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With Thanksgiving fast approaching, it’s time to pull out your favorite go-to holiday recipes.  For my family, Corn-Bean Casserole is at the top of the list.  My mamma served it on Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember, and I’ve made it every year for over 30 years.  I guess it’s a twist on the traditional green bean casserole, but my-oh-my, is it incredible!

Chocked full of ingredients, you will love serving this at your Thanksgiving dinner.  Don’t let the list of ingredients scare you…it’s a chop, dump and stir together casserole.  I make it the same day I’m preparing Dressing (see recipe here) because they both call for chopped celery and onions.  I hope you give this recipe a try and that it becomes a staple in your arsenal of Thanksgiving dishes to serve!

Click HERE to get the recipe!

It’s Easter. My favorite holiday; always has been! When I was young, my birthday parties were, many times, Easter egg hunts because my birthday is in March. When my boys were young, we hosted Easter egg hunts for several years at our farm, and it was so fun selecting the candy, whistles, rings, and toys to fill the thousands of eggs that were hidden. The Easter Bunny visited. Families brought relatives who were in town for Easter. It was just a magical time for families to gather together.

Now in 2020, everything is different. But, there is one element of Easter that doesn’t have to be different…. the food. If you’re like me, there are certain foods associated with Easter, just like there are certain foods you think about when it’s Christmas. Glazed ham, deviled eggs, pimento cheese sandwiches, fried chicken, and potato salad are some that come to mind as popular Easter dishes. For my family, we would add Ham Delights to that list!

The name says it all: Ham “Delights”. Everything about them is delightful and delicious.  I make them every Easter and they disappear in a skinny minute. I really don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Ham Delights, so I hope you’ll give this recipe a try and maybe it will become an Easter tradition in your family, too.

To download the recipe, click here!

Happy Easter!

-Margaret

This floral-woven Easter basket is a great project for the whole family and is guaranteed to get you in the Easter spirit!

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Looking for different ways to use all that chicken you bought at the grocery store?  Well, hopefully this recipe will come in handy during these days of cooking at home.

One of my family’s all-time-favorite meals is Poppy Seed Chicken.  It’s super easy, doesn’t require tons of ingredients, and doesn’t take a long time to make.

Poppy Seed Chicken is nothing new.  As a matter of fact, it’s a very common dish.  But, I struggled with it for many years because I found the taste rather bland.  I just didn’t understand the love of the dish that others seemed to have.  So, I set out to read lots of different recipes for poppy seed chicken, and created a version that is very flavorful, easy to make, and is usually gone in a jiffy! 

Click here to download the recipe!

Hope you enjoy!

-Margaret

Y’all. Welcome to our very first blog post! There’s a little bit of history behind this post, so we should start there. It’s been a couple of months since we revamped our website, and as a part of that process, I mentioned I wanted to have a blog on the website as a way to connect with our customers. I had all these ideas in my head, particularly surrounding old recipes, which I thought would be fun to share with followers of Southern Straws. Our cheese straws come from an old family recipe, and so do most of my go-to recipes. After getting the eye roll and “Whatever Mom” from Neal, he agreed to having a tab on the website for this blog.  Fast forward two months since we launched the website, and there hasn’t been a minute to focus on the blog…until today!

Last night, I was reading through Facebook (which is how I stay connected with anyone and everyone who doesn’t walk into our bakery), and I saw where someone asked the question, “Where do you get the best dressing for Thanksgiving?” Honestly, I was surprised by the responses. There were so many suggestions…the local BBQ place, the popular social gathering spot, the farmhouse restaurant, and on and on. But no one suggested making the dressing from scratch. I really couldn’t believe it. These sweet friends and acquaintances didn’t know what Thanksgiving dressing is all about — it should be made from scratch!

 

 

Dressing is really very easy to make. Don’t get me wrong, it takes time, but it’s not hard and it’s so rewarding. So, as odd as it seems, my first blog post is a recipe for Thanksgiving dressing. I’m still laughing about it. I thought I’d be sharing my mom’s amazing spaghetti recipe, or the best dessert ever for Thanksgiving (which, by the way, is Bing Cherry Cake), or the vegetable casserole every teenager will love (Corn/Bean Casserole), but NO. Our first adventure into the blog world is DRESSING! I have to give credit for this recipe to one of my dearest friends, Sara Sturkie Wilson. She shared this recipe with me over 25 years ago, and she and I both make it every year. It’s not Thanksgiving without Sara’s dressing. I hope you find it as easy and special as we have.

A couple of thoughts regarding making dressing:

• Make at least a double batch. You’ll be chopping a lot of celery and onions so you might as well make it worth your while. Make some for Thanksgiving and then freeze some for Christmas. You’ll be so glad you did. (Just for reference, we have about 40 people come to our Thanksgiving dinner and I quadruple the recipe…and sometimes we run out!)
• Make the cornbread the day before you plan to make the dressing.
• Use the recipe for cornbread that is on the cornbread package. It’s just easier. 
• If possible, prepare the dressing a day ahead of when you plan to serve it. This is because the dressing needs to be covered and refrigerated prior to cooking it.

Click HERE for Sara's recipe for Old-Fashioned Southern Dressing. I hope it becomes as much a family tradition for your family as it has for ours.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Margaret