By Andy Bedwell
I just discovered a few days ago that a covered dish gathering is a whole different thing from potluck. A potluck get-together leaves the possibility of folks bringing store-bought food. Covered dish is something you make at home, pour into your casserole dish and stick a cover on top. The covered dish almost always guarantees good food, especially if the grannies are cooking.
As a little girl, I just loved to flip through my mother’s old cookbooks and read recipes. As a grown woman, I still simply adore going through pages and pages of wonderful recipes. While most of you were reading wonderful novels, I was reading cookbooks from the Gadsden Woman’s Club, The First Methodist Church in Gadsden, and my favorite yellow cookbook, Calling All Cooks from the Telephone Pioneers of America Alabama Chapter. By experimenting from all of these cookbooks, they have helped shape me into the home cook I am today.
Glorified Cabbage
One head cabbage
8 ounces hand grated
extra-sharp cheese
3/4 cup butter
1 can cream of
chicken soup
1 onion, chopped
Medium size pan
of cornbread
Season and cook cabbage. Drain and place into a 9×13-inch dish. Bake cornbread and crumble. Mix the cheese, onions and soup. Pour over the drained cabbage. Top with the cornbread and butter. Bake at 350 degrees until it bubbles and is brown.
Andy’s Note: How Southern and how country can this dish be? I think you will be shocked at how good this recipe will be. If you like cabbage, you will love this dish.
Tomato Pie
9-inch deep dish
frozen pie crust
3 medium tomatoes,
peeled and sliced
6 strips of bacon,
fried and crumbled
1 cup cheese (Cheddar, Monterey Jack or
Swiss) hand grated
1 cup mayonnaise
Bake frozen pie crust five to seven minutes. Place tomato slices in bottom of pie crust and top with crumbled bacon. Combine cheese and mayonnaise. Pour over tomatoes. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.
Andy’s Note: Wait for garden fresh tomatoes to try this dish. This delicious pie is good with any meal. Every time I see this tomato pie recipe, I think of my cousin, Andy Townsend, who lives in Tuscaloosa. Cathye, his mother, makes this dish for him often.
Blueberry Buckle Cake
2 cups self-rising
flour, divided
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup Crisco oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups blueberries
(fresh or frozen)
Reserve one-fourth of a cup flour to coat nuts and blueberries. Combine remaining one and three-fourth cups flour, sugar and cinnamon. Make small hole or well in mixture. Add eggs, oil and vanilla. Beat until thoroughly mixed (mix with a spoon). Fold coated nuts and blueberries into mixture. Pour into a greased and floured 9 x13-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. This batter is stiff.
Andy’s Note: A lemon glaze is so good over this cake while it is still warm. This cake is so good with a hot cup of fresh coffee. I have got to make one of these this week!
Happy Summer Cooking,
Andy Bedwell
“Southern Cooking with Andy Bedwell” can be purchased at Alabama Gift Company in downtown Gadsden and The Messenger on Rainbow Drive.