Food interests: Cooking from scratch and country cooking.

Hobbies: Learning to crochet, progress is slow though! Painting and playing the piano also..

Q. What are your favorite things to cook?
Mostly, I cook from scratch. My Mama and Gran have influenced my cooking. I love their recipes! Love trying new things that become the favorites at our house. Mexican is also a big hit in my home!

Q. How/when did you learn to cook?
I grew up watching my Mama and Gran cook. When I was in junior high, we were required to take a Home Economics class, my teacher was amazing and along with my Mama and Gran, inspired a love for cooking. I consider myself still learning to cook. There is so much that I haven’t learned to cook yet. Recipe books are reading material for me. The possibilities are wide open and endless as to what can be learned. I will never be bored! I am still learning.

Q. Tell us about some of your cooking triumphs.
Learning to cook dressing for holidays has been a triumph for me. My dressing is definitely not as good as my Mama or Gran’s, and will probably never be as good as theirs, but I will not stop trying!
Anytime my family tells me that they enjoyed something that I made it is a good feeling. When they tell me that it tastes like Gran’s, that is definitely a triumph.

Q. What was your most memorable cooking tragedy?
When I was 11 years old, I decided to make my Mama a birthday cake. The instructions said to bake the cake at something like 325 degrees…so if 325 is good, 400 should be better and faster. Do I need to finish this story? You can guess what happened as I left the kitchen for a few minutes. It could have been worse. I could have burned more than the cake.

Q. Describe your kitchen. Do you love it, hate it, and why?
I love my kitchen! I live in an old farmhouse and my kitchen has hardwood floors. There are stained glass windows and the sunlight floods in. My Gran’s kitchen table is in my kitchen–there are so many memories of sitting at that table as a child. The cabinets are painted white and the door has a window. When I can’t have the door open, I can still see outside. These things make my kitchen feel homey and comfortable. The door opens out to a porch and it is a great place to sit with coffee first thing in the morning. When the weather is pleasant, I can open the door and hear the chickens, goats, ducks, cats and dog as I cook. If there is something going on in the fields, I can hear that, too. I like hearing these sounds as I work in my kitchen!

As this is an old house, the kitchen is large. There is room for my kitchen table, baker’s rack, desk, hutch, bookshelf, and an old kitchen cabinet, in addition to my work space. My friends enjoy sitting at my table. I like that! It is not a fancy kitchen, or the most up to date, but it is a comfortable place to enjoy cooking.

Q. Is your pantry organized and are your kitchen drawers tidy? We need to know.
The pantry is semi-organized. The drawers are generally kept tidy… I like to quickly find what I need when I am cooking.

Q. Do you have any favorite family cooking traditions?
Turkey and dressing are a big tradition in my family, it is important and everyone looks forward to the dressing. My Gran made the best dressing and I make mine in the same way that she made hers.

The Christmas morning brunch was a big tradition too. It was the one event that no one missed!! Daddy made the sausage balls and when they were able Mama made a homemade coconut cake with a fresh coconut. Family and friends would gather at their home for this event. It was important to Daddy and he looked forward to it every year. The event began years ago when my Uncle came by to see what Santa had brought. The event grew to include friends through the years. Some of my happiest memories surround this event.

Q. What is the one gadget (or ten) you couldn’t do without in your kitchen?
My cast iron! I can’t imagine cooking without it! How would I make cornbread or fry chicken without cast iron? Cast iron gives a down home flavor to food.

Q. If you had to take one food to a deserted island, what would it be?
How could I choose only one food? I would need my whole pantry!

Q. What is your go-to comfort food?
Fried chicken, homemade mashed potatoes, and homemade biscuits. It reminds me of Sunday dinners as a child.

A few of Butterbean’s favorite recipes that’s been submitted to Farm Bell:

• Cheddar Pepper Bread

See all of Butterbean’s recipes and/or blog posts!

Butterbean blogs at Adventures In Country Living.

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