Teresa’s recipes are ‘her treasures’

By Published On: September 11, 2019

Teresa Clark Dunn of Concord community grew up learning how to cook by watching her grandmothers Johnnie Clark and Mattie Thomas, and her mother, Mary Clark.
She and sister, Renee, would start supper when they got home from school, usually something like peas, fried potatoes and cornbread.
“Both (of my grandmothers) were wonderful cooks!” she said. “Mamaw Mattie was high speed all time time, and Grandmother Clark was a steady worker.”
Their grandmother would sometimes turn the kitchen over to her and Renee with a recipe, and Teresa mentioned a time when their brownies did not turn out well.

She also remembers buying her first microwave oven and Jerry Brasher telling her she would love the microwave/convection combination.
She attended an Extension Homemakers class on microwave cooking and still has the cookbook that came with the oven.
The thing that has always stood out to her from that book was a sentence that said if something takes an hour to cook in the oven, it will take a fourth of that time in the microwave.
She has never cooked much meat in the microwave, but still scrambles her eggs that way.
Although she didn’t really use recipes when she first learned to cook, they are treasures to her. And she prefers those that don’t take long.

She enjoyed sharing recipes and techniques with her sister-in-law, the late Linda Carol Smithson.
Teresa has a good collection of cookbooks including monthly mailouts from the Extension Service, including holiday booklets from 1973-81.
She remembers Home Economists Nola Morgan, Martha Kate Phillips and Nancy Gary, and enjoyed her time as a 4-H Club member.
Her high school Home Ec teacher Maudine Baldwin always stressed presentation, and she said her mother always set a pretty table.
With that in mind, she uses her trifle bowl a lot and most recently for serving a cornbread salad.

Husband Thomas has a garden and she has made cucumber pickles. They also have squash, butterbeans, peas and okra, giving her favorite freezing method and frying recipe.
Her favorite meal is a rib-eye, well done, but not dry, with a baked potato, salad and yeast rolls.
And among her other favorites are spaghetti, chocolate pie, or pecan pie, which she always preferred over birthday cake when she was a little girl.

Taco Pie
Donna Bennett
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
4 oz. can green chilies
1 1/4 cups milk
3/4 cup Bisquick
3 eggs
2 tomatoes
1 cup shredded cheese
Cook beef and onions. Drain. Stir in taco seasoning. Spread in deep dish pie pan. Sprinkle on chilies. Beat milk and eggs until smooth, about one minute. Pour on beef/onion.
Bake 25 minutes at 400°. Top tomatoes and cheese and bake 8-10 minutes more. (A Dunn favorite.)

Cabbage & Noodles
Mary and Charlie Clark
1 medium size cabbage chopped
1 large onion chopped
Put in skillet with butter. Cook down until done. Salt and pepper cabbage to taste during cooking. Cook and drain well 10-12 oz. of noodles. Be sure to season noodles with salt, etc. during cooking time. Mix above together with 1 stick butter and serve while hot or warm. Very good dish. Makes a lot.

House Dressing
Linda Carol Smithson
1 cup salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Mix and store in airtight container six months. (Good on vegetables, meats or “pretty much anything”.)

Crunchy Fried Okra
Lisa McNeece, Purely Personal 2017
Chop okra
Sprinkle with salt and flour
Cover with buttermilk
Let sit about 15 minutes
Put flour in sack and shake okra until covered. Spread it on wax paper that has flour sprinkled on it. Let sit about five minutes, then fry in cooking oil. You will have to keep it turned, but use enough oil that it will float. (Teresa’s favorite okra recipe.)

Freezing Okra
Cecil and Gaye Edwards
Wash and lay out in single layer to dry. Put on cookie sheets and quick freeze. Then put in ziplock bags. When ready to use, microwave a fews seconds to be able to slice with knife.

Casserole
Shelia Logan
2 lbs. ground chunk
1 medium onion
1 bell pepper
2 cans Golden Mushroom soup
1 smell can Carnation Milk
1 medium package of egg noodles
8 oz. medium cheddar cheese
Brown beef, onion, bell pepper. Add soup and Carnation milk. Simmer for 15 minutes. Cook noodles. Combine noodles, meat mixture, and sprinkle cheese over this. Put in oven to melt cheese. (Big casserole, she likes to take to church potluck meal or family get-together.)

Biscuits
Mary Clark
1 1/2 cup self-rising flour
1/4 cup Crisco
3/4 cup sweet milk
Make nest for Crisco. Mix flour and Crisco slightly. Mix flour, Crisco and milk. Stir with tablespoon until all is mixed. Sprinkle cloth with flour. Dump dough on cloth (scrape sides of bowl) then sprinkle dough lightly with flour. Work dough into ball with floured hands. Pat dough thickness you desire your biscuits. My dough approx 1/2” thick. Thicker if like thicker biscuits. We like thin biscuits. Grease pan. Place cut biscuits in. Gently grease tops with Crisco. Place in preheated 475° oven for 10-12 minutes. Check after 8 minutes, some ovens have speed bake, and some just cook different.

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