following:
1 can Nacho cheese soup
1 can Nacho Cheddar Cheese sauce
OR
1 can Cheddar Cheese soup and one can green chilies
Puree in blender and return to Dutch oven. Salt to taste and sprinkle with red pepper. Can be eaten hot or cold.

Blackberry Wine Layered Cake
(Jean Lowery)
1 white cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 1/3 cups blackberry wine
1 box blackberry or black cherry Jello
Mix well and bake in three round or one 9×13 pan. Bake at 350° until done.
Let cake cool and frost with the following mixture:
2 Tbsp. oleo
Blackberry wine
Powdered sugar