Fay Nolan

Johnny The Wop is loved by all of Fay Nolan’s grandchildren. She doesn’t have a clue where her mother got the recipe or where the name came from, but it’s like a layered spaghetti dish.
She grew up in Oklahoma and cooks a lot like her mother did, with “a pinch of this and that.” She noticed that a lot more grease is used in cooking here than Oklahoma, but “food is different everywhere you go, from the seasoning to the soil,” she said.
Growing up, her family ate Pinto beans after their vegetables were gone and ate dry beans and peas in the summer, too. They liked their beans with potatoes and cornbread.

She always puts a little sugar in tomato products, something she learned while working in a school cafeteria for several years, and she likes to make homemade spaghetti sauce. She puts a little sugar in a lot of things including Pinto and dry beans.
Mrs. Fay could not cook when she married because she had worked in the field and her mother did the cooking. But she learned, and taught all of her and husband, Sherman’s five daughters–Maria, Margaret, Marquetta, Marilyn and Martha–to cook. The Nolans also have 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
“Everything I make is easy and doesn’t call for extreme (a lot of) ingredients,” and the recipes she included are all family favorites that were from her mother.

She makes Vinegar Taffy (which does not taste like vinegar) sometimes when the kids are home and  she also takes it to Lafayette County 4-H Club meetings where daughter, Margaret Webb, is County Agent.
Sometimes the 15-20 club members make the taffy or peanut brittle at their meetings. Her grandchildren there have now outgrown 4-H, she added.
She says the tomato and egg noodles are more like dumplings, and that her children love it. The goulash is another quick and easy recipe that she makes a lot.

Her family has an annual reunion that was started years ago by her parents, and last year it was in Bolivar, Mo., a central location for all of them. In 2006, the Richardson Family Cookbook was made available at their reunion by some of the family members.
Up until a couple of years ago they would plan the reunion menu and cook when they got there, but in the last couple of years have had the event catered.
Her family doesn’t eat many desserts, but if one asks for something in particular, it’s usually a chocolate pie or plain cake with no icing. She sometimes makes fudge and peanut brittle, and she likes banana pudding, but never makes it.
Mrs. Fay generally sticks to her old recipes, but will sometimes try something new, saying she is not a picky eater and likes everything but chittlins’.

Goulash
1 lb. hamburger meat
1 onion, chopped
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Brown meat and onion. Drain. Pour in other ingredients. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer 30 minutes.

Vinegar Taffy
2 cups Karo syrup (red or blue label)
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1/4 tsp. soda
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine first four ingredients in pan. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cook to hard ball stage (250°). Remove from heat, add soda and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Pour into buttered pan. When cool enough to handle, pull awhile. Pull into long strips and cut when hard. Wrap in waxed paper. Makes 1 1/4 lbs.

Easy Peach Cobbler
(Margaret Webb)
1 stick margarine or butter
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
4 cups peaches (fresh or canned) peeled and sliced
Melt margarine. Pour into 13x9x2” oblong baking dish. Add peaches. Mix flour, sugar and milk. (Mixture will be thin.) Pour over peaches. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes.

Johnny The Wop
1 -8 oz. pkg. noodles
1 green sweet pepper, cut fine
1/2 lb. American cheese, cut fine
1 large can tomatoes, mashed
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef, cooked and drained
1 medium onion, chopped
Salt, pepper to taste
Cook noodles according to package directions and drain. Cook onion and ground beef until about half done. Alternate layers of noodles, green pepper, cheese and ground beef. Cover with tomatoes. Bake in 375° oven until thick.

Tomatoes & Egg Noodles
Use a pint of tomato juice (you may use crushed tomatoes.) Add teaspoon of sugar to juice and a pinch of salt. For noodles, she uses one cup of flour and breaks an egg into it. Use fork and whip until dry enough to roll. Cut in 1”x 1 1/2” strips. Drop strips in  boiling tomato juice. Turn down to simmer.