Mary Cole’s ‘cheeseball flop’ was best dip she ever made

Mary Cole’s “accidental” dip recipe is 30 years old. While a student at Ole Miss, she was attempting to make a cheese ball. That “flop” turned out to be the best dip she’s ever made, “a flop that turned successful”, she says.
Her favorite crackers to dip it with are Waverly, and “after serving the dip, you may need to have peppermints handy.”
Her turnip green soup is her own that she developed from one that came from her son and wife, Gernarro and Quinn Cole.
The sweet potato pie has “a little lemon twist to it,” she said, and that recipe is from her mother, the late Della Grace Corbitt, “one of the best cooks in Calhoun City!” she said.
Mary learned a lot about cooking from her mother.
“She had me at that stove stirring,” at an early age, she said.

“I learned to make asparagus casserole under my mother’s tutelage,” she said.
She makes a saltine cracker crumb topping mixed with melted butter, and makes her own cheese sauce.
“I wish I could perfect my mother’s coconut cake icing. I can’t get the icing,” she said.
When asked about a favorite food, she said, “I just eat, but I like my greens.”
Mustard greens are her favorite.
Mary attends Church of the Living God in Calhoun City and favorites of the people that that she makes and brings are chicken and dressing, and cabbage.

Mary’s Accidental Dip
2 pkgs. cream cheese
1/2 bunch green onions
1 pkg. ham, pork, turkey or shrimp (cut in squares)
1 large bottle 1000 Island dressing
1-2 cups milk
1-2 Tbsp. sugar or sweeten to taste
Leave cream cheese out to soften or microwave 1-2 minutes. Cut half of green onion blades into 1/2” pieces. Lay whole pkg. of cream cheese down on flat surface and cut all the way through. Pull apart and don’t cut. Put in bowl and pour in half bottle of dressing and add sugar and milk. Combine ingredients and mix well. Keep adding milk until mixture takes on creamy look. Add dressing until it takes on peachy pink color. After mixing, set in refrigerator 1-2 hours to get stiff enough to dip. Double ingredients for extra serving.

Turnip Green Soup
1 large can seasoned Glory turnip greens
3 cans Great Northern beans
2 cans water (use turnip green cans)
1 can hot or mild Rotel tomatoes
1 pkg. smoked sausage (beef, pork or turkey) sliced or diced
1 pkg. Knorr’s Vegetable Soup mix
Place all ingredients into crockpot and mix. Cook on low heat four hours.

Lemon Sweet Potato Pie
3 large sweet potatoes
1 cup sugar or Splenda for desired sweetness
3 tsp. margarine
3 medium or 2 large eggs
3 Tbsp. lemon juice (Real Lemon or Lemon Extract)
1-9” unbaked pie shell
1 tsp. lemon peel
1 cup whole, 2%, or skim milk.
Put potatoes in pan of water that covers them. Boil until they become soft in jacket. Mix together all other ingredients in bowl using mixer until blended well. Pour mixture into pie shell and place in oven. Lower oven temperature to 300° to make sure pie has time to cook thoroughly. To check, insert knife in center of pie and if blade comes out clean, pie is ready to be served.