Kristy Barnett

Kristy Barnett of Calhoun City “plays with everything” when she cooks–meaning she never follows a recipe exactly, and “sometimes it’s a disaster, and sometimes it’s a hit!” She enjoys recipe searching on Pinterest, but always makes changes to put her spin on it, and she never makes anything the same way twice. For example, the last time she made a corn dip, she added black beans, and said it was really good.

Husband, Trent, never knows what to expect, and he and their son, Hayden, are meat and potatoes men. Their favorite is meal is meat loaf and mashed potatoes. Kristy doesn’t fry anything anymore, saying they try to bake most everything now, and that she does a good bit of crockpot cooking. Her father is a cattleman, so they eat a lot of beef.

Her favorite food is steak, which she loves at Paisley’s. When she cooks it, she uses different seasoning on it every time. She said it took her forever to learn to bake a potato. The first time she tried it on the grill and cooked it way too long. Now she sprays them with oil, sprinkles a little sea salt, wraps them in foil and bakes them in the oven.

Normally her family doesn’t eat sweet potatoes, but what they don’t know is they are an ingredient in her sausage balls, which are a big hit at their Christmas gatherings, and in the cheese ball, which is also an office party and wedding favorite. She tries new recipes a lot, especially for the extended family during the holidays. And she likes to bake, mostly for the holidays.

She and Hayden make Christmas cookies, bunny cakes for Easter, and cupcakes for family birthdays. She uses the frosting recipe for birthdays, holidays and when taking things to school for Hayden. Kristy made the cowboy cookies for Trent all the time when they were dating. She is the school nurse at Houston, and they have a potluck lunch frequently for birthdays, and usually at the beginning and ending of the school year.

She and her sisters learned to cook by watching their “Mama” and “Nanny” and have been cooking that way since they were young. “I just look at it, just like Mama, and just throw it in the bowl!” Because she does cook so much by how something looks rather than measurements, “it is hilarious for me to try to tell someone how I made something!”

Easy Cheese Ball
2 blocks of cream cheese(the 8 oz. pkgs), softened
1 cup of cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
2 cups of shredded cheese of your choice, I like to use a 4 cheese blend.
1 envelope of dry Ranch or Italian dressing. (There are some great new flavors of dry Ranch dressing, such as Garlic & Herb or Southwestern Ranch. Very fun to try new flavors.)
Pecans or bacon bits
Mix all ingredients well. Roll into a ball. Roll ball in pecans or bacon bits. Serve with crackers.

Sausage Balls
3 cups of Bisquick
1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 cups of cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1 pound of sausage, browned and crumbled
Combine all ingredients well. Roll into balls and place on greased sheet pan.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until brown.

Cowboy Cookies
2 cups of sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
2 cups of rolled oats
1 package of semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup of margarine
1 cup of nuts
1/2 cup of Crisco
1 cup of brown sugar(firmly packed)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Sift together and set aside flour, soda, salt, and baking powder.  Blend shortening and sugars.  Add eggs. Add flour mixture and mix well.  Add rolled oats, vanilla, nuts,  and chocolate chips.  Dough will be crumbly. Drop onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Working Mom’s Cupcake Frosting
1 container of ready-to-spread chocolate or vanilla frosting
1 jar of marshmallow cream
Combine all ingredients well. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.

Crockpot Chicken
1 bag of frozen, boneless chicken breasts
1 jar of salsa
Place chicken breasts in crockpot. Add jar of salsa. Cook all day. Shred with a fork when done. This makes great chicken tacos, chicken quesadillas, or chicken taco salad. I also like to add this chicken to cooked, brown rice with shredded cheese on top. I also like to use an oven bag or crockpot bag in the crockpot for easy cleaning.