|
Information for Media
Images | Sample Recipes |
Contact Polly |
YouTube
Channel | Media Coverage
NEWS RELEASE
January 1, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Polly Little:
littleph@bellsouth.net | 704-888-2727
Stanly County Native Publishes First Cookbook
Polly's Kitchen: A Collection of Favorite Recipes
features 200 time-tested
recipes
Calling on over 40 years of experience in the kitchen, Stanly County native
Polly Little has self-published her first cookbook. Polly's Kitchen: A
Collection of Favorite Recipes. The cookbook features 200 pages
of time-tested and delicious recipes for southern comfort staple foods such
as pound cake and country fried chicken.
The
cookbook was a long-time goal and labor of love for the Stanfield, NC,
author, who began working in earnest on the cookbook after retiring from her
full-time job in 2004. The finished product includes receipts from many
family and friends, as well as an entire chapter featuring canning recipes
contributed by her niece, Debbie Smith, who lives in the Cabarrus County
town of Mt. Pleasant.
Tips for the New Cook
Getting
started in the kitchen can sometime be a daunting task. Here are Polly’s
tips for new cooks:
-
Start with simple recipes, and focus on the basics.
-
Seek out and purchase cookbooks from local sources, such as churches and
civic organizations. These cookbooks will contain simple, tried and true
recipes.
-
Invest in the following kitchen equipment: Sets of non-stick and
stainless steel cookware, a stand mixer, a cast iron frying pan, and an
electric frying pan
-
Stock your pantry with the following: a spice set, flour, sugar, milk,
eggs, butter, onions, shortening and cooking oil.
-
Don’t bother trying to sift flour in baking recipes.
-
To make a cake rise, beat the batter well. (The batter should form
smooth and stiff peaks).
-
The quickest way to anyone’s heart is through their stomach.
-
Anybody can cook if they want to.
Images
-
Image #1: Cookbook author
Polly Little poses with one of her renowned lemon pound cakes at her
home in Stanfield, NC.
-
Image #2: Cover image for
Polly's
Kitchen: A Collection of Favorite Recipes
Sample Recipes
Of
the 200 recipes in the cookbook, here are a few standouts:
Ranger Cookies
Polly
discovered the recipe for this moist and chewy cookie in a copy of WBTV
on-air personality Betty Feezer’s first cookbook (she purchased the cookbook
from Betty Feezer’s husband when they both worked at Carolina Tractor in the
early 1960’s). The combination of cornflakes, coconut and brown sugar
creates a cookie that everyone will love.
-
1 cup Shortening
-
1 cup Brown Sugar
-
1 cup White Sugar
-
2 Eggs
-
2 cups Corn Flakes
-
2 cups Oatmeal
-
2 cups Flour
-
1 cup Coconut
-
1 tsp Baking Powder
-
½ tsp Salt
-
2 tsp Soda
-
1 tsp Vanilla
Cream shortening and sugars, add eggs. Beat well. Then add
corn flakes, oatmeal. Add flour into which salt, baking powder, soda and
cocoanut have been added. Drop from a teaspoon on a greased cookie sheet 1
½ inches apart. Bake in oven 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Makes 8
dozen.
Lemon Pound Cake
This
signature recipe (and star of the cookbook’s front cover) was slowly pulled
together by Polly through years of testing and reviewing other Pound Cake
recipes. If mixed properly, the cake should crest over the top of a typical
tube pan to create a very tall and wide finished product.
According to Polly, the key to making a big cake is to beat the batter using
a stand mixer (on the high setting) for the amount of time it takes to
grease and flour your tube pan.
Combine and beat till fluffy and add:
-
3 cups Plain Flour
-
½ tsp. Baking Powder
-
¼ tsp. Soda
-
1 tsp. Vanilla Flavoring
-
3 tsp. Lemon Flavoring
-
1 cup Milk
Beat well and bake at 325 degrees in a greased and floured
tube pan for 1 ½ hours. Makes a large cake. (When measuring flour, bang
the bottom of the filled cup on the cabinet to get a full measured cup.)
Icing:
-
3/4 cup Crisco
-
2 lb. bag Powdered Sugar
-
1 tsp. Vanilla Flavoring
-
1 tsp. Lemon Flavoring
-
Dash of Salt
-
1/3—1/2 cup Water
Put 1/2 of sugar and rest of ingredients in a mixing bowl
with part of the water and mix slowly with a mixer. Gradually add the rest
of the sugar. Add water as needed to get the spreading consistency you
want.
Baking Tips:
-
Beat your cake well. This will
give your cake a fine texture, and will also make it very tall.
-
Insert a toothpick into the top
of your cake to determine if it is done. If the toothpick comes out
clean, the cake is ready to be removed from the oven.
-
Purchase your shortening in bars
instead of in a can. They're fast and easy.
-
Use an aerosol spray to grease
and flour your baking pans (such as Baking Joy), instead of manually
applying shortening and flour.
Mama’s Country Fried Chicken
(Hathcock Stew)
This
cherished family recipe was handed down to Polly from her late mother,
Bertha Hathcock, who prepared this dish as a centerpiece of Sunday dinners
that also included homemade biscuits and cream potatoes. Known
affectionately to the Hathcock family as “Hathcock Stew”, this dish features
a thick gravy made from flour, egg yolks, and evaporated milk.
Fill an electric fry pan with oil to about 1/2-inch, and heat
to 400 degrees. Salt, pepper and flour chicken. Fry in hot grease for 15
minutes on each side or until done and golden brown. Take chicken out of
pan. Pour the grease out of the pan leaving only the drippings. Pour in the
can of milk. Mix 1 egg yolk, two heaping Tbsp. flour, 1 1/2 cups milk, 1/2
tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper in a dish. Stir until well mixed. Add this to
milk in fry pan to thicken. Add fried chicken pieces. Let simmer for a few
minutes. If gravy is too thick, add a little regular milk.
Contact Polly
Visa, MasterCard, American Express,
and Check Cards accepted.
|
