Jerald Lofton

By Published On: May 9, 2012

“I’m a baking man, but I can cook anything. I’ve been cooking for years,” said Jerald Lofton of Calhoun City, and, “the secret to no-stick baking is Baker’s Joy spray.”
Jerald and son Tommy ran Bruce Motel Restaurant for a couple of years in the late 80’s, then R&L in Calhoun City for a while after Bruce.

Carol Evans helped them cook at both places, and they served a  daily lunch buffet, and Friday night fish buffet. In 1991, Tommy opened TnT Restaurant in Calhoun City and Jerald cooked all the desserts, plus the chicken and dumplings, and chicken and dressing.

He made pound cakes of different flavors and that’s when he created the Orange Pineapple Cobbler.

“It’s so good it will make you slap your grandma!” he said.

He likes to experiment and says he sometimes makes an awful mess.?When something doesn’t turn out, he said it just goes out in the back yard for the raccoons to eat!

After having surgery in 1994, Jerald was home and began to get bored, so he just took over the cooking since his wife, Joy, was working. He would always cook their supper, and then he started cooking food and taking it around.

“We always love seeing him come in with a plate of those sausage muffins–delicious best describes them,” said Ann Gibson of Rice Family Medical Clinic (formerly Dr. Guy Farmer’s) in Calhoun City.

He “likes to see people enjoy what he cooks,” adding “me and God don’t make no junk!”

He says his daughter, Shelia Gann, and two sons  Frank, Calhoun City, and Tommy, Oxford, are all good cooks, and that his mother, Lois Lofton, and his in-laws, Evelyn and H.L. Evans, Vardaman, were all good cooks that he learned a lot about cooking from.

Sausage Muffins
1 lb. sausage
2 cups Bisquick
1 can cheddar cheese soup
Cook sausage and drain. Add to Bisquick and toss with fork to coat. Add soup. Mix well. Put in sprayed muffin pan. Bake on 350° for 30 minutes.

Orange Pineapple Cobbler
1 stick butter
1 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 large can crushed pineapple
1 or 2 cans mandarin oranges
Melt butter in 2-3 qt. casserole. Mix flour and sugar, add milk, and pour over butter. Do not stir. Mix fruit together in separate bowl. Spoon over batter. Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes or until brown.

Pineapple Cream Cheese Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
4 eggs
8 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained (save the juice)
2/3 cup Crisco oil
1 tub cream cheese frosting
Mix eggs, oil and cake mix. Add enough water to pineapple juice to make one cup, and add to cake mix, along with the pineapple. Stir frosting into batter. Pour into bundt pan and bake 30-35 minutes on 350° or until toothpick comes out clean.

Vanilla Wafer Cake
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter, melted
6 eggs
12 oz. vanilla wafers (I use blender and crush to powder)
1/2 cup milk
12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips
(Options: Can use 6 oz. chocolate and 6 oz. peanut butter chips?OR leave out chocolate chips and use 1 cup chopped pecans and 7 oz. coconut)
Mix butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. mix well after each. Add milk and vanilla wafers. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Mix well. Pour in bundt pan. Place in 275° oven for one hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Invert onto plate.

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