Serve with crackers and a salad for a quick and easy meal

1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 12-ounce container fresh Standard oysters, undrained
1 quart 2% milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon red pepper

Sauté onions in butter in Dutch oven until onions are tender. Add remaining ingredients to onion mixture. Cook over low heat until edges of oysters begin to curl and mixture is hot but not boiling. Serve stew with crackers. Yields 6 servings.

Kaye Thigpen
Waycross, Georgia

An old-time favorite that never goes out of style

1 cup sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 egg yolks
2 egg whites
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine
1 9-inch unbaked piecrust
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 400°. Combine sugar, flour and nutmeg. Beat 4 egg yolks and 2 egg whites; add to dry ingredients. Beat well. Add milk and stir in melted butter. Pour into crust and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325° and bake 30 minutes longer. Beat 2 egg whites and 2 tablespoons sugar to make meringue. Spread on custard and brown. Yields 8 servings.

Mrs. Guy Duckett
Royston, Georgia

Thirty-ninth United States President Jimmy Carter grew up on a farm in Archery, near Plains, where he plowed and hoed his father’s fields that grew watermelons, sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, cotton, corn, tomatoes and, of course, peanuts. Today, one of President Carter’s favorite ways of cooking peanuts from his farm is in the microwave.

“The key to success is the stirring of the peanuts,” says President Carter. “It is better for them to rotate, and they have to be stirred at regular intervals. At first, I cook them a maximum of 3 minutes, then remove them from the oven and stir them. Then cook them another 3 minutes. After this, 2-minute intervals are best. The total time depends on the quantity being cooked. For peanuts in the hull, it takes about 8 minutes for a small bowl the size of softball but up to 12 minutes for twice this many. When the husked kernels are slightly brown, they are done. They tend to cook a little more after being removed from the oven the last time.”

This recipe uses sausage to vary a Southern tradition

1 16-ounce bag black-eyed peas
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup rice, uncooked
1 pound sausage, browned
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, cook peas according to package directions until two-thirds done. Add remaining ingredients to peas and simmer until peas are tender, about 30 minutes. Add warm water so there is enough “pot likker.” Serve with cornbread. Yields 8 servings.

Charlie Ruth Ross
Chatsworth, Georgia

A year-round favorite

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup light or dark corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans (or halves)
1 9-inch unbaked piecrust

Preheat oven to 350°. Place eggs in a medium mixing bowl and whisk lightly. Add sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and melted butter. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine well. Stir in pecans. Pour filling into prepared unbaked piecrust. Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Yields 8 servings.

Georgia Pecan Commission

Note: If using a frozen piecrust, be forewarned that they brown easily. You may want to shield the crust with strips of aluminum foil cut about 3 inches wide and about 12 to 15 inches long. Wrap these around the edge of the pie pan to cover the edge of the crust.