Theresa Dye

“I like to cook and it shows!” laughs Theresa Dye of Bruce. She and “the girls at the office” share recipes all the time. They are employees of MS Eye Consultants of Oxford, formerly Mayo Eye Center. “Some great recipes are shared,” she said, and some of the ones she submitted are from her co-workers.
Some of theirs are Pinterest recipes and some they find online or on Facebook. But they discuss recipes with each other, sometimes changing the ingredients before they even try making something. Theresa said she will sometimes follows a recipe to the letter.
She and her sister, Deb, also swap recipes a lot, and Theresa has a lot of cookbooks and loose stuff.
A Bell’s Best cookbook is something she likes to give often as a gift.
“By the time I was 11 or so, Mama was showing me and my sisters how to cook,” saying that they started with peas, cornbread, meatloaf, and spaghetti.

“It was fun to learn to make cookies and cakes together with my sisters,” she said. Their favorites were chocolate chip and peanut butter. They would even make extra rolls of dough to keep in the freezer.
Her mother always kept live yeast, so she made them a  lot of cinnamon rolls and fresh baked bread, but Theresa says that is not something she does.
In high school, Patricia Copeland was Theresa’s home ec teacher. “She was a good cook, and she taught us nutrition, meal planning, and how to make food look pretty and appetizing,” something she still tries to do. The class planned their menu, took a certain amount of money to the grocery store, bought the ingredients and cooked the meal at school.
She says they “always have black-eyed peas and cornbread on New Year’s” and usually slaw, too. And they have Mexican and regular cornbread.

She makes the sliders for husband, Kenneth, while he’s watching football. Sometimes she uses the pretzel buns and sometimes the regular slider buns. And she serves the Baked Pimento Cheese with Ritz crackers or tortilla chips and describes it as “so good!”
Theresa likes to cook in the fall and their Thanksgiving meal is a traditional “howdy-doody.” She uses her mama’s dressing recipe, which she learned from her. Sometimes she bakes her turkey with fruit, sometimes celery, or even orange juice.
Among the many other dishes for that meal include candied yams, sweet potato casserole, peas, strawberry congealed salad, and coconut cake.

Baked Pimento Cheese
4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup cheddar cheese, freshly grated
1 cup Pepper Jack, freshly grated
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2-3 Tbsp. jarred diced pimentos
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
Preheat oven to 350°. Add all ingredients to mixing bowl and stir until well combined. Spoon into small baking dish. Bake 15 minutes or until melted and warm. Serve with crackers, bread or fresh veggies.

Cornbread Dressing
Mix well one large skillet cornbread and four slices dried bread. Add garlic powder, poultry seasoning, onion powder, salt, pepper, creole. Stir well. To bread mixture add 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 can cream of celery soup, 1 can cream of onion soup. Add eggs to the mixture. Chop finely celery and green onions. Cook this in chicken broth. Add two bouillon cubes to the chicken broth. Slowly add broth until mixed in or the consistency is right, and not too soupy.

Beer Cheese Chicken Pretzel Sliders
1 lb. chicken breasts
12 oz. beer
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
Sauce:
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 cup beer
1/2 cup milk
8 oz. freshly grated cheddar
2 Tbsp. chopped chives
Place chicken, beer, garlic and salt in slow cooker on low for eight hours or high heat for four hours. When done, shred chicken with two forks. Meat should shred easily. To prepare sauce, melt butter in medium sauce pan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook two minutes. Whisk in beer and milk. Continue cooking and whisking until sauce is smooth and thick, about five minutes. Turn heat to low and add cheese, a small handful at a time, stirring until melted before adding the next handful. Stir in chives. Serve on homemade or store bought pretzel buns. Warm them in oven, split and spread one side with Dijon mustard. Top with chicken and cheese mixture.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake
1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 box yellow butter cake mix
1-3 oz. pkg. instant vanilla pudding and pie filling mix
4 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups blueberries
Powdered sugar (optional)
Preheat oven to 325°. Combine cream cheese and oil. Beat with mixer on high until smooth. Add cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until blended. Fold in berries. (Batter will be thick.) Grease and flour bundt pan. Pour batter in pan and bake 60 minutes.

King Ranch Chicken Mac & Cheese
16 oz. cellentani pasta
2 Tbsp. butter
1 medium diced onion
1 diced green bell pepper
10 oz. can Rote
8 oz. Velveeta, cubed
3 cups cooked chopped chicken
10 3/4 oz. cream of chicken soup
12 cup sour cream
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare pasta according to directions. Melt butter in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper, saute five minutes or until tender. Stir in Rotel and Velveeta, stirring constantly until cheese melts. Stir in rest of ingredients (except cheddar cheese) and pasta until blended. Spoon mixture into lightly greased 10” cast iron skillet or 11×7 baking dish. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly. Six servings.

Gena’s Chili
1-1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 can tomato sauce
2 cans chili beans
1 can Rotel chili fixins’
1/2 pkg. dry chili mix
Brown ground beef. Drain. Mix all ingredients and simmer until ready to eat.

Chicken  Enchilada Casserole
1 1/2 cups diced sweet onion
2 large poblano peppers, seeded and diced
2 Tbsp. canola oil
3 minced garlic cloves
2-10 3/4 oz. cans cream of chicken soup
1-8 oz. sour cream
2-4.5 oz. cans chopped or diced green chiles
1 cup chicken broth
1 (1 oz.) envelope taco seasoning
18-6” corn tortillas, quartered
6 cups shredded cooked chicken
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded extra sharp cheddar
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Pepper Jack
Preheat oven to 350°. Saute first two ingredients in hot oil in large skillet (med.-high) five minutes or until tender. Add garlic for one minute. Stir in soup and next four ingredients. Remove from heat. Spread one cup soup mixture in lightly greased 13×9 baking dish. Arrange 24 tortilla quarters, slightly overlapping, over soup mixture. Top with 3 cups chicken, 3/4 cup each cheddar and Pepper Jack cheeses and 1 1/2 cups soup mixture. Repeat layers once. Top with remaining 24 tortillas, soup mixtures and cheeses. Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until bubbly and golden. Remove from oven to wire rack and let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta
1 pound penne pasta
6 strips bacon, diced
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 packet Ranch seasoning mix
2 cups milk
1 Tbsp. butter
Salt and pepper
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into pieces)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Cook pasta, drain and set aside. While making noodles, cook bacon in skillet. Drain grease, keeping one Tbsp. drippings in pan. Add one Tbsp. butter to drippings and toss in chicken breast pieces. Cook until browned and no longer pink. Pour Ranch dressing mix and flour over chicken, then add two cups of milk. Stir until bubbly and thick. Add cheese and half of diced bacon pieces to pan. Stir until melted. Combine sauce and pasta noodles together. Add salt and pepper to taste. Top off dish with extra bacon pieces.