Cecil Edwards

“Seasoning is the key to cooking,” says Cecil Edwards of Bruce. He started out seasoning as he cooked and adjusted as he went along, but his adjustments were “how many times to shake the box” rather than a measurement.

He describes himself as an “old school” cook, saying he could cook at a young age, but cooked more after he married because he worked third shift over 40 years, with wife Gaye giving him some pretty good pointers over the years.

Daughter Anita Dugard, who at one time had a catering business, says she learned to cook from her mother and her daddy.
Cecil usually cooks daily since his retirement and says Gaye fusses because he cooks so much. He says he can pretty much put a full course meal together pretty quickly, and that the worst part about cooking is the clean up.

He says he’s had lots of trial and error and that all of his dishes are original because he makes it different every time.
He has always gardened–peas, butterbeans, tomatoes, okra, etc., and Gaye makes pickles and cans green beans. For meals at Concord church, Katie Hellums always asks for his butterbeans. Cecil does a lot of his cooking in the winter time and makes some soup and chili.

Several times a year he helps with the Baptist Association disaster relief team, and while he doesn’t do any cooking for them, the first day at deer camp in Illinois he was named cook.
When he cooks, he uses a lot of onion, and Lawry’s seasoning a lot because it’s “a real good seasoning.” He will sometimes split smoked sausage, sprinkle on Lawry’s seasoning and bake it in the oven, then add it to beans and rice.

Or he will add the sausage to a mixture of stovetop stuffing and chicken broth and top it with cheese, then bake.
He attends the monthly Pleasant Agers meeting and always carries a dish to their potluck lunch, and for Labor Day and other family gatherings, they usually have potluck. He likes to grill in the summer, and has a “Dadgum It’s Good” grilling cookbook he gets a lot of ideas from.

He says he has cooked chicken every way you can cook it, including the livers. Desserts he makes include sweet potato pie, brownies and pecan pie, and when he looks at recipes, it’s usually just for a pie.

Irish Potato Casserole
(Geneva Hankins)
Slice potatoes in 9×13 pyrex dish
Slice large onion over potatoes
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 Tbsp. salt
1 Tbsp. pepper
1 cup milk
Heat soup, milk, salt and pepper. Pour mixture over potatoes and dot with margarine. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes with cover or foil. Remove cover and cook 30 minutes.

Chicken Pot Pie
Boil 3-4 chicken breasts and chop or cube chicken when cool
1 can Veg-All (drained)
1-10 3/4 oz. cream of chicken soup
Mix ingredients (if more liquid is needed, add broth from chicken) and place in deep dish unbaked pie shell. Top with regular size pie shell. Heat 5-6 minutes. Remove from pan and make four cuts in shell. Bake in 350° oven until pie shells are golden brown.

Sausage Rotel
(Rhonda Edwards)
1 lb. cooked and drained mild sausage
1/2 onion, chopped
1 can Rotel?(do not drain)
12 oz. Mozzarella cheese
Cook sausage and onion until browned. Add 1 can Rotel. Cook until all juice has cooked out. Spray 9×13 pyrex dish with Pam. Place 1/2 of cheese in dish. Spread meat mixture on top. Cover with other half of cheese. Cook at 350° until cheese has melted, approximately 20 minutes.

Deer or Beef Roast
2-3 lbs. deer or beef roast (grilled or deep fried deer meat may be used)
5-6 medium potatoes, cubed
4 sliced carrots (salt and pepper to taste)
1 sliced onion, if desired
Brown roast and make gravy with flour and let brown. Add roast, potatoes, onion and carrots to gravy in roaster and cook covered in 350° oven. Take cover off and cook and turn to brown for approximately another hour. May have to add water and cook additional time, just depends on your taste and how done you want it.

Strawberry Pizza
(Rhonda Edwards)
2 cups flour
2 sticks margarine
1 cup nuts
Mix together and place in bottom of pyrex dish. Bake 15 minutes at 250°. Let cool. Set aside.
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
Mix together thoroughly. Add one cup boiling water. Let cook until thick. Take off stove and add one small box strawberry Jello. Let cool and add two pints strawberries. Set aside.
8 oz. cream cheese
12 oz. Cool Whip
2 cups powdered sugar
Cream together cream cheese and Cool Whip, then add powdered sugar.
First layer, crust; second layer, cream cheese mixture; third layer, strawberry mixture. Top with Cool Whip when ready to serve if desired.