Norma Poynor

Norma Poynor retired from Borg Warner in Water Valley last year after 37 years. “We celebrated everybody’s birthday, retirement and every holiday,” saying they took a lot of food to work. She stays in contact with some of the people from there and they still share recipes.
 Neiman Marcus brownies were the favorite thing she took to work. “They called them ‘the million dollar bar’,” she said. Every time there was a meeting or anything, she took those. Once when an engineer from Brazil was visiting the plant, he said they were  “worth more than a million.”
She has a cookbook from when Borg-Warner was Holley Carburetor and it is one of her favorites.

Soup is a favorite of hers, and she likes to make it. Taco soup is the one she most likes to make, and that’s what she took to the Rocky Branch Baptist Church Souper Bowl meal. She also makes chili a lot in the winter and her family likes that.
Every Wednesday night soup and dessert are served at their church. Norma always makes the dessert for that meal and usually takes blueberry pound cake, the NM brownies, Butterfinger cake or pecan pie.

She likes to make sweets and always tries out new desserts on the family during the holidays.
She makes a birthday meal for her family members consisting of their favorite foods, and likes to make desserts for the grands, who all like sweets. Courtney likes the million dollar bars; Caleb, red velvet cake and pumpkin pie, and  Caden “likes everything sweet.”
She made desserts for five years for Bruce Bait Shop when her daughter and son-in-law, Wendy and Marshall Hill, owned it, and  also made and decorated wedding and birthday cakes for 25 years.

She likes the caramel icing recipe using brown sugar and white sugar and says it’s easier to make because you don’t have to caramelize the white sugar. She makes a yellow cake and puts the icing between the layers also.
The Poynors garden every year and they have peach trees and blueberry bushes. She likes to make the blueberry pound cake, a recipe she has had forever.

There were five children in her family. Her older sister, Wanda, learned to cook first and did most of the cooking, and Norma started later.
Biscuits are the first thing she remembers her sister teaching her. “It took me a while to get them to look good and of course my brothers made fun of them, but they ate the leftovers after school.” Cornbread was easier, she said.
Daughter Wendy got recipes from Norma after she married, and now granddaughter Courtney is learning and e-mails her grandmother for recipes. She also made her first pickles this past summer. “We had a good time,” Norma said.
Blueberry Pound Cake
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1-8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup cooking oil
3 eggs
Pint or more of blueberries
Mix all ingredients together. Bake in greased and floured bundt pan at 325° about one hour.
Neiman Marcus Brownies
1 box butter pecan cake mix
1 egg
1 stick butter
Mix together until crumbly. Pour crumble mixture into 9×13 pan. Press up side to 3/4.
1 box powdered sugar
1-8 oz. cream cheese
2 eggs
Mix together until smooth. Pour mixture in pan. Sprinkle with pecans or walnuts. Bake at 325° one hour and five minutes.

Caramel Cake Frosting
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
Mix all ingredients together and cook over medium heat until drops of icing will form soft ball when dropped into cup of cold water, 238°. Remove from heat and beat until icing reaches spreading consistency, about 15 minutes. For a large cake, double recipe.

Paradise Pie
(Missionary from Hawaii)
2-9” pie shells, 9×13 pan w/baked shortbread crust OR 2 Graham cracker pie crusts
12 oz. Cool Whip
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup crushed pineapple, undrained
1 small bag shredded coconut
1 cup macadamia or other nuts
1/4 cup lemon juice
By mixer or hand, mix Cool Whip and sweetened condensed milk. Mix in pineapple, coconut and nuts. Add lemon juice last to set mixture like gelatin. Pour mixture into baked pie shells and refrigerate. Cut into small slices. This is very rich.

Chocolate Chewy Bars
2 cups flour
2/3 cup oil
3 eggs
1 lb. box brown sugar
1-12 oz. bag chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
Mix flour, eggs, oil and brown sugar. Then add chopped nuts and chocolate chips. Bake at 300° for 30-45 minutes.

Green Bean Casserole
1 tsp. salt
2 cans French style green beans, drained
1 can whole kernel shoe peg corn, drained
1/2 cup sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup cheddar cheese grated
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 stick butter, melted
1 roll Ritz crackers, crushed
Use oblong casserole dish. Butter dish or spray with cooking spray. Mix green beans and corn together. Put in dish. Mix sour cream, cream of chicken, cheddar cheese and onion together. Pour mixture over beans and corn. Mix butter and Ritz crackers and put on top. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.