Words to live by

Divinity Fudge

Hubert and Luvern Holland 1958

I promised cousin Philip that I will make him some divinity fudge. Granny made it for him every year during the holidays. I don't know if I can make it as good as hers Phillip but I will give it my best shot. I just have to wait for the perfect low humidity day.
It's crucial to measure and assemble all of the ingredients before you start. You will need a Medium size boiler, candy themometer, or a glass of cold water, wax paper, mixing bowl with electric mixer on stand.

Divinity Fudge

2 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup (Karo brand) white corn syrup

2 egg whites

1/8 tsp. salt

2/3 cup water

1 1/2 cup nuts

1 tablespoon vanilla

Cook over medium heat sugar, syrup, salt and water until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water or 240 degrees on candy themometer. Pour half of the mixture into a heat safe bowl. Then return the remaining syrup back to the burner and continue to cook until it reaches hard ball stage or 260 degrees. Stir this occasionally but you do not have to stir constantly.

While the syrup is cooking put the egg whites in mixing bowl and beat until they form stiff peeks. (Tip from Momma: Time this so your beaten egg whites do not sit more than 3 -4 min. before adding the 1st syrup. They will deflate if they sit any longer.)  Take the syrup you cooked to softball stage and with the mixer running slowly add the syrup. (Tip: pour the syrup in as close to the edge of the bowl as possible) By this time the hardball stage syrup should be ready. Remove from heat and slowly add this to the egg whites with softball stage syrup added. Beat until the mixture thickens and becomes heavy.

This is important.....add the pecans by folding them in. Do not add the pecans while the mixer is running. The mixer will beat the pecans and cause the oil to flatten your divinity.....so fold in and then drop by small spoonfuls onto wax paper.

O.K. I am going to try this when it stops raining.  :  -)  Remember no humidity, or hot kitchen.

I love this picture of Granny. I think is our house in the early 70's. It looks like our old refrigerator and paneling in the kitchen.

Lemon Cheese Cake



Morning in Wolffork Valley

 Hey guys this is the recipe for Momma's lemon cheese cake all of you love! I previously posted another from Granny's recipe box which uses fewer eggs. I think I will delete it.  I have only made this recipe. I'm sure the other one is good too, it's just not exactly like Momma's. :)
For those of you who don't know my Momma's cheese cake it's not a Philadelphia cheese cake. No this cake is a butter layer cake with lemon curd icing. No cheese just butter, eggs, lemon and sugar..... I don't know why its called a cheese cake!

Momma's Lemon Cheese Cake

Bake Duncan Hines Butter Cake Mix in 4- 8" well greased and floured round pans. In my oven for 4 layers it takes about 12 min. at 375 degrees until they test done with toothpick. As soon as you take the cake out of the oven run a sharp knife around the edge to loosen. Let stand in the pan for a few min. Then turn the layers out on a cooling rack of a clean cotton dish towel.

Lemon Cheese Icing

3 large or 4 medium to small lemons zested and squezzed
8 egg yolks
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg white

Seperate the eggs while they are cold.

Mix together lemon juice and zest, egg yolks, sugar and butter, and 1 egg white in large sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until thick enough to spread. Stir constantly do not leave it. This will probably take about 10 min. Remove from heat and let stand until cool enough to touch, then ice cake.

Lay small strips of wax paper on cake plate where the edges of cake layers will lay to keep icing off plate. When cake has cooled and the icing has cooled to point where you can touch without being burned layer icing and cake. Ice sides of cake also. Let stand for an hour and remove wax paper. Store at room temperature in Cake Dome. Do not refrigerate.

Patricia Ann Peacock 1957

Aunt Carol's Sweet Potato Crunch

Continuing to bake today and having fun doing it! I'm thankful for that!

This is a very simple dish.  The recipe calls for canned sweet potatoes. I have fresh sweet potatoes and will use those by peeling and cubing 4 medium size potatoes and boiling them in lightly salted water until soft. While the potatoes are still hot drain the water and use handmixer to blend. The strings in the potaoes come out wrapped around the beaters of handmixer and the potatoes are very smooth and fluffy. Continue with the recipe same as with canned.

Sweet Potato Crunch
3 cups canned sweet potatoes, mashed in own juice
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter melted
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs beaten

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour into a well greased baking dish. Sprinkle crunch topping on top.

Crunch topping
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans

Cornbread Dressing with Giblet Gravy and Chicken with Dumplings

Wolffork Valley Georgia



I am pulling out recipes for Thanksgiving and I thought I would pass them on to you. I know I am partial but I think my Mom's cornbread dressing is the best ever! This is the way she makes it. Not hard just takes a little time.

Wade wanted to know why we have to wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas to have dressing!

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 sauté 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 vegetable 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 sautéed 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 x 9 baking dish. Bake 45 min at 400 degrees 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.

Chicken and Dumplings with Tortillas

Cook the chicken in boiling water with salt, pepper, 3 stalks celery chopped and 1 small onion chopped. When tender remove from the water and let cool. Remove from bone and chop.
Use flour tortillas and cut them into strips. Add about 1 1/2 cups chopped chicken back to water. Bring the water you cooked the chicken to a level of a little over half the pot. Bring to a boil and lay the sliced tortillas on top of the water, one at a time. When you have them all in the pot do not stir. Take the back of your spoon and push the tortillas down into the broth and turn the burner off and cover with lid. Do not stir.   That's very important. Serve immediately with dressing and giblet gravy.

I set up a website last night to sell things from. I don't have anything on the antiques and art page yet. I have some old furniture, frames, art prints and original art, vintage Haeger pottery, and designer fabrics and wallpapers to post. I have fabric samples, wallpaper samples and old magazines from the 20's and 30's that I plan to package for sell. Great for crafters and scrapbooks. I am using some of the papers and fabrics to back shadow boxes with also. There are hundreds of out of date fabric memo samples that will be great for scrapbooking, quilting and dollmakers. I also have some really great old tile murals that I bought from an old tile store that was going out of business about 20 years ago. I am guessing they are from the 50's and 60's. I also have some vintage retro fabric samples that were stored in my grandmothers house. I don't know where they came from. The images are great though. Some are stained along the fold lines but that is just adding to their retro appeal! I plan to eventually have some pillows and handmade things for sell on the site too.

You will find some cakes and pies for sell listed on the Granny's Cakes page. I let Tricia talk me into baking some things for sell. The layer cakes and pies can't ship but I will ship pound cakes and fruit cakes for Christmas delivery. Take a look www.louisandlillyathome.com. Have a great weekend.