Dumplings, Cornbread Dressing, Giblet Gravy

I Posted these recipes Nov. 6th but I decided to post them again. Several of you are asking for them! You can send me comments by typing in the comment space at the bottom of the blog. :) Have a good day!

Bertha's Chicken and Dumplings

Self Rising Flour
Buttermilk
Vegtable oil
Large Hen
3 Stalks of chopped celery
1 large yellow onion

salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, stainless dutch oven is best, cook a large hen, salted and covered with water, with 3 stalks of celery, and 1 large onion chopped. Cook for 2 hours on medium low heat. Watch the hen and when the legs and thighs begin to separate from the breast it's done. You want it to hold together while you take it out of the water, so don't over cook it. Let the hen cool and then remove from the pot and remove the skin, and bones, pull the breast meat apart and reserve for later use in the dressing and the giblet gravy. At this point it's best to make your dressing. When you have the dressing almost cooked return the broth to stove and bring to a boil. Make sure the pot is about 1/2 full of broth if not add some water, this would be about 4-5 qts of broth.

In a bowl of self rising flour make a well and put 3 tablespoons of vegtable oil, and about 1 cup of buttermilk in the well. With your hand flip the flour from the sides of the well into the buttermilk and mix it until you have a dough ball big enough to make about 10 to 12 biscuits. If you need more just add more buttermilk and flour.

When you have a ball that is thick enough you can pick up, transfer it to a floured surface. Kneed  until it is soft and smooth. You may need to add flour to get it smooth and not sticky. Then flour a rolling pin and roll the dough into a thin sheet, 1/8" thick or less. Take a knife and cut the sheet of dough into strips about 1 1/2 inches wide, about the width of lasagna noodles or a little less, then cut them again into pieces about 2 to 3 inches long. You can lay the long strips in stacks and then cut the whole stack into the smaller pieces.... it's a little faster.

Pick up a stack of the cut dumplings and lay the dough in the boiling broth in single layers. After you add each layer of dumplings sprinkle the top of each layer with black pepper until you have added all of the slices.  Do Not Stir!!!! Press dumplings down in broth with the back of a spoon. (Very Important). Cook only for 1 or 2 min. and then turn the heat off and let the pot sit for at least 5 min. on the cooling eye of the stove. Remove from the eye and let stand or serve DO NOT COVER WITH LID and DO NOT STIR. 


Corn Bread Dressing with Giblet Gravy

3 cups of medium grind corn meal
10 pieces of white bread for bread crumbs
2 tsp. of salt
3 eggs
2 1/4 cup milk
3 Stalks of celery sautee until tender in 2 tablespoons of butter with 1 large onion chopped
7 eggs boiled and chipped (reserve 3 eggs chipped for gravy)
Hen meat previously cooked with celery and onion, deboned and shredded

For Cornbread:

Heat oven to 450
Pour 1/4 cup vegtable oil in 10" cast iron skillet set aside.

Mix cornmeal, salt, 3 eggs and milk. Place in skillet in 3 pones. With a spoon take the oil that comes up the sides of the pan and dab the tops of the pones.  Bake in 450 degree oven for 30 min or until golden brown.

Remove from oven and let cool. You can make cornbread the night or day before and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before crumbling.

Toast the white bread until crunchy. Let cool and roll toast with rolling pin into fine bread crumbs.

Ok now you are ready to combine everything and make your dressing. At this point you can refrigerate everything and assemble the next morning.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine crumbled cornbread with sauteed celery and onions, 4 sliced and chopped boiled eggs, ( chop eggs into slices about 1/4 inch thick or less and then cut in half. You don't want to smash the eggs or cut them too small they will break up when you start mixing it all together), add the bread crumbs, and reserved chicken and season with black pepper. Pour some chicken broth into the cornbread mixture and mix with spoon until well blended. The dressing should appear wet and pour easily into a 13 x9 baking dish. Bake 45 min at 400 degress until golden brown.

Giblet Gravy

3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 heaping tablespoons of flour
3 to 4 cups warm chicken broth
2 cups dark meat chicken diced
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onions
3 chipped boiled eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in skillet and add flour stir until brown add warm broth and season with salt and pepper, add celery, onions, chopped chicken and chipped boiled eggs. Cook on medium for about 10 to 15 min. until thickened. If too thick add more broth. This gravy should be medium to thin....not thick.

Good Bloody Mary Recipe

This recipe is delicious with or without the vodka! Enjoy.....


Bloody Mary's

In a one gallon container add:

1 quart Vodka chilled
1 1/2 cup lemon juice chilled
2 t salt
2 tablespoon worcestershire sauce chilled
1/4 cup horseradish chilled
1 tablespoon tabasco sauce chilled
1 teaspoon black pepper

Add enough chilled  V-8 tomato juice to fill the container. Taste and add additional salt if needed.
Serve over a small amount of ice and garnish with celery stick.

Oyster Dressing and Tomato Aspic

An old family recipe.


Oyster Dressing

1 quart of fresh oysters in juice
3 tablespoons bacon drippings
1 minced yellow onion
2 tablespoons minced fresh flat leaf parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 stick butter cut in cubes
red pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup 1/2 and 1/2

Butter a 9x9 or 10 inch round oven proof baking dish.
Saute onions in bacon drippings, until clear stir in parsley and set aside.
Place a layer of oystersin a well greased baking dish and add some of the onion and parsley mixture.
Sprinkle salt, pepper, lemon juice and garlic powder.Cover with breadcrumbs and dot with butter cubes.
Repeat with another layer same as above.
Pour milk over the entire mixture and bake in a slow oven at 325 dgrees for 1/2 hour.

Serve immediately. If you reheat I suggest short time in microwave or convection oven for best results.

A good side dish with the oyster dressing is tomatoe aspic. Granny Jane's friend Mrs. John McCaleb gave me this recipe.

Tomato Aspic

3 envelopes plain gelatin
6 cups V8 juice
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of black pepper
5 drops worcestershire sauce
Minced onion and celery

Soften gelatin in 1 1/2 cups juice and stir. Bring remaining 4 1/2 cups juice to boil. Add other ingredients and boil about 10 minutes. Strain vegtable juice. Combine juice and softened gelatin. Pour into 1 1/2 quart mold and chill. Serves 10.


In the past I have sucessfully cut this recipe in half and filled 6 indiviual molds with the mixture. 

To take the aspic out of the mold fill your sink with an inch or 2 of hot water and set aspic mold in water for about 5 min. or until mold can easily be removed from dish. For multiple molds set them in a roasting pan filled with hot water about half the depth of the mold. Lay the serving platter over the top of the mold. Hold the mold and the platter with both hands and flip. Remove the mold and garnish mold with curly leaf parsley or fresh mint.

Fresh Coconut Cake.....Morgan and Emma

The following recipe is our family favorite "Fresh Coconut Cake." My great aunt, Bertha Holland made this cake for our spring time family reunion every year. I actually looked forward to it for weeks!!!

Fresh Coconut Cake

Butter Cake Recipe

2 ½ cups plain flour

¾ teaspoon salt

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup soft butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

·       Combine flour, salt, and soda blend with a whisk.

·       Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs 1 at a time and beat after each addition until yolk is blended in well.

·       Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, mix until well blended. Stir in vanilla.

·       Bake 350 degrees in 3- 9” pans for 30 min.

Fresh Coconut Frosting

2 bags of frozen fresh coconut Thawed do not drain

1 16 oz container of sour cream

1 16 oz box of confectioner sugar

1 small container of whipped topping like cool whip

·       Mix together thawed coconut with juice, sour cream, and confectioner sugar in large mixing bowl. Fold in cool whip or whipped cream.

·       Frost layers when completely cool, cover top and sides of cake. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Keeps refrigerated up to 5 days.

After 24 hours the flavors have time to blend and the sugars melt and seep down into the cake….It’s really good. If you want to use a pre mixed cake mix try Duncan Hines Butter recipe cake mix. It's almost as good as this "from scratch" recipe

I remember Aunt Bertha telling my mother that she liked to make this cake for the reunion because she could make it a couple days before. She would usually spend the day before and the early morning of the day of the reunion cooking things like fresh butterbeans, fresh baby new potatoes and garden peas, fresh creamed corn, and fresh green beans, and her wonderful cornbread dressing with giblet gravy and chicken with dumplings. I posted the dumpling and dressing recipes in an earlier post this month.

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Morgan and Emma Holland

Bertha was the oldest child of Morgan and Emma Holland, my great grandmother and great grandfather. I never met them, but I know a lot about them from the stories I heard all of the Aunts and Uncles tell. Bertha had some older half siblings, from my great grandfather Morgan's first marriage. I have to list them to remember how many there were in both groups! Bertha, Ruth, Ernest, Hubert, Oree, Louise, Ruby, Elmire and Naomi. The half siblings were Lucius, Lome, Lena May, and Jessie. I think that's all. There were 13 children in the house, until Jessie passed away in his early teens.



William Morgan And Emma McInnes Holland
Morgan was 28 years Emma's senior.



Morgan and Emma's gravesite in Ramer Baptist Church cemetary

                                Ramer Baptist Church Cemetary is on State Line Road near Cottonwood, Alabama.

Left to Right Standing: Ruth, Lena Mae, Jessie, Bertha
Seated left Oree, Hubert right



Mid 70's Holland Family Reunion
Left to Right Back row   Ruth, Ernest, Hubert, Elmire
Front Row Lena Mae, Naomi, Bertha, Ruby and Oree
Louise is missing from group she lived in New York,
Lucius, and Lome had passed away by this time.




Lucius, Ernest, Hubert holding my dad Doyle , Elmire, Louise and her husband, Bertha, Ruby, Lena Mae, Ruth and Charles Thurmon holding their children, My Granny Luvern, Lome's daughter, Lome, her son and husband. 





Ruby Holland

Aunt Bertha took care of all of the younger kids and helped with the cooking, washing and cleaning. Emma passed away soon after Elmire, the youngest child, was born. Eventually everyone married and moved away except for  Bertha and younger sister Ruby. They lived together until Aunt Bertha passed away in the spring of 1982.


Bertha Holland



Ruth Holland


It's hard to imagine taking care of 13 children. Cooking on a wood burning stove and laundry were major undertakings on a continual basis. They made their own soaps and lotions, ointments, and most medicines. They wove cotton fabrics and made all of their clothes using a peddal sewing machine or by hand. They made candles and rendered oil for cooking.

Clothes and sheets were washed using lye soap and boiled in a big cast iron wash pot, and then the water was twisted out by hand, and hung up on a rope or wire stretched between post to dry. Light weight cottons for the babies, and all of their diapers were washed by hand using a scrub board.

All water had to be pumped with a hand pump or brought up in a bucket from an open well outside. There was an out house, and chamber pots instead of toilets. Everyone old enough to do anything worked doing something all the time. Before you could take a warm bath you had to warm your water over a fire either in the fireplace or on a castiron wood burning stove.

My great grandfather Morgan and most of his sons worked cutting, sawing or pulping lumber. Rambo Saw Mill, located on Rambo road was a few miles away. This work would be in addition to taking care of their barnyard livestock. Horses, mules, beef cattle, milk cow, pigs, and chickens. They also had the big task of  planting, and harvesting crops for livestock and family food consumption.

After 1900 things changed with the industrial revolution. New machines were invented, to harvest crops and prepare foods for mass marketing.  Electricity came to remote areas and modern appliances and indoor plumbing made life easier.  

This is a picture of  Morgan plowing a field with a younger man. I think the younger man may be Lucius his oldest son.