Ready to get into the kitchen? Here are the recipes featured within our stories.
Taco Soup: It’s not just a low-cost, comfort-food recipe. It’s a mission project that supplies food pantries and meal ministries throughout East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, courtesy of Concord United Methodist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
From Tennessee Taco Soup to Savor or Share (January 26, 2022)
Fried Apple Pies: Particularly in the American South, people of a certain age love fried pies. This recipe is a time-honored gift from First United Methodist Church of Pearisburg, Virginia.
From Fried Pies from Pearisburg: Handed Down, Golden Brown (September 7, 2021)
Peanut Butter-Whole Wheat Dog Treats: A simple and easy recipe from Plainfield United Methodist Church in Plainfield, Illinois: Dog snacks that are cheaper and better than what you buy in the store.
From Sharing Hospitality Through Homemade Dog Treats (July 28, 2021)
Potato Salad: You’ve heard of making decisions by committee? We made a recipe by survey. This potato salad has only six major ingredients but seems to hit the sweet spot in popularity.
From Potato Salad That Bombs in a Good Way (May 21, 2021)
Cornbread Salad: Concord United Methodist Church’s Tandy Montgomery offered this sweet and crunchy side dish. Some cornbread salads are layered and complex, but this one is easy and can be made with store-bought cornbread.
From Cornbread Salad: Crumbled up and Crazy Good (May 4, 2021)
Strawberry Fluff Salad: This gelatin salad won’t win any prizes for nutrition or originality, but it’s “a staple of church basements” that’s sweet and easy to make.
From The fluffy sweet salad your grandmother used to make (April 19, 2021)
Green Bean & Corn Casserole: Another great recipe from the Martee Buchanan collection: A mix of colorful vegetables — some fresh, some frozen — mixed with cheese, sour cream, and soup and topped with butter-doused stuffing and almonds.
From Vegetable casserole with the colors of spring (March 23, 2021)
Mustard Greens: This recipe was created by JaNaé Swanson-Brown for collard greens, but we used it to cook mustard greens for a free senior meal.
From That time we were green about cooking the greens (February 21, 2021)
Shrimp Creole: Ann Low Reego won her future husband with this recipe! Deceptively simple with a rich taste and the potential to wow dinner companions.
From After the Shrimp Creole, they were Valentines for life (February 8, 2021)
Broccoli Salad: Martee Buchanan, who has fed a lot of college students over the years, shared her mother’s vintage broccoli salad for a free takeout lunch. It went flying out the door.
From Surprised by Momma Helen’s Broccoli Salad (February 1, 2021)
Sweet Potato Cookies: Marci Villanueva found a way to combine sweet potatoes with chocolate chips to make a yummy dessert. These cookies feature a blend of spices but pack a punch of sweet potato taste.
From First taste of fall: Sweet Potato-Chocolate Chip Cookies (September 2, 2020)
Lemon Whippersnaps: A vintage recipe from 1978 church cookbook, these luscious lemon cookies are a gift from United Methodist Communications.
From Love lemon? This whippersnap is for you (August 10, 2020)
Chocolate Gravy: Don Washburn, director of Camp Lookout, shares his decadent “signature recipe” that taps into Southern memories for old and young alike.
From: Chocolate Gravy: Camp memories are made of this (May 19, 2020)
Oatmeal Cake: Chris Sneed of Church Street UMC shares his memory and recipe from his Great-Granny Mattison. The cake includes old-fashioned oats, butter, brown sugar, white sugar, spices, and coconut.
From: Oatmeal Cake for such a time as this (April 23, 2020)
Taco Twist Soup: The “cooking crew” at Kingston UMC said this recipe was the favorite of their monthly community meal guests. Sure enough, it’s tasty with a nice mix of veggies and protein.
From Taco Twist Soup: A colorful, easy meal in a pot (April 8, 2020)
Spiced Raisin Cake: Staying inside and limiting the grocery-store trips means relying more on what’s already in the house. Here’s a recipe for a simple raisin cake that’s good for dessert or breakfast.
From Humble but yummy: Cooking with what you’ve got (April 8, 2020)
Easy Taco Casserole: When the coronavirus pandemic hit, it became easier to toss aside other people’s ideas and instead create food attuned to needs and availability.
From: Taco casserole for when you can’t hug (March 28, 2020)
Magic Bars: Youth from Rye Cove United Methodist Church are baking yummy treats for workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.
From ‘Magic Bars’ for hospital workers on the front lines (March 27, 2020)
Chicken Pot Pie: Macy Mitchell of Bearden United Methodist Church took a family recipe and used it along with her gifts and passion to bless people in the early days of the pandemic.
From Finding a Need and Filling it with Love (March 22, 2020)
Potato Soup: Scott Ketron, a retired pastor who now lives in North Carolina, shares a vintage recipe from his late grandmother, Ethel Ramsey of Kingsport, Tennessee.
From Potato Soup for the first chilly nights of autumn (Oct. 21, 2019)
Compassion Cooking: Our readers share favorite recipes for taking to families after the loss of a loved one. Read about Amy Jo’s Casserole, Ann’s Love Soup, and Karla’s Chicken and Stuffing Casserole. Other suggestions include a Sausage-and-Egg Casserole and yep, Funeral Beans.
From When compassion calls (Aug. 4) and Food for sad families (Aug. 16, 2019)
The Call to Cook 