Linda Doler

“I threw away I don’t know how much flour learning  to make pie crust!” said Linda Doler of Calhoun City. Then she found a Southern Living recipe that includes egg and vinegar, and has been using it for 35 years.  She makes and freezes crusts to keep on hand, as well as chopped bell pepper.

It has taken her awhile and a combination of three different recipes to get chicken and dumplings she likes and they are still not like her mother-in-law’s, but she is “still perfecting” it, and “like the pie crust, the dumplings are getting better.”

She loves to cook and has always cooked a lot, especially since she and her husband had four children. She makes peanut brittle a good bit for benefits and fixes a basket of it frequently to be auctioned. She likes to make food for weddings, rehearsals and showers when she can, and enjoys hosting Happy Homemakers’ Club of which she has been a member for over 40 years.

The first thing she remembers making is ice cream–mixing it up and freezing it in old metal ice trays. She also made a skillet cake, which she still does. She says it’s just a plain yellow cake she likes to serve with strawberries or peaches.

Then, she learned to cook vegetables, which she loves, along with gardening.  She learned to fry hamburgers at age 12 when her parents bought a dairy bar, Whitworth’s. “It was a good time,” she said about the dairy bar.

She usually changes up things in a recipe to make it more of what she likes. She discovered she was diabetic four or five years ago, but has just lately started changing recipes to use less sugar.

Now when she looks at a recipe she asks herself how she can change it to make it better for her, and says most of the time the changes she makes taste good. Although not sugar free, she makes a muscadine or scuppernong roll, similar to butter roll, but replacing the milk with muscadine or scuppernong juice. She also likes to make fried apple and peach pies.

From a County Extension leaflet, she says the uncooked tomato relish recipe of Sadie Caldwell is “the best recipe!” that it is very good with fish or Fritos, and  Cody Cowgirl Casserole, a recipe she found in a magazine, “is wonderful especially if made the night before,” she said.

Uncooked Tomato Relish
(Sadie Caldwell)
1 qt. fresh ripe tomatoes (chopped and drained in colander)
2 onions (chopped)
1 bell pepper (chopped)
2 Tbsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 oz. mustard seed
1/2 cup vinegar
Mix tomatoes, onions, pepper; sprinkle salt over these and let stand 30 minutes. Put in colander and drain all excess water off. Mix sugar, mustard seed and vinegar. Bring to a boil, then let cool completely. Pour over mixture and refrigerate. Will keep several weeks.

Cody Cowgirl Casserole
Vegetable oil or nonstick cooking spray
1 lb. bulk sausage, browned and drained
1/2 lb. bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled
12 oz. frozen hash brown potatoes
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
2 Tbsp. chopped green onions
2 cups shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, divided
1 cup reduced fat Bisquick
3 cups 2% reduced fat milk
1/2 tsp. salt
4 eggs
(I also add one cup small chopped ham)
Oil a 13×9″ glass baking dish or spray with cooking spray. Combine sausage, bacon, (ham if used), hash browns, bell pepper, green onions and one cup cheese in a large bowl. Spread in baking pan. Whisk together Bisquick, milk, salt and eggs until well blended. Pour over potato mixture. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover and refrigerate overnight (no longer than 24 hours). The next day: Preheat oven to 375°. Remove dish from refrigerator. Bake, uncovered 30-35 minutes, until light golden brown around the edges. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serves 12.

Teacher Delight
(sugar free)
1 box sugar free yellow cake mix
3/4 cup oil
4 eggs
1-8 oz. sour cream
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Blend cake mix, oil and eggs in a large bowl until moistened. Beat with mixer on medium speed two minutes. Fold in sour cream and pecans. Bake in bundt pan at 325° for 40 minutes.

Cheddar Chicken
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
6 slices smoked ham
6 pieces bacon
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can Cheddar cheese soup
1 cup sour cream
Place chicken, one piece at a time, between layers of plastic wrap and roll flat with a rolling pin. Place a piece of ham on each breast and roll up, jellyroll style. Wrap a piece of bacon around each chicken roll. Place chicken rolls in baking dish. Combine soups and sour cream and pour over chicken. Bake, uncovered, at 250° for three hours. Cover and bake 30 minutes more. (Chicken can be put together the night before, refrigerated, and cooked the next day.)

Coconut Delight
1st layer:
1 cup flour
1 stick margarine
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Combine ingredients and press into 9×13″ pan. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
2nd layer:
1-8 oz. block cream cheese
1 cup Splenda
8 oz. sugar free Cool Whip
1 cup coconut
Combine cream cheese, sugar and Cool Whip. Spread over cooled first layer. Sprinkle with coconut.
3rd layer:
2 small pkgs. sugar free instant coconut cream pudding
3 cups milk
Combine pudding and milk and beat until thick. Spread over second layer. (Can use vanilla pudding if desired.)
4th layer:
12 oz. sugar free Cool Whip
Coconut
Top third layer with Cool Whip and sprinkle with coconut. Refrigerate
until ready to serve.

No Knead Rolls
1 cup vegetable shortening
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup boiling water
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup warm water
6 cups self-rising flour
2 pkgs. dry yeast
Butter, melted
Mix shortening, sugar, salt and boiling water together. Set aside and cool. Add beaten eggs and warm water to shortening mixture. Mix yeast with three cups flour and sift into shortening mixture. Add the three remaining cups of flour, blending well. Cover and refrigerate at least four hours or overnight. Three hours before serving, roll dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/2″ thickness and cut. Put melted butter on rolls and bake.

Toasted Pecans
4 cups pecan halves
1 stick margarine
4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. Tabasco sauce
1 Tbsp. garlic salt
Melt margarine. Add other ingredients. Stir into pecans. Put in oven dish and bake on 300° for 30-45 minutes. Stir every 10 minutes.

Toasted Coconut Pecan Pie
(sugar free)
Topping:
1 cup chopped pecans
1-7 oz. pkg. flake coconut
1/2 stick margarine
Melt margarine in skillet, add coconut and pecans, and slowly toast until light brown. Pour onto paper towel to absorb excess oil and cool completely.
Base: 16 oz. container whipped topping (sugar free)
1-8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 cups cold milk
2 pkgs. instant coconut cream pudding (sugar free)
1 jar caramel ice cream topping (sugar free)
2 graham cracker or vanilla wafer crusts
Let cream cheese get to room temperature. Mix with 1/2 cup milk with wire whisk until smooth. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups milk and pudding mixes. Whip until smooth and well-blended. Pour 1/2 base in crust. Sprinkle toasted coconut mixture over base and drizzle caramel topping over mixture. Repeat for second layer. Freeze: You can eat frozen or allow to partially thaw before eating. (You may use vanilla instant pudding mix and then add coconut flavoring.)