Country Music's Carolyn Dawn Johnson's Favorite Recipe

Shades of that old saying,” You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” Only with you, Erma, it goes: “You can take the girl out of the South, but you can’t take the South out of the girl.” You went to Las Vegas and ending up eating Black-eyed Peas at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill! So, why did you go to Las Vegas in the first place?

Why don’t you just mosey up to Dutch’s Corners and eat at Mel’s Diner. It has all the Country Music that is fit to play–and some that is not.

Mel collects recipes from Country Music stars and often uses them at the Diner. This is one he brought to a community pot luck supper a while back. Mel plays Carolyn Dawn Johnson’s “Got A Good Day” all the time down at the Diner, and he says that she should change the title of the song to “Got A Good Recipe” for her Carolyn Dawn’s Chicken Asparagus Casserole.

Carolyn Dawn’s Chicken Asparagus Casserole:

1 ½ pounds fresh asparagus spears, cut in half
Cooking Oil
4 boneless, chicken breast halves–rather thin, not the monster ones
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 can light cream of chicken soup
½ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon curry powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Lightly oil a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish.

In a large sauce pan, boil the asparagus for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain well in a colander, and place in the casserole. Arrange the chicken breasts over the asparagus.

In a mixing bowl, mix the soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice and curry powder. Pour over the chicken. Place the lid on the casserole and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle on the cheddar cheese. Return to oven for a few minutes until the cheese is melted.

Serves 6.

One Last Apple Recipe

I know, Max, that we have barely scratched the surface of apple recipes, but enough is enough! Still I had to share this one, last apple recipe with you. Except for the addition of the apples, it is your basic sweet potato casserole that everyone makes for Thanksgiving. The difference here is the apples and the fact that the fruits are left in chunks and not mashed as is usual.

No, of course, the original recipe did not call for bourbon, but bourbon and sweet potatoes just go together like crackers and peanut butter. They are a natural mix. This recipe came from a cookbook out of New England, and you know that they do NOT use bourbon. Such a shame too.

Apple Sweet Potato Casserole:

6 sweet potatoes, baked and peeled
6 Granny Smith apples, peeled
1 stick butter
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup maple syrup
Roughly chopped pecans
¼ cup bourbon

Use a fairly large casserole with lid, and grease well. Cut the potatoes and apples into small bite-sized pieces, mix, and put in the casserole. Pour the bourbon over the sweet potatoes and apples. Melt the butter and sugar in a small sauce pan. Add the syrup and pecans, and then pour over the top of the casserole. (Casserole can be fixed to this point up to a day early and held in the refrigerator. Allow to come to room temperature before baking the next day.) With cover on the casserole, bake for one hour at 350 degrees.

Serves 8 to 10 as a side dish. Reheats well in the microwave too.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Talk about unusual, Max, then check out this Shaker Apple and Pork Stew. It starts out kind of like a Pork Roast basted with applesauce, and then it adds carrots, potatoes, and onions like a beef stew. Come to think of it, I often add potatoes, carrots and onions to my pork roasts. So maybe this isn’t such an unusual recipe after all.

Shaker Apple and Pork Stew:

3 pounds boneless pork
3 pounds applesauce
2 tablespoons mixed cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg
6 small red skinned potatoes
3 carrots
2 onions
2 apples

Cut the pork into small cubes. In a heavy Dutch Oven, place the pork, applesauce, spices. Cover and cook on high heat for 10 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 4 hours. An hour before serving, add the unpeeled whole potatoes, the carrots that have been peeled and cut into large chunks, and the onions that have been quartered. About 15 minutes before serving, add the apples that have been peeled and sliced thinly. Serve in soup bowls.

Serves 8.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

I knew it, Erma. I knew that some way or another you would work in the alcohol–even with the poor, teetollaling Shakers! I don’t see those quaint Shaker Sisters putting down barrels of home/village dried plums into barrels of brandy. If so, some of the Shaker brothers probably “sampled” the brew from time to time.

I have had your wonderful Brandied Prunes and they are addicting.

You mentioned your Shaker Apple Soup, and I thought of this odd Shaker Apple Curry Soup. Do you have any idea when curry powder came into use? Certainly not in the earliest years of the Shaker villages. This is a most unusual soup.

Apple Curry Soup:

2 large apples
2 onions
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon flour
½ teaspoon curry powder
2 cups chicken broth
8 ounces apple juice or white wine
3 ounces diced chicken breast

Peel, core and chop the apples and onions. In a frying pan, melt the butter and cook the apples and onions until they are soft. Add the flour and curry powder and cooking for 5 minutes more. Add everything else, except the chicken, and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain through a sieve and return to the pan. Add the chopped chicken breast just before serving.

Serves 4.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Looking through my Shaker cookbooks yesterday, I saw a recipe for Apple and Prune Stuffing, and I thought, how German/Danish/Swedish. There is nothing like a good Prune Stuffing for a duck or the Christmas Goose.

Then I began to read the recipe. Cracker crumbs? No biscuits or bread?

Then I got to the end and realized that it wasn’t the goose that the Shakers were stuffing. It was squash and onions and cabbage!

Bingo! I realized that this was one of those recipes from the meatless period. What an interesting blend of flavors this must produce. And how modern.

Naturally I had to laugh at the first part of the directions of cooking the prunes. Storing your prunes in brandy, like I ALWAYS recommend, means your prunes are nice as moist to begin with. With the packaging today, you probably don’t need to cook them either, but imagine how hard prunes must have been back in Shaker days.

Shaker Apple and Prune Stuffing:

Soak 6 whole prunes in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and pit. Chop well. (If using prunes that have already been marinated in brandy as I suggest, you can omit the soaking.

Measure the prunes and add an equal amount of peeled, chopped apple. To this add 2 tablespoons cracker crumbs, 2 tablespoons butter, salt and pepper to taste.

Use this to stuff squash, onions, or cabbage. If you like a sweeter stuffing, add a tablespoon sugar and a beaten egg.

Yields about a cup and a half stuffing

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Erma, when you sent me that Shaker Apple Omelet recipe a few days ago, I was reminded of a similar Shaker pudding recipe from the Watervliet Village in New York.

It is called Shaker Apple Cream Pudding, although I always serve it with a crust as a pie. You know my family. Anything so long as it is served as a pie.

Like your Omelet, you can begin with apple sauce and cut down considerably on the prep time. The Mennonites in our area make a version of this that they call an Applesauce Pie.

Shaker Apple Cream Pudding from Watervliet Village in New York:

1 dozen apples
6 eggs
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream

Peel, core and cook with a little bit of water the dozen apples in a heavy, large sauce pan. When soft, strain through a colander, or use a food processor. Beat in the eggs, butter, sugar, nutmeg and lemon juice. Place in a casserole or pudding dish and bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Chill the pudding. Whip the cream in a mixer, and stir into the pudding just before serving.

Serves 8.

Filling can also be poured into a pie tin lined with a rich crust and baked as a pie. Omit the cream.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Let me know, Max, if you ever try that Shaker Apple Catsup. When the family says, “Pass the catsup,” you give them a jar of Apple Catsup. Wonder if they would notice the difference?

This Shaker recipe I have made many times. It is just your basic Apple Jelly with a twist: Ginger. The Shakers were almost as big on lemons as they were on apples. The believed, correctly, that lemons were good for you, and they ordered wagon loads of them. Knowing the Shakers, I will bet they even tried to grow them in their orchards. Cold climate or not.

To me, this is even better made with candied ginger that is finely minced. If your apples don’t cook up a pale pink blush, a tiny drop of red food coloring helps.

I included the Shaker sister’s comment from the original recipe just for fun. Think of cooking up a big batch of this in a huge copper kettle over an open fire. We don’t know how fortunate we are to have stoves that produce steady heat.

Shaker Apple Ginger Jelly:

3 pounds apples
3 cups light brown sugar
1 ½ cups lemons
2 tablespoons powdered ginger
1 teaspoon salt

With a grater, grate off all the peel from both lemons. Peel and chop the apples. Place in a heavy sauce pan and add the sugar, spices, grated lemon rind, the juice from the lemons, the ginger and the salt. Add just enough water to keep the mixture from burning. Cover and cook on the lowest temperature for 4 hours. Uncover, stir, and add water if necessary. “Great care must be taken to keep from scorching,” wrote the Shaker sister from Shirley Village.

Turn out into small jelly jars. Seal. Makes about 2 pints jelly.

Finely chopped preserved ginger slices can also be used.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Erma, I will bet that your Shaker Apple Soup dates back to England where the Shakers began. The English used to serve arriving guests with a cup of strong beef broth to take off the chill of winter travel. Not a bad idea even today, especially when you think of how cool (I called it plain cold!) most British homes are in the winter time.

Say the word Catsup today and everyone automatically thinks tomato. Of course, you and I know that catsup, or ketchsup as it is in most old cookbooks, predates the introduction of tomatoes into the everyday diet. Originally catsup was a condiment made with everything from fruit to green walnuts. No, I have never attempted Green Walnut Ketchsup, which begins with collecting green hulled walnut, but it sounds “interesting.”

The Shakers made Catsup with apples long before they were growing tomatoes. One of these years when we have tons of extra apples, I am going to try this recipe. I will bet that the Shakers served this as a condiment along with baked beef or pork.

Shaker Apple Catsup:

Pare and core 12 sour apples. Stew in a Dutch Oven with some water until the apples are soft. Press through a sieve.

For each quart of apple pulp add the following:

1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon powdered cloves
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon salt
2 onions
2 cups cider vinegar

In food mill, chop the onion very fine. Add all of the above to the apple pulp in the Dutch Oven. Bring to a boil and simmer for at least one hour, or until the mixture is very thick. Pour into hot, sterilized pint jars and seal.

Makes 3 pints.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Have you seen the size of the bake ovens at the Shaker villages? They are commercial sized. Of course, Max, they had to be to feel the numbers that they did. As I recall, they did not bake bread every day, but only a couple of days a week. They had immense dough trays for mixing and kneading dozens of loaves of bread at once.

Shaker Apple Soup was probably served on one of the days when the Shaker sisters were busy baking or preserving food. It is simple and filling, and could sit prepared off to the side of the fireplace while other foods were being prepared.

This could be served in a cup on a cold, winter day without the cream which would cut down on the calories and fat content. With the amount of heavy work the Shaker sisters and brothers did calories and fat content was not a concern.

Shaker Apple Soup:

2 cups beef broth
1 tart apple, quartered, cored, and unpeeled
1 onion, quartered
1 ½ teaspoons of mixed cinnamon and nutmeg
4 tablespoons apple cider
1 cup half and half

In a double boiler with a lid, combine the broth, apples, onion, and seasonings. Cover tightly and cook for several minutes until the apple is soft. Strain in a sieve. Discard the pulp. Return liquid to the double boiler and keep warm. When ready to serve, add the cider and cream. Serve hot.

Serves 4.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Erma, as you know, I had never heard of the Shakers before I met you. Then I began hearing about their simple elegant furniture. We had some communal societies here in Iowa too, though not exactly like the Shakers. The big one, of course, is the Amana Colonies, and they were big on orchards and apples too.

I found this recipe in one of the Shaker cookbooks you gave me years ago and I had to try it. I used bacon instead of the salt pork and brown sugar instead of the maple. My, how times have changed. Can you imagine what this everyday dish would cost today to make if you used real maple sugar?

Can you imagine how many pies the Shaker sisters would have to bake to feed the hundreds of people who lived in their village?

Apple-Pork Pie from Mount Lebanon Village:

2 pie crusts, unbaked
2 tablespoons flour
½ cup maple sugar (may substitute light brown sugar)
½ cup white sugar
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
6 tart apples, pared and sliced
½ pound salt pork, cut into thin small pieces 1 inch long (substitute bacon)
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons butter

Line a medium sized casserole with half of the pastry.

Mix the flour, salt, sugars, and spices. Combine that with the apples and place half of the mixture into the casserole. Cover with half of the pieces of salt pork. Sprinkle with pepper. Repeat the layers. Dot with butter and fit on the other half of the pie crust. Cut several slashes in the top crust. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes and then lower the temperature to 375 degrees and continue baking for 50 minutes. Serve warm.

Serves 6 to 8.

Bacon may be substituted for the salt pork.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Max, can you name a fruit that has as many uses as an apple? Think of it. You can eat them raw. You can fry them. You can bake them. You can turn them into jelly. You can preserve them as apple sauce or apple butter. You can juice them. You can let the juice turn into vinegar or go to Hard Cider or Apple Jack–which can warm up the coldest winter evenings.

Growing up near the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill here in Kentucky, I was exposed to some of their old recipes and ideas about cooking. The Shakers, who were early into the health food diet, devised hundreds of recipes for apples. All of the Shaker villages had huge fruit orchards with hundreds of different kinds of apple trees. Their cookbooks and household guides are filled with references to what kind of apples to use for what purpose, and some of them are rather unique.

Take this Shaker Apple Omelet that dates from the early part of the 19th Century. There was a period when all the Shaker villages became vegetarian, and from that period came an emphasis on herbs and unusual main dishes that were meatless. This recipe came originally from the Watervliet Village in New York. Today we would serve this as a side dish or dessert, but for a while this was a main dish served without meat.

While more of a pudding than what we today think of an omelet, this is still a fine dish. To save on cooking time, one could begin with unsweetened apple sauce. This makes a nice presentation in individual casseroles.

Shaker Apple Omelet:

6 large tart apples
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup sugar
Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
4 eggs

Peel and core the apples. Place in saucepan, cover with water and cook until very soft. Place in food processor and turn to sauce.

Add butter, sugar and spices and allow the mixture to cool. Beat the eggs with a hand whisk in a small mixing bowl. Stir into apple mixture. Pour into a medium sized buttered casserole, or two buttered pie tins.

If using 6 individual ramakins or small casseroles, reduce the baking time slightly.

Bake at 300 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes when top is lightly golden.

Serves 4 generously. Use with Roast Pork for a main side dish, or serve for dessert.

Old Norwegian Fish and Apple Recipe

You are right, Max, we have been heavy on the apple desserts the last few weeks, and apples can be used in every course of the meal. Now here is a really old and unusual Norwegian fish and apple recipe. Tell me, Max, when was the last time you saw a recipe that included Celeriac in the ingredients? Just use some celery instead.

I know you are thinking, “Erma doesn’t really like fish, so why does she have a Norwegian cod recipe around?” Because, my dear, this is one of the few ways you can cook cod that doesn’t taste like fish. The Norwegians must tire of cod too, as my cookbook has dozens of ways to dress up the fish so it doesn’t taste like fish.

Baked Cod with Apples and Celeriac from Norway:

1 ½ pound cod fillet
½ a celeriac, or 1 stalk celery
4 apples, peeled
1 onion
4 tablespoons tomato puree
¼ pint rich milk
salt and pepper to taste

Place celeriac, apples and onion in food processor and chop finely. Spread vegetables in bottom of a shallow, buttered oven dish casserole with lid. Wash and dry the cod and place on top of the veggies. Season with salt and pepper. Mix milk and puree and pour over the fish. Bake in a hot (400 degree) oven for about 30 minutes.

Serves 4.

Classic Apple Crisp Recipe

I’ve made your Apple Doughnut Muffins, Erma, and you are right, like the potato chip, “I’ll bet you can’t eat just one.” Bake up a batch of those, and you will attract the menfolk in from the yard like flies to honey.

Now for a nice “diet recipe” with apples, nothing can beat my Apple Crisp From Alabama. Wonder how an Alabama recipe ended up in this staunch Mid-Westerner’s file?

Anyways, it is “diet” because it includes that diet wonder food: Oatmeal. I say, include oatmeal in a recipe and it automatically is a diet recipe. Good for the heart and blood vessels the doctors say. You can make this without the oatmeal, but to my family, it isn’t an Apple Crisp without the oatmeal topping.

Apple Crisp From Alabama:

4 cups peeled apples
¼ cup water
¾ cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
1 cup old fashioned oats (Optional)

Place the apples in a 6 x 10 inch baking dish. Add water. Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt and oatmeal if using in a small mixing bowl. Cut in the butter until crumbley. Sprinkle over the apples. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes until apples are tender and the top is golden.

Yields 6 servings.

The oatmeal makes a more candy-like topping.

Different Potato Recipe

Mmmm. Fish Fries. We had a lot of catfish in our Fish Fries, and the big ones down south were sometimes even held outside. Huge cast iron skillets over grills and pots of grease for the french fries and the Hush Puppies. I could eat my weight, which is considerable, in Hush Puppies.

I remember well the first time my husband, product of the West Coast, had Hush Puppies. We were down in South Carolina on a visit and stopped at a cafeteria type place for dinner. It had some nice looking fried fish and after ordering it, the woman at the serving counter asked if he wanted Hush Puppies to go with it. Only problem was that he couldn’t understand her thick accent and kept asking her what she was saying. I finally had to interpret, and we all learned that he had never heard of a Hush Puppie. I suppose that before the chain fast food fish places came along, people outside the south hadn’t heard of Hush Puppies. Needless to say, he was an instant convert to the cornmeal balls.

Now that fresh tomatoes are coming on in the garden, it is time to think of interesting ways to use them. Personally, I could eat a plate of sliced tomatoes for lunch and dinner and never tire of them, but there are those who want some variety.

I have seen this recipe in only one place. It is in a North Carolina cookbook from the early 1950’s, but the recipe was supposed to date from about 1900. The author explained that Albemarle was a county in North Carolina that was famous for its variety of potatoes. Wonder if they still have that local industry? This is almost a meal in itself. Just add a salad and dessert.

Albemarle Potato Surprise:

2 cups hot mashed potatoes
1 egg, beaten
dash pepper
1/2 cup grated cheese (any type you like)
Melted butter
6 Tomato slices
Butter bread crumbs
Additional grated cheese

Mix the egg, potatoes, pepper, and 1/2 cup of cheese together. Shape into thick patties. Place on a well-buttered baking casserole like the KitchenAid 3-Qt. Casserole, and brush with melted butter. Place a tomato slice on each patty, sprinkle with buttered breadcrumbs and a little cheese.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serve at once.

Serves 6.

For efficiency, make up your regular mashed potatoes (plus 2 cups) one night for dinner. Please, no instant! Then prepare the Surprise the next day. Or to really cut down prep time, go ahead and make the patties in the casserole while fixing dinner. The next day all you have to do is slice the tomatoes and add the crumbs and cheese. Easy and quick meal.