Cooking with Love Just Like My Mama Taught Me: (Authentic Virginia Cuisine)

By Sandra Paulette Pierce Mathis

Sandra Paulette Pierce Mathis, the author of Cooking with Love—Just Like My Mama Taught Me (Authentic Virginia Cuisine), was born and raised in Surry, Virginia-- a small rural community on the James River. With her mother’s guidance, she started baking and preparing meals by the age of nine. Although Mathis is not a professional baker, she has an extensive recipe collection that dates to the early 1980’s. She enjoys the art of cooking and baking and has twice won The Virginian- Pilot Norfolk, VA Dream Team Awards for baking. In 2016, she won 2nd Place in Norfolk for gingersnaps as well as 2nd Place statewide for gingersnaps at the Virginia State Fair in Richmond, Virginia. In 2017, an Honorable Mention for Mama’s Coconut Pie was awarded by The Virginian-Pilot Dream Team in Norfolk, Virginia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781984582751

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Copyright © 2020 by Sandra Paulette Pierce Mathis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 07/28/2020

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Chapter 1 Basic Cooking Supplies and Tools

Chapter 2 Simple Breakfast Recipes

Chapter 3 Sandwiches and Salads

Chapter 4 Seafoods and Meats

Chapter 5 Vegetables, Greens, Beans, and Other Good Things

Chapter 6 Breads

Chapter 7 Desserts for Any Occasion

Chapter 8 Snacks and Treats

Appendix Helpful Baking Tips

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Dedication

This cookbook is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Dorothy Odell Hardy Pierce (October 15, 1929 – January 5, 1999), who taught me how to cook with love and to the memory of my father, Marion Pierce, Sr. (December 30, 1924 – July 27, 1999) who loved to eat and said he married my mother on March 15, 1947 because she knew how to cook.

FOREWORD

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This cookbook is very special to me for several reasons. First, the art of cooking was very important in every household in the community in which I was raised in Surry County, Virginia—a small rural community on the James River. I started cooking at a very young age. As a matter of fact, I was baking cakes from scratch all by myself at the age of nine. As a young child, I can remember my mother and grandmother preparing three full-course meals daily because our father and grandfather were hard working men who worked on the farm and often held two jobs. In addition, many women cooked to make a living. Second, my mother, Dorothy Pierce, taught us to be independent and learning to cook was a means to that end. The third reason that this cookbook is so special to me is because cooking created a special bond between my mother and me. When we were in the kitchen, we talked about life. My mother poured into me a lot of wisdom and instructions on how to live and how to be a Christian as we prepared meals, baked cakes and other desserts, and had a lot of laughs, too!

Cooking with my mother was not only joyful, but educational. I never heard her complain about cooking or preparing meals. She took a lot of pride in what she was doing for the family – Mama truly cooked with love and EVERYTHING she prepared was extraordinary. By contrast, I hear so many people today say that they never learned how to cook, no one took the time to teach them, and that they just don’t like cooking.

This cookbook, then, affords me the opportunity to pass on some really special but very simple recipes that readers might enjoy. I have tried to include recipes that are simple and don’t require many ingredients. In essence, this cookbook is for the beginning cook or someone who would like to learn simple old-fashioned Virginia recipes. Many of these recipes are also well-suited for teaching young children how to prepare meals for themselves. The recipes have few ingredients and don’t require a great deal of parental supervision.

I have replaced olive oil in a lot of the recipes that I learned to prepare as a child. It is a much healthier oil than lard or butter that was so often used many years ago. Moreover, I did not include fried meats in this cookbook for that same reason.

I also believe that food is medicine and good homecooked meals provide a great atmosphere for the home. A good meal can alleviate stress and create family bonds. I hope that somewhere along the way, readers will gain a love for cooking and create a legacy of that love in their families just as my mother did for me. Her mother did that for her and I am passing it on to my daughter.

Enjoy the journey!

Sandra Paulette

CHAPTER 1

BASIC COOKING SUPPLIES AND TOOLS

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"Always prepare your dishwater

before you start cooking."

—My mother, Dorothy Pierce

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In every kitchen, there are several basic supplies or staples, that are needed for success in preparing simple meals. In our kitchen and now in my own, the cabinets, pantry, and refrigerator always carried the following items:

1. All-Purpose Flour

2. Self-rising Flour

3. Corn meal

4. Rice (brown and white)

5. Baking powder

6. Baking soda

7. Salt

8. Black pepper

9. Sugar

10. Canned (Evaporated) milk

11. Large eggs

12. Spices – cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, pepper

13. Extracts – vanilla and lemon

14. Butter

15. Margarine

16. Crisco (solid and oil)

KITCHEN TOOLS

1. Large cooking spoons

2. Forks

3. Sharpened knives

4. Round cake pans

5. Square cake pans

6. 13 x 9- inch baking dishes

7. Measuring cups

8. Measuring spoons

9. Bowls of various sizes

10. Frying pans and skillets with and without lids (cast iron and metal)

11. Pyrex dishes

12. Cookie sheets

13. Baking dishes of various sizes

14. Potholders

15. Cutting shears (or a pair of scissors only used in the kitchen)

16. Pots and pans of all sizes with lids

17. Stockpot

18. Teakettle

19. Cutting board

20. Wire racks

21. Potato masher

22. Grater

23. Blender

24. Electric mixer and/or a rotary beater

25. Wire whisks

CHAPTER 2

SIMPLE BREAKFAST RECIPES

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"If you learn to cook, you can save

yourself a lot of money."

—My mother, Dorothy Pierce

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This is the first type of toast that I remember Mama making for us and it was so good!

*OVEN-MADE TOAST

49342.png You will need:

• White, whole grain, or wheat loaf bread slices

• butter

• cheese slices

• cookie sheet (for 6 slices at once)

• a conventional oven

• toaster oven

Preheat oven to 375 Degrees

1. For oven-made buttered toast, place two to three thin slices of butter on bread and spread evenly over each slice of bread.

2. Place bread in the heated oven.

3. When the butter melts, turn the broiler on low to brown the bread (watch the bread carefully because it will only take a minute or so to brown evenly).

4. Remove from oven as soon as the bread browns.

5. Enjoy as is or spread jelly over the toast while warm.

Variation: At suppertime, Mama often made homemade biscuits. In the morning, she would slice the leftover biscuits horizontally into two equal sections, butter each side and place in the oven on a cookie sheet or metal pan. After the butter melted, the bread was broiled