Maggie Liles Ellard

Maggie Liles Ellard likes to add cream cheese to almost everything. Her daughter Georgia likes it,  too, and will eat it right off the block.

Maggie even added it to Gay Tedford’s spicy sausage and corn soup recipe. With the caramel cream cheese frosting, yellow cake is what she likes best and says it tastes better when the cake and frosting are both warm.
“I will not make a cake from scratch. I don’t know why people do that. I figure Betty Crocker’s got it figured out.”

She gets a lot of recipes from internet websites she signed up to receive like Bisquick, Ritz and Keebler. Maggie googled and got a recipe for the fried rice and yum yum sauce after Georgia asked for Japanese.
Georgia likes it for special occasions, like her birthday, which is coming up this month. She will be nine. She likes to help in the kitchen and is learning to cook.
Maggie had to get used to eating game after she and Micah married because he does a lot of hunting.

They cook a lot of game–turkey, deer, dove, duck, but she doesn’t really like dove. Micah tenderizes and marinates the duck, wraps it in bacon and puts it on kabobs with pineapple for grilling.
She and her sister, Jennifer Cain, help their mother, Donna Liles, with holiday cooking. Maggie usually makes the sweet potato casserole, broccoli and rice, and chocolate pies from her mother’s recipes.

She always watched her mom cook and learned from her. She knew how to cook when she married, but didn’t do much cooking before then because her mother always did it.
A couple of hints she said she got from mom include always using real butter, and substituting milk for water in many recipes.

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken
4 large boneless chicken breasts
1 package bacon
1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
4 jalapenos (seeds removed)
1 half of a small onion
1 bottle Tony Chachere’s injectable butter jalapeno
Inject breasts and pour remaining over the breasts. Marinate a few hours. Butterfly chicken breasts. Place four slices of cream cheese, one chopped jalapeno, and a few onion slices on the butterflied breasts. Fold breasts back together and wrap in bacon. Grill on medium heat until bacon is cooked well and internal temperature of chicken reaches 165°.

Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup milk
1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
2 cups confectioners sugar
Melt butter, add brown sugar and milk. Slowly bring to a boil using a whisk, letting the sugar melt.  Set aside and let cool. Mix softened cream cheese and confectioners sugar. Once caramel has cooled, add to cream cheese/confectioners sugar mixture. Pour over warm cake of choice. (Cakes remaining in the pan work better due to consistency of frosting.)

Spicy Sausage and Corn Soup
1 lb. sausage (hot or mild)
1 box chicken broth
5 chopped jalapenos (seeds removed)
4 chopped potatoes
1 can cheese soup
1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
8 oz. sour cream
1 can cream corn
1 can drained whole kernel corn
1 1/2 cups sharp shredded cheese
1 cup milk
Brown sausage and set aside. Boil potatoes and jalapenos in chicken broth. Add cheese, soup, cream cheese, sour cream, cream corn, whole kernel corn, cheddar cheese, milk and sausage. Cover and let simmer. Garnish with remaining sharp cheddar cheese.

Mini Cheeseburger Pies
Burger Mix:
1 lb. ground beef
3 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Baking Mix:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup Bisquick milk
2 eggs
Brown ground beef, add Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt and cheddar cheese. Separately combine milk, Bisquick mix, and eggs. Spray 12-muffin pan with cooking spray. Spoon in one tablespoon of baking mixture into each muffin cup. Top with 1/4 cup of burger mix. Spoon on additional tablespoon of baking mix into each muffin cup. Bake 30 minutes at 375° or until golden brown. Garnish with condiments of your choice.

Baked Jalapeno Popper Dip
1/2 cup seeded and finely chopped jalapeno peppers (medium size)
1 tsp. olive oil
2-8 oz. pkgs. softened cream cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
4 oz. can chopped chili peppers
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 sleeve club crackers
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup melted butter
Saute jalapenos in olive oil until soft. Set aside. Combine cream cheese, mayo, chili peppers, cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese until smooth. Then stir in jalapeno peppers. Spray 2-qt. baking dish with cooking spray and pour mixture in. Crush crackers and combine with Parmesan cheese and butter in small mixing bowl. Sprinkle over cheese mixture. Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with crackers or corn chips.

Hibachi Style Fried Rice with Yum-Yum Sauce
Fried Rice
2 cups of cooked rice, cooled
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup frozen peas and carrots
1 egg
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
Saute onion, peas and carrots in olive oil. Move veggies to side of pan and lightly scramble the egg. Add rice and butter and saute 15 minutes. Add soy sauce and cook for one minute. Serve hot with yum yum sauce.
Yum Yum Sauce
1 1/4 cups real mayonnaise
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. tomato paste
1 Tbsp. melted butter
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. paprika
Dash of cayenne pepper
Whisk all ingredients together until mixture is smooth. Refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to blend. Serve at room temperature over rice mixture.