Mamaw Thomas' Cornbread Dressing

Same as before. You can't improve on perfection.
Both of these recipes are from my paternal grandmother, Verdell LaForge Thomas of Bastrop Louisiana.


1 cornbread
2 stalks of celery (chopped)
1 onion (white or yellow)
1 can cream of chicken soup

Crumble cornbread in a large mixing bowl. After crumbling, it should look something like a big bowl of couscous. Saute celery and onion in skillet. Mix celery and onion with crumbled cornbread in the mixing bowl. Warm a can of Cream of Chicken soup with 1 can of water in skillet then mix into dressing. Pour into buttered 9x13 aluminum pan – cut slits into dressing with knife before baking.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 min.

Mamaw Thomas' Cornbread

You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off the ole Lone Ranger. And you don't mess around with Mamaw Thomas' Cornbread. This one is straight from the source - no tweaking is done here because none is needed. And yes, I prefer cornbread plain. No jalapenos, no onions, no whole or creamed corn. No excuses.


1 1/2 c. Martha White’s self-rising corn meal
1 Tbs. oil (corn, canola, vegetable, etc)
2 eggs
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
1/2 tsp. baking powder (newer is better)

Preheat oven at 400 deg.
Beat eggs before adding them to the rest of the ingrediants in a medium sized bowl, mixing well. Grease and flour skillet and pour mixture into it.

Bake 20-30 min.

Chocolate Chip Cake

I'm not sure who came up with this recipe. I think I've seen it or something close to it on a box of yellow cake mix. It's a good recipe for "we'll bring dessert" times like church small groups. This was also the groom's cake at our wedding.


1 box yellow cake mix
1 small box instant chocolate pudding mix
1 (8 oz) carton sour cream
3/4 C. oil
3/4 C. water
3 eggs
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Place cake mix and pudding mix into a large mixing bowl. Mix with fork to break up clumps. In another medium bowl, mix water, oil and eggs using an electric mixer. Pour on top of dry ingredients and blend with mixer. And sour cream and continue mixing. When smooth, fold in chocolate chips with a spatula. Pour batter into a greased an floured bundt pan (we use Pam for baking) and bake at 350 deg. for 50-60 minutes.

Steph's Recipes

Steph has a few of our favorite recipes on her blog, and rather than redoing them, I'll just link to them. We made the peach glazed spare ribs for July 4th.

Steph's Recipes