You can't hurt this recipe very much by being sloppy in your measurements, everything depends on individual taste. The more often you make it, the more likely you are some time to get it the way you like it. The recipe is originally from my Dad, but it's been modified many times since. The biggest difference is that we used to use dry pinto beans. I think it's just as good with a good brand (like Bush's) of canned beans.

three or four cans of beans: pinto beans, black beans, blackeye peas, .....
one pound or so, or two or three large onions
a pound or so or more of ham
a big can of tomato juice

Pour the tomato juice into a stock pot or slow cooker. Add the beans. Maybe you want to pour in the juices, too, from the canned beans. I usually do. Chop and dice and slice the onions and dump them in. Chop and slice and dice the ham and dump it into the pot. Add:

1 teaspoon or so or more of salt
1 teaspoon or so or more of black pepper
1 teaspoon or so or more of crushed Mexican oregano
one to five or more sliced garlic buds
3 teaspoons W'ster sauce
½ cup or so of brown sugar or honey
some jalapeño peppers, sliced or diced, if you want to make "chili"

Cover and bring to a mild boil, then make the heat low. Simmer and stir frequently for three to five hours, longer if you use a crock pot. Keep the heat low so as not to get pot stickers.

For "croutons", we suggest Tostitos 100% white corn bite size tortilla chips.

This recipe is originally from Mary's mother, though she probably wouldn't recognize it toaday. We used to make it with two pounds of ground beef and one pound of sausage, but all of Mabel's girls now make this without the sausage.

Beat together:
 2 eggs
 1 large onion, diced
 3 teaspoons Worcester' sauce
 1 teaspoon black pepper
 1 teaspoon garlic powder
 2 teaspoon salt
 1/2 cup milk
 20 finely crushed saltine crackers

Knead thoroughly into:
 3 lb ground beef

Bake in large pan with a little water for about 2 hours at 370°.

This is a wonderful good barbecue sauce given to us by an Idaho Falls neighbor, given to her by her North Carolina mom. It's better than any thing you'll find on the grocer's shelves.

1/2 Cup Karo Syrup or Honey
1/2 Cup ketchup
1/2 Cup chopped onion
1/4 Cup cider vinegar
1/4 Cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 Cup prepared mustard

For spicy BBQ sauce, add:
 1 tbsp chili powder
 1 clove minced garlic

In saucepan, stir together all ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.  Reduce heat and boil for 15 minutes.

3 cans great northern white beans
1 large onion
1 tsp minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
1 small can chopped green chiles (or chiles to taste)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
2 16 oz cans chicken broth
chopped chicken to taste (5 halves of boneless breasts)
8 oz sour cream
1 8 oz block Monterrey jack cheese

Mix everything together except sour cream and cheese.
Simmer for one hour.
Add sour cream and cheese until melted.

This is a sweet and sour "wilted cabbage" salad. Bill's Grandmother made it for every holiday dinner and probably many Sunday dinners, too. I remember her sitting by the kitchen window patiently shaving the cabbage so fine you wouldn't believe.

The recipe died with her because she'd always told us just to put in some of this, some of that, and a pinch of salt. Mom, Kate, and I tried many times to get it right. We think we did.

Finely slice one medium head of cabbage. The heavier, fuller, finer, the better it will be. We now use angel hair cabbage from the stores if we can get it cut really fine. Angel hair cabbage from the store will have pieces of angel’s ears. Pick these out and nibble or discard them. Put the cabbage in a bowl.

Heat to boiling:
 ½ cup CIDER vinegar
 ½ cup water
 about a ¼ tsp salt

If you don’t use CIDER vinegar, don’t tell us it isn't good. We know.

In a separate bowl, beat together until totally homogeneous:
 1 chicken egg
 7/8 cup sugar
 1 rounded Tablespoon yellow mustard

Slowly stir the boiling vinegar-water into the sugar mixture, pour it back into the stove pan and heat it to bubbling boiling. Let it cool and relax and then boil it again until it gets big and bubbly again.

Pour the boiling bubbling mixture into the sliced cabbage, stirring and mixing well and thoroughly. Smush it all down so all the cabbage is soaking. Let it sit and cure several hours (overnight is good) before serving.

This is good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

1 8" flour tortilla
1/3 of a (16 oz) can refried beans
2 or 3 chicken's eggs
Grated cheese
Salsa (to taste) (Pace's Chunky medium salsa is good)

Heat the beans with a little milk stirred in, set aside. Fry flour tortilla on both sides, cover evenly with beans, sprinkle on grated cheese, and set aside keeping warm, or reheat in a microwave to melt the cheese. Fry two or three chicken's eggs on both sides, and plop on top of the beans and cheese on the tostada (fried tortilla). Smother with salsa.

Serves one (very well).

	Heidi's Mexican Chicken Mexican Chicken Graphic donated by  Granny Grafix
This is a recipe that Becky got from one of her friends at work (Heidi Rogers). Mary and I have made it and found it very good. Heidi's recommendations for serving it are below, and our recommendations for tweaking and serving it follow.

Chicken Breasts (about 6, or depending on your crowd)
1 White Onion - diced
1 Green Pepper - diced
1 can Cream of Celery soup
1 can Golden Mushroom soup (not Creme of Mushroom)
1 can Rotel tomatoes - diced
Cheddar Cheese - package of shredded
Nacho Cheese Doritos

1. Boil chicken breasts for 20 minutes or until done.

2. While the chicken is boiling, saute onion and green pepper in a skillet. Cook until limp.

3. Add both soups, rotel tomatoes, and 3/4 cup of cheese. Simmer on low.

4. When chicken is finished cooking, shred it into thin strips (pulled chicken).

5. Place chicken in the bottom of a 13X9 casserole dish and cover with the mixture in the skillet. Stir together.

6. Top with cheddar cheese. The amount depends on your taste and your diet.

7. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until cheese melts.

Heidi says: I serve this with white rice the first night. I place the rice on the bottom of each plate and top with the mixture and serve with broccoli or some other green colored vegetable.The second night, I heat it up in the microwave and eat it like an appetizer with Nacho cheese Doritos.

Bill says: It's also good to make it with fresh tomatoes and substitute green chile peppers, jalapeños, for the bell pepper. We liked it better served over the nacho chips. And, btw, Bill really dislikes cooked broccoli.

This is a recipe that Mary Jo got from my mother many years and years ago.

1 pound old fashioned oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup wheat germ
½ cup sesame seeds
½ cup honey
½ cup vegetable oil
raisins

Heat honey and vegetable oil together. Mix and stir all ingredients except raisins. Bake in shallow pan at 325°, stirring sometimes, until all browned. Mix in raisins.

Lyn Codding gave us some leeks and this recipe many years ago. It's a very nice, mild, and pleasant sort of an onion soup. We don't make it as often as we should.

2 Tbsp Butter
3 cups chopped Leeks
1 cup chopped Onions
1 Bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste (about 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper)
4 medium Potatoes diced
3½ cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Sour cream (optional)

Serves 6, it says, but that really depends on how much people want.

Melt the butter in a stockpot, add the chopped leeks and onions and the bay leaf, season with salt and pepper. Cover and sweat over low heat for 10 minutes.  Add the diced potatoes, chicken stock, and chopped parsley. Simmer for 30 minutes or more, stirring occasionally. Optionally, add a blob or dollop of sour cream to each bowl when serving.

1 pkg. Noodles from your grocer’s fresh/cold food section
      (we use egg noodles instead of pasta noodles)
8 oz Cream Cheese
½ to 1½ cup Milk (as needed)
1 stick (¼ lb) Oleo
¾ cup grated Parmesan Cheese
garlic powder (optional) (do not use garlic salt)

    1 can Pacific (baby) Shrimp (optional, but we do it)
        or lots of regular size shrimp (peeled, deveined, steamed)
        or shredded chicken (precooked, of course)

Prepare noodles as specified on the package and drain them. Combine all ingredients (except the shrimp or chicken if you're using that). Heat and stir until homogeneous. Add milk as needed. Add (drained) shrimp or chicken to pan, and heat some more. Somebody might want to sprinkle on some garlic powder.

Serves 4 for dinner, 6 for lunch

1  8 oz Package Cream Cheese
3  Tbsp diced Green Chiles
1  4½ oz Can Deviled Ham
2  Tbsp Taco Sauce
1 dash Red Pepper (Tabasco Sauce, eg)
½ cup Sour Cream

Mix ingredients well and chill.

6 to 8 10" Flour Tortillas
Ripe Olive slices
grated Cheddar Cheese

Layer mixture between stacked tortillas, reserving some for the top. Refrigerate overnight. Before serving, spread some of the mixture on top, then add more taco sauce, grated Cheddar Cheese, sliced Ripe Olives, and Green Chile chunks.

1½ cup hot peppers (jalapeños), ground or chopped
¼ cup large green (bell) pepper, ground or chopped
6½ cups sugar
1½ cups vinegar
1 bottle Certo

Mix peppers, sugar, and vinegar and bring to a hard boil. Boil about 3 minutes.  Add one bottle Certo and boil for another minute. Remove from heat and strain. Add red or green food coloring if desired.  Let stand about 5 minutes, then pour into jars and cover.

2 or 3 skinned chicken breasts

Sauce
 1 medium onion, chopped
 1 tsp vegetable oil
 ½ small can of diced green chile peppers
 16 oz. can tomato sauce
 ½ tsp salt
 1 tsp oregano
 fresh garlic or garlic powder
 some fresh black pepper to taste

3/4 cup sour cream
6 flour tortillas
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

chopped black olives
more sour cream
salsa (Philo's curent favorite is Pace medium chunky)
chopped tomatoes

In sauce pan, add garlic and onions to hot oil.  Cook until tender.  Add peppers, tomato sauce, salt, pepper, and oregano.  Simmer about 20 minutes.

Poach chicken breasts 20 minutes or so.  Shred chicken into large mixing bowl.  Add sour cream, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, and mix.  Place 1/3 cup of this filling in each tortilla and roll tightly.  Place seam down in a baking dish.  Pour sauce over top of all.  Sprinkle with cheese and black olives.  Bake for 20 minutes at 350°.

Serve with salsa, chopped lettuce, and sour cream for toppings, and other stuff, like chopped tomatoes, as desired.

Use a spring cake pan about 10" in diameter

1¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup butter

Mix these together and bake 8 to 10 minutes in bottom of spring cake pan for graham cracker bottom crust.

Cream together:
8 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Add:
 5 (8 oz) packages cream cheese while beating eggs and sugar.

Add:
1 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp flour

Mix well. Pour into cake pan over crust and bake 10 minutes at 500°. Continue baking for 60 to 90 minutes more, at 300°, until inserted table knife comes back clean. Refrigerate several hours. If desired, serve with a side dish of juicy blueberries for people to spoon onto their servings.

This is Philo's very favorite cookie. This recipe is taken from a very old and faded newspaper clipping that came from we know not where nor when.

MIX:
    1 Cup shortening
    ½ tsp salt
    1 tsp soda
    1 Cup Peanut Butter
ADD:
    1 Cup sugar
    1 Cup Brown Sugar
ADD and MIX:
    2 (beaten) eggs
    2 Cups flour

For each cookie, drop a blob of stuff on a baking sheet and press with a fork. Repeat this until there's no more stuff. Bake at 325° for 15 to 20 minutes.

1 pan of Water
1 heaping Tbsp Peppercorns (black pepper, of course)
1/8 tsp Salt
1 tsp Celery Seeds
1 tsp (crushed) Thyme
1 lb peeled and deveined Shrimp

Some Ketchup
Some (ground) Horse radish (to taste)
Some lemon or lime juice (to taste)

Combine water, peppercorns, salt, celery seed, and thyme. Heat to boiling and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until water is very dark. Add shrimp and turn up the heat. Remove from heat when it boils again, about 3 minutes. Dump water and flush shrimp and corns immediately with cold water. Dry the shrimp and refrigerate until cock tail hour.

Mix together ketchup, horse radish and juice to make ‘cock tail sauce’. Add all or some of the pepper corns. Refrigerate until cock tail hour.

Serve shrimps in cock tail sauce with tiny forks.

2 lbs Italian Style Hot Spicy Sausages
5 cups sliced Green Bell Peppers
5 cups sliced Onions
Poor Boy or Hoagy buns

Four sandwiches require four sausages, four buns, two or so onions, and three or so bell peppers. Troublesome thing about onions, peppers, and sausages is that they aren't all the same size. Mary doesn't like this very much, but Bill thinks it's great.

Put green peppers, onions and sausages in skillet.  Cover with water then cover skillet. Steam for 35 minutes.  Uncover and continue heat until water is nearly gone.  Cut sausages in half lengthwise and return to skillet open side down.  When water is nearly all absorbed or gone, it's all done.

Serve sausages in buns, cover with onions and peppers.  Eat hot.

Nyle's Bloody Caesar  (Nyle Brown)

1 quart Mott's Clamato juice
6 oz Vodka (to taste)
1 Tbsp prepared "pure" horseradish (to taste)
10 to 12 thumps Tabasco sauce (to taste)
1 tsp garlic powder (to taste) (optional)

shake, shake, shake - better the next day after the ingredients get friendly

Sumpter Cream  (Ken and Betty Sumpter)

Pour the following ingredients into your blender:

1 14 oz. can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
4 raw chicken eggs
1 cup whipping cream, cream, or milk
1 tablespoon Hershey's Syrup
2 teaspoons instant coffee powder
1 teaspoon (real) vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon (real) almond extract
1 ¾ cups of liquor (bourbon, whiskey, brandy, rum)

Blend until very smooth and well mixed
(stop blending before chunks of butter form)
Keep it refrigerated

1 Amaretto
1 Kahlua
1 Baileys

It was told me by our neighborhood chef that the goodness for the roasts comes because the meat is seared and the juices are retained. I like it because I can cook outdoors on the grille without worrying about flames and flare ups burning the meat(s). Closing the grill cover gets some of the smokes from burning grease into the meats like if the rock isn't there.

This works well for roasts, large loin cuts, whole chickens and big pieces. It does not work well, in our opinion, for steaks and chops and thin cuts. A smooth (polished) rock is good for hamburgers because it's some what like a griddle.

Get a piece of flat rock from the scrap pile of a place that sells decorative or construction stone. The stone should be a size to hold one or two chickens or a large roast. A piece that's 8" to 10" wide and 10" to 16" long and about 1" thick. What these people usually have is cut, and some times polished, granite and marble. Offer them a dollar for it. Take it home and wash it.

Put it in your outdoor gas grille. To cook, coat the rock with nonstick spray stuff, heat it until spit sizzles on it, then put the meat on. Turn the heat to low or nearly low, close the cover and go away. Come back when it's done and take it to the meat carver. Roasts take 30 minutes per pound. Chickens take about 1½ hours.

The rock will eventually crack and maybe break from the heat stress. Go get another rock.

Ingredients:
   Smooth-rimmed Lowball Glasses
   Some Margarita (coarse) Salt
   A Paper Towel
   Sliced Fruit (citrus, grape, or juicy apple)

Procedure: Pour a generous pile of margarita salt off center on the paper towel. Smear the outside of the rim of a glass with a piece of the fruit, thoroughly wetting it. Set the glass down, wet side down, on the paper towel next to the pile of salt. Flip the towel to throw the salt against the side of the glass. Turn the glass carefully and repeat the flipping until it's covered all the way around. Set the glass down carefully, right side up, until the salt dries. Consolidate the pile of salt and repeat for each glass, using a fresh piece of fruit for each glass.

You can make margarita glasses well in advance, because they seem to "keep" for several days.

If you live in the arid Intermountain West, the salt will dry hard and become like sandpaper. When you kiss the glass, it returns the kiss.