Family Cooks and Shepherd's Pie

My sisters and I are the third generation of Coopers in Clearspring. We grew up with fresh pork and beef always stocked in our freezer. That was great—except we had to remember to go to the basement to get it, defrost it, and then actually know how to cook it.

Mamaw Lela wasn’t much of a cook. She would rather be outside or working at the shop than preparing a gourmet meal. Luckily, Papaw Logan wasn’t picky—he ate whatever she put in front of him. Her entrees were nothing special, but when it came to baking, she excelled. Using lard, she made the flakiest pie crusts, filled with apples from their trees or blackberries picked wild on the farm. When the geese were laying, she’d whip up a light and airy angel food cake from scratch. And at Christmas, she decorated the most elaborate Santa cookies.

My Grandma Smith, on the other hand, was an all-around fantastic cook. It just came naturally to her, which was a huge benefit when raising five kids. Her white cornbread, baked in a cast-iron skillet, was legendary—crispy on the edges, moist inside. She served it with just about every meal, knowing how much we loved it. Warm out of the oven with butter, it was delicious.  

My personal favorite was her corn.  She grew it in her garden and froze it for later use.  Corn is usually nothing special, but she made corn like you have never tasted.  I have no idea what her secret was, and no one has been able to duplicate it.

My sisters and I have varying degrees of cooking abilities.  Stacy will admit that she is the worst, so I asked her to write about one of her funniest kitchen escapades:

"Having been raised by women that rarely use a cookbook, following a recipe was confusing for me. The church cookbooks we used growing up called for a pinch of this and a dash of that.

I got married at 29 and received a new knife set and cutting board as a wedding gift. We were invited to dinner at a friend’s house who asked me to bring a dessert. I bought everything to make the cookie/bars from the recipe on the side of the Nestle chocolate chip bag.  Never had I ever heard anybody say “divided” when they cooked. But this particular recipe used that word. I read it several times…confused by what it meant. Eventually I got out my new knife set and proceeded to try to cut the chocolate chips in half. Those chips were flying all over the kitchen! I know. I KNOW. I now know how ridiculous that sounds.

Tracy walked in and asked me what I was doing. I said trying to divide chocolate chips – do you have to melt them, because they just keep shooting across the counter? After laughing hysterically, she explained that divided means use half now and the other half later. Luckily I can laugh at myself because I will NEVER live that down."

My skills are pretty average and getting worse as I get older. Like Mamaw Lela, I’d rather be doing something else. Growing up, I learned how to make her pie crust and specialized in oatmeal cookies (recipe courtesy of the Quaker Oats lid). Now, I cringe at the thought of making pie crust with lard, and Quaker went and changed their recipe!

Tracy is by far the best cook in the family. She inherited Mamaw Smith’s natural talent and can throw together a meal with whatever she has on hand—no recipe required. At family gatherings, she always brings three or four dishes, while the rest of us bring one.

Since Tracy is the best, I was going to share her recipe for Shepherd’s Pie. When I asked for it, this is what she gave me:

Since I need a little more detail than that, I found this recipe for "Cottage Pie" online instead. It’s easy enough for those of us who are culinarily challenged and a great way to use ground beef. And if you buy freezer beef from Clearspring Cattle Company, you get extra-lean ground beef that works perfectly in a variety of recipes!