Kristi Reid Shelton

Kristi Reid Shelton of Bruce is sharing “cherished recipes” of  her grandmother, the late Tula Vance this week. She once told her grandmother she wanted a copy of her recipes, and about a year later for Christmas, Mrs. Tula gave her a notebook holding handwritten copies of them. Kristi said it took her grandmother a year to get them all written and put together. “Everyone (in the family) was mad,” when Kristi was given the book, and her Mamow simply said, “She’s the only one who asked for my recipes.”

A few years later Kristi took the book to a printer to have copies made for the rest of the family for Christmas. She said Mrs. Tula knew what went in each recipe, but since she didn’t measure, she didn’t know how much, so the recipes are “her best guess estimates.”
She enjoys doing her cooking in cast iron skillets that belonged to her grandmother.

Kristi calls herself a “down home cook” and likes to have the traditional holiday basics, but does like to try something new of Tula’s usually for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Her mother, Amy, always made oyster dressing for the holidays, but Kristi began making her Mamow’s traditional chicken and dressing for the family after Mrs. Tula died. She has made it every year since then and the family tells her she’s got  it down pat.

They have a brunch for Christmas now for which family members bring anything from appetizers to breakfast food. She likes trying new recipes for appetizers for this, and for tailgating. Cheeseball with bacon bits is a favorite appetizer that she makes. Husband, Steven, is their griller and he and his brother, Chris, have a secret marinade they like to use on chicken and deer meat.
Kristi and daughter, Janna, cook a lot.
“Janna is the baker. She cooks the sweets, and she’s good at it.” Family members enjoyed her Turtle Cheesecake and Strawberry Pie over the holidays. “Her thing is to Google and Pinterest–she is a picture person,” she said.

Janna thinks it is funny that Kristi plans to have a garden this spring, the first one she’s had in years.
Mrs. Tula always made Red Velvet Cake for Kristi’s birthday, something she says she has not attempted yet. The refrigerator rolls Mrs. Tula made at Trojan Inn and Cagni’s are another thing she hasn’t tried either because, “I am afraid of yeast,” but says her daddy, Andy Reid, can make them, and noted that he never goes by a recipe either.
Kristi said she has “watched her (Mrs. Tula) make butter roll a thousand times” but says she hasn’t got it quite the same yet. She said Tula used to make butter roll and Kristi would “haul it to work in Gadsden to Steve Ferguson.”

Kristi says she’s had a lot of cooking influences, that everybody in her family cooked and her family has always been in the restaurant business. She says she has worked with and learned “old-fashioned cooking” from some great cooks–her grandmother, Mug Evans and Linda Glass.

Butter Roll
2-3 Tbsp. water
2 2/3 cups sugar
2 sticks butter
2 ½ cups self-rising flour
½ gallon sweet milk
2 tsp. vanilla flavoring
½ cup shortening
Mix 2 cups of flour and the shortening until crumbly. Add water until it has consistency of pie dough. Make 2 balls. Roll out each ball on floured surface as thin as you can get it.  Spread 1 cup sugar and 1 stick butter (sliced) on each rolled out ball of dough. Roll each up and slice into ¼” pinwheels. Place one layer of pinwheels in bottom of baking pan. Mix remaining flour and sugar together and cover the first layer with half of the flour/sugar mixture. Repeat with  remaining pinwheels and flour/sugar mixture. In a saucepan heat milk and vanilla to boiling, remove and pour over pinwheel layers. Bake at 350° until golden brown. Make 10-12 servings.

Chicken & Dressing
Cornbread: 2 cups cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1 ½ cups milk
Mix all ingredients together and bake at 450° until brown.  Let cool. Boil one frying size chicken until tender. Cool and pick from bone. Save broth. When bread is cool, crumble and add enough broth to make thin mixture. Add 2 cups chopped onion, 1 cup chopped celery and 2 Tbsp. sage.  Salt and pepper to taste. Pour half mixture into greased pan, add chicken. Pour  remaining mixture into pan. Bake at 400° until brown.

Refrigerator Rolls
1 cup boiling water
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 ½ tsp. salt
Mix above ingredients and set aside to cool. Mix 1 cup warm water with 2 pkgs. Yeast and let cool.  Mix together with the top four ingredients. When all are about lukewarm add 2 eggs and 6 cups of self-rising flour. You can keep this dough in refrigerator for up to 10 days or let rise about 2 hours. Roll out dough and cut out rolls.  Let rise at least 1 hr. or more.  Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until brown.

 Red Velvet Cake
2 ½ cups self-rising flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla flavoring
2 (1 oz.) bottles of red food coloring
1 ½ cups sugar
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1 tsp. white vinegar
2 eggs
Cream sugar and oil, add eggs and beat well.  Sift together dry ingredients. Mix all ingredients together with electric mixer.  Pour into 3 greased and floured 9 inch cake pans and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Frosting:
2 sticks butter softened
10 oz. cream cheese
1 box powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
After frosting sprinkle with chopped pecans.