Cooking is a Copeland family affair
Kaitlin Copeland has always loved mac and cheese and her husband Jason knows how to make it just how she likes it.
It all started from when she was little and would always want her mom and dad, Ted and Barbara Manning, to make her grilled cheese, so her dad decide to finally teach her.
“I remember when I was little my dad finally taught me how to make grilled cheese and I really think my parents just got tired of making it for me so my dad just went ahead and showed me how.”
She and Jason have been married since 2013 and he knows exactly how to make her mac and cheese, thanks to her mother teaching him how to do it.
“My mom ended up teaching Jason how to make it and basically it’s just mac and cheese with homemade roux which just makes it so good!”
Her husband also loves for her to make him roast with onions, gravy, carrots, and potatoes.
Their 4-year-old daughter, Ivy Kait, loves to help them cook and she even knows how to crack eggs.
“Yes she loves to help cook and she’ll pull her a stool up and she’ll stir the bowl and crack the eggs she just loves to help.”
Her parents grow a garden every year and she helps her mother can tomatoes and peas and for her help Barbara always sends her home with canned tomatoes and canned peas.
Her great-grandmother, Lydia Manning, who just turned 103, always made biscuits when she was over at her house and she even taught her how to make cookies to go with tea.
Her other grandmother, Sarah Vowell, loved to make candied pickles that she and her mom love to make.
“I love those canned pickles especially the little syrup inside them!”
Kaitlin has been the TAG teacher at Neshoba Elementary since 2014. She got her masters from William Carrey University and she has been board certified since 2018.
Her husband is a nurse practitioner at Oktibbeha County Hospital.
CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
1 lb. Fettuccini
3 lb. chicken tenders
12 oz. margarine
1 Q. yellow onion, diced
1 Q. Celery, diced
1 Q. Carrots, diced
1 ½ cup flour
2 Q water
1 Q. Half and Half
2 QT. Heavy Cream
¾ C Chicken base
2 tsp. White Pepper
Cut pasta into 1” pieces and cook. Toss chicken with oil, salt, and pepper. Bake until cooked. Cut chicken into 1/2” pieces. Melt margarine in stock pot. Sauté vegetables until soft, don’t brown. Stir in flour using. Low heat for 3 minutes. Add water and whisk vigorously until no lumps. Add cream and half and half. Stir until mixed well. Bring to simmer over medium heat. Add base, pepper, noodles, and chicken.
MAMA MIA’S MAC SALAD
7 ounces uncooked large pasta shells (2 1/2 cups)
1 tablespoon canola oil ½ cup mayonnaise
6 tablespoons sour cream
1 ½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar
.38 teaspoon onion powder
.38 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon kosher salt ¼ teaspoon garlic salt ¾ teaspoon Dijon mustard ½ cup chopped red onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
Cook pasta in boiling salted water according to package directions. Drain. Rinse pasta under cold running water; drain. Stir in oil until coated. Cover and chill 30 minutes. Meanwhile, combine mayonnaise and next 7 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring until blended and smooth. Add pasta, stirring until pasta is creamy and coated. Stir in onion and remaining 2 ingredients. Serve immediately, or cover and chill 1 hour.
GRANNY T’S CAKES
1 Cup sugar
3 eggs
½ C shortening
1 Tbsp. milk
Sift self-rising flour. Make hole in flour. Pour in eggs, sugar and shortening. Make like biscuits. Roll out and cut. Bake until brown.
14-DAY CANDIED CUCUMBERS
16 lb. cucumbers
2 C salt to gal. water or enough to float an egg
Alum
1 Gal apple cider
10 lb. Sugar
1 small box spices
Soak cucumbers in salt water for 14 days. Remove from salt water, slice and soak overnight in powdered alum water. Take out of alum water; rinse and soak in gallon of apple cider vinegar for 6 hours. Remove from vinegar; pour vinegar down the drain and put sliced pickled in layers of sugar and spices mixed. Use stone jar and let stand several days before using pickles. Do not seal.