Author: ozarkstory

Marsha Hunt
Springdale

There are various ways to make this comforting gravy.
This is mine:
1 stick of butter – MUST be butter – melt this in a pot
Add 4tbs flour and 4tbs coco (your favorite)
Mix together then Add 3/4 c sugar and 2 cups milk – I use 2% my grandmother and cousins use evaporated milk and GASP some even use half water half milk.
Cook until thick – if to thick add a splash more milk. Now some in my family add a tsp vanilla but I never do.
Serve over biscuits with bacon and yes even more butter.
Adjust to your families liking-

This was a morning staple at my both of my grandparents houses. Up in the Ozark mountains this was breakfast !
A breakfast with home smoked ham & bacon, homemade biscuits, both white and Choc gravy and eggs. After breakfast a midmorning snack was biscuits on the coffee saucer then coffee poured on top – called soakies.
What was left was served later in the day for a snack or even lunch with ham sandwiches from left over biscuits. Now I do not make that big of a breakfast and Choc gravy is a treat every now and then — but it sure is good!

Meghan Dale
Fayetteville, AR

(The photo is hard to see, so also typing it here)

Sesame- Seed Pillows
Plump, light, Italian-style cookies

3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon double acting baking powder
3 eggs
1 jar sesame seeds

Into a large bowl, measure all ingredients except sesame seeds. With mixer at low speed, beat ingredients until well blended, occasionally scraping bowl.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape 2 teaspoonfuls dough at a time into 2-inch long ovals. Roll ovals in sesame seeds. Place cookies 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes or until very lightly browned. Remove cookies to rack to cool. Store cookies in tightly covered container up to 3 weeks. Makes about 5.5 dozen.

My mom enjoys these most mornings with breakfast and it was one of the first items that I would help with in the kitchen growing up. I got my own bowl of dough to work with, and used cookie cutters for my shapes to make them easier to handle. Instead of sesame seeds, my cookies were topped with sprinkles! My mom continues to bake these, and whenever she makes a batch will expertly bubble wrap and air mail them to me (and she still to this day will make a few ‘special’ sprinkle cookies to include), and I’ve also taken up the recipe in my own home for my family to enjoy.

Melanie Raymond
Springdale Arkansas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Ingredients: 1 cup canned pumpkin, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup white sugar, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 tsp milk, 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 tbsp vanilla extract, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 egg, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 cups white chocolate chips.
Directions: Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and add to pumpkin mixture. Add flour to pumpkin mixture and mix until well combined. Add vanilla and white chocolate chips, stir until combined. Put plastic wrap over bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Drop by spoonful onto greased cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned and firm.

It took me about 2 years of tinkering with the recipe to get it just right. It has become a staple of our fall cooking. When my kids were young, I loved baking this recipe with them and watching their faces light up when they know we are making them. (It still happens today even though they are adults)