Country Classics and Redneck Roots: The Best of Man, That Stuff is Good!

Country Classics and Redneck Roots

The Best of Man, That Stuff is Good!

Copyright 2018 Denise Grisham

Published by Denise Grisham at Smashwords

Front Cover Photo Credit: The Mini Maverick, Dana Troglen

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

My Lasting Legacy

Cool Drinks

Southern Sweet Tea

Fruit Tea

Elk River Tipsy Tea

Sun-Drop® Punch

Whipped Cream Vodka Creamsicle

Knock You Naked Margaritas

Bullfrog

Long Island Tea

Green Apple Moscato Sangria

Breads

Cornbread

Hoe Cakes

Stuff To Nibble On

BLT Rollups

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Cold Black Bean Dip

Ham Rollups

Mango Salsa

Easy Sausage Balls

Shrimp Dip

Stuffed Mini Sweet Peppers

Zesty Oyster Crackers

Soups and Stews

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Hamburger Soup (aka: Vegetable Beef Soup)

Italian Wedding Soup

Taco Soup

Tomatoes & Okra

Turnip Green Stew

White Chili

Salads

Cole Slaw

Denise’s Italian Pasta

Easy Pasta Salad

Grandma’s Cucumbers

Hot Slaw

Potato Salad

Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Onions

Side Dishes

Au Gratin Potatoes

Death Corn Five

Fried Potatoes

Green Beans

Grilled Cabbage

Grilled Okra

Mac and Cheese Gratin

New Potatoes and Green Beans

Pinto Bean Casserole

Pinto Beans

Rice Consommé (Dirty Rice)

Southern Fried Apples

Southern Purple Hull Peas

Grits and Spinach

Squash Fritters

Stewed Potatoes

Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Tomato Cheese Grits

Turnip Greens

Vidalia Onion Casserole

Wilted Lettuce

Meats Baked, Grilled, Smoked and in Casseroles

Chicken Dumplings

Drunk Chicken

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Classic Greek Chicken

Chicken Smoked on the Bubba Keg®

Smothered Chicken

Fancy Pants Chicken

Rattlesnake Pasta

Leftover Turkey Dinner Pockets

Mississippi Roast

Meatballs, Italian Sausage and Spaghetti Sauce

Meatballs and Spaghetti Sauce

Salisbury Steak

Pressure Cooker Meatballs & Ziti

Stuffed Cabbage Casserole

Baked Boston Butt

Smoked Ribs

Kraut and Wieners

Easy Desserts for People Who Don’t Bake

Easy Banana Pudding

Buttermilk Pie

Chess Squares

Diet Sun-Drop® Cake

Doo Doo Cookies

Hot Fudge Pie

Kix® Candy Clusters

Meme’s Brownies

Peanut Butter Cornflake Cookies

Pina Colada Cake

Rum/Whiskey Balls

Rum Balls

Whiskey Balls

Self-Filled Cupcakes

Redneck Food

Chittlins’

Deer Summer Sausage

BBQ Bologna

Fried Salmon Patties

How to Cook Goat

Goat Stew

Pickled Eggs

Homemade Wine

Blackberry Wine

Cherry Wine

Muscadine Wine

Miscellaneous

Bacon Grease

Crock Pot Apple Butter

How to Get Rid of Gnats

Jimmy’s Homemade Cough Syrup

Kitchen Measurement Chart

Mr. Johnson's Redbud Jelly

Vacuum Seal Corn

Ramblings

Refrigerator Referees

The Great Tomato Debate

Have You Burped Lately?

Putting on the Dog

Treasures Found in Recipe Boxes

About Denise Grisham

Connect with Denise Grisham

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I want to thank my husband Andy Grisham for bringing out the best of my cooking abilities. For years, I jokingly said I felt a kinship with Goldilocks in a twisted sort of way. The father of my children refused to eat chicken and was an extremely picky eater. The other significant other in my life ate most meats but only seemed to like corn on the cob and iceberg lettuce. Last, but not least, along came the big Teddy Bear and love of my life who liked all food groups (and some I will not touch). Finally! It took almost forty years to find him, but he is just right!

To the kids: Blake, Blair, Dale and Andrew, I love all of you more than words can express and hope you will always remember that the family that eats together, stays together.

To friends and other family members (blood and extended): Cheers to the many enjoyable dinners and feasts we’ve shared and here’s to many more!

To the internet, Blogger and all forms of social media, thanks for giving regular folks like me the opportunity to share our love of cooking.

My Lasting Legacy

As a child of the 60s, our family cooked and ate dinner together. We had real conversations without the distraction of TV, radios and electronic gadgets. The connections made around the dinner table developed the strongest bonds between family and friends. At the end of the day, nothing compares to a real home-cooked meal.

My family moved to the South in 1975. This 1200-mile move opened up opportunities and exposure to a new world of seasonings and foods that were not in the family menu. To this day, my Mother does not cook anything that is Southern. Bless her heart. She doesn’t like sharing recipes either. Maybe that’s the reason I’m a sharer to the extreme. I am grateful for the gracious Southern ladies (and men) who shared their secrets to preparing good Southern food.

When my kids went off to college, I created a collection of 100 recipes, had it printed and titled it Man, that Stuff is Good. This Mom wanted to make sure her sons could fix a meal once they were out on their own. This undertaking forced me to measure my ingredients. It was a job, as the majority of my cooking revolved around doing everything by eye, but well worth the effort.

Where did the name come from? It stems from the fact that Andy and I love to cook for our friends and family. For years, every Sunday night we would have a spread of food on the kitchen bar and plenty of visitors. We noticed we kept hearing the same thing over and over: MAN, that s**t was GOOD! (There is a Redneck Food section for a reason.) What a perfect title for my first cookbook! I wanted the book to be a family friendly resource, so stuff was the final substitution for the original expression.

In 2006 and again in 2012, I helped publish two monthly planners full of recipes for the printing company where I worked. A good portion of the included recipes became new family favorites. When I was delivering copies of the 2012 version in December of 2011, I could not believe how many customers were so excited that the food theme was chose again. One asked me, why didn't I have a food column in the newspaper?(Both businesses were owned by the same family). GOOD QUESTION! Over the years, I would get countless requests for recipes from family and friends. To make it easier on myself, I would type them up in an email and save as an electronic document. I noticed my library had grown significantly. Some recipes were family recipes and the rest came from friends and co-workers. I gave it some thought and planned to ask if I could contribute a monthly column to the paper. Before I got around to it, someone else began to cover the whole society section, including food. At that point, the idea for a blog was born.

January 5, 2012, I launched Man, That Stuff Is Good! www.manthatstuffisgood.blogspot.com.

The driving force behind the blog was to create an electronic version of my recipe collection to leave for my children when I am long gone. How many times have you wished for a loved one’s recipes? I know I have countless times.

Because I am a visual person, I felt it would be beneficial to show as many of the steps as possible so even the most inexperienced person could fix a delicious meal. To add content to the blog quickly, I incorporated many of the recipes from the book I created for my kids. I did not have pictures to begin with, so the first posts get updates as I can.

January 2011 marked the end of an era when I lost my Grandmother Gaudette. Had she lived until April of that year, she would have been 104. She was a very independent lady who lived on her own in relatively good health until the last few months of her life. She was a wonderful baker of desserts. I did not inherit that gene. My memories of eating at her house included what seemed to be a seven-course meal for all meals and coffee milk. The table was always properly set and she was always dressed for the occasion.

With gratitude, I inherited her recipe file. When my Aunt Pauline sent it to me, I couldn't wait to open it! There were specific recipes I had hoped to find within that funky green metal box. Sadly, they were not there. I guess when you live long enough to cook something that many times, you do not need a record of everything you have fixed. However, it truly drove home the importance of documenting our family favorites. Seeing her handwriting on each card, which included from whom and the year she received the recipe, filled my heart with happiness. To this day, it sits on my computer desk.

To help share this family treasure, I created a cookbook with all of her recipes as a Christmas gift to my family. You can download a pdf of this book for your own personal use from the blog. It is in booklet page format so you can print it out, put the pages back to back, staple and fold. (That's the printer in me speaking!)

Six years and 540+ posts later, Man, That Stuff is Good! is far from complete. I may not post as frequently, but I will continue to share as long as I can.

So why the book? As easy as I’ve made it for people to access my recipes, I still get requests from folks to put a cookbook together. So, I reviewed my top visits, shares and pins in an effort to answer that request. To my surprise, the most visited page was for my Pickled Egg recipe. And, even more baffling? The top recipes searched are found in the Redneck section.

Everything you find here is just simple food and drinks with a Southern flair (along with a few of my Northern roots thrown in for good measure). If you love to cook, it is apparent in each and every bite. I like simple, but it has to taste good and not cost a fortune to fix. I hope you enjoy!

COOL DRINKS

Southern Sweet Tea

Southern Sweet Tea. Just saying it conjures up the image of spending hot summer nights in the South drinking massive glasses filled with ice and tea on the porch. There's nothing you can buy in a bottle that is quite as good as fresh brewed. Blair and I fix up a pitcher of tea for different reasons. She likes to drink tea and I'll have to admit, mine revolves around a little adults only river recipe concoction I mixed up and liked a few summers ago. I like my tea to have a nice kiss of sweetness, but I don't want it almost like syrup. Here's our favorite blend.

INGREDIENTS:

3 family size tea bags

1-1/4 cups sugar

Enough water to fill pitcher

DIRECTIONS:

Place three tea bags in hot water in a small saucepan.

Place a WOODEN spoon on top of the pot. (As long as the spoon is on top, the pan will not boil over. Don't use a metal spoon as it will get too hot!) Let the water come to a full boil. Set off heat and let the tea steep for 5 minutes.

Place sugar in bottom of pitcher. Squeeze out tea from tea bags. Pour hot tea over sugar. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Fill the pitcher up the rest of the way with cold water. Place in refrigerator and let it chill. Serve with lemon slices and